Thinking Ethics

Good news for responsible leadership

Usually in a downturn of the economy businesses get rid of all the "nice to have" programs and it was generally feared that social responsibility was going to take a back seat to survival.

Not so with the up and coming generation. Across America the best business schools are seeing an explosion of interest in ethics courses. The students have initiated public commitments in the form of volontary student-led pledges called honor codes or the M.B.A. oath where they vow to serve the greater good. They will take the high paid jobs - but they will change them from the inside. More details in the article from the New York Times.

The Story of Stuff

I just came across this website and 20 minute video of The Story of Stuff. It explains the chain of consumption, from extraction, to production, to consuption to waste disposal. It shows the environmental and social impact of the "American way of life". Also gives some recommendations of what individuals can do - besides writing your representative in Congress.

ECO fashion guide

Thread - is the online ethical fashion magazine of the BBC, dedicated to eco-fabulous style. In particular, you can download a free pack to organize a frock swap party - a fun and free way to renew your wardrobe in these challenging times.

Water usage

The Chairman of Nestlé group, Peter Brabeck is calling for a tax on water to reduce wasting it. He made a proposal at a Forum on food, water and development, calling for a limit of 25 liters per day (about 6 gallons) per person. Above that limit, people should pay for water.

My first reaction was that this was selfserving - he sells water - expensive water too. And his competition is of course tap water - for free. But what really blew my socks off is the limit he set - 25 liters per day per person. I checked out water consumption per person per country - and this is 3 times less than the daily use in China !!!! Seems a bit far fetched to me.

Check out water consumption per capita per country here.

Studies on cheating

Wonderful TED talk by Dan Ariely, a behavioral economist who shows us his experiments on why we think it is OK to cheat - and how this might explain the current financial crisis.

First impressions

Do apparences count ? Everybody will tell you that they do. That good looking people succeed better than less attractive ones. That it is very difficult to change a first impression. Some will argue that this is the reason why there is so much plastic surgery going around (ah yeah, and trying to stay young, that too). The search for perfection and success has led us to admire those with the right looks and disregard those who do not have them. Technology and surgery help I suppose to highlight singers or actors - trying to get both talent and looks in the same package.

But we still recognize talent when we see it, regardless of the packaging. I don't usually like reality shows, because I often find them to be a public embarrassement of the contestants. But I have to hand it to Britain's Got Talent. A scotswoman of 47 who can only be described as frumpy,came out and sang - and knocked their socks off. As the TV filmed audience reaction when Susan Boyle came onstage - you could see what they were thinking. One of the judges called the performance a wake-up call. It was written up in the Washington Post by Jeanne McManus under the title "The Dream She Dreamed - cheers for a voice to silence the cynics", and the Youtube video is a roaring success. Talent is talent, and I think we should not judge so fast and give people the benefit of the doubt. Susan Boyle's deam is to be a singer - I hope we will soon be able to say : and the rest is history...

Eating beef contributes to global warming

Very good presentation in the Scientific American in 5 color slides of how beef contributes  to global warming.

http://www.sciam.com/slideshow.cfm?id=the-greenhouse-hamburger&SID=mail&sc=emailfriend

The only issue I have with this article, is that it is strictly from a CO2 generation point of view. And the thing with the environment and eating meat, is that you have also to take into account the water consumption of cattle. You need water to grow cereals to feed to the cattle, who also drink water. So besides the amount of CO2 that the cattle produce, you also need to take into account the water consumption. At the end of the day there is a factor of 50 between the water needed to "produce" one kilo of meat and one kilo of bread. This is a complex problem, and we need a systems dynamics approach to it, not just looking at one parameter. And yeah, we should all eat less meat - it is also healthier

The Myth of Clean Coal

I do not believe there is such a thing as clean coal. I do know that some coal is "cleaner" than others, but it still leaves a hugh footprint. Given our energy dependence, and the availability of this coal, the problem will be with us for a while.

A good impratial argument is laid out in this excellent report on clean coal in Ethical Corporation.

Best 100 corporate citizens - 2009

The CRO has published its 10th annual 100 Best Corporate Citizens list, and have also ensured that these companies are also the most transparent. The winners in 2009 are:

1. Brystol Myers-Squibb; 2. General Mills; 3. IBM; 4. Merck; 5. HP; 6. Cisco Systems; 7. Mattel.

Good to see such a spread over industry sectors. I guess not just one industry is leading the pack, but a number of highly qualified leaders.

They have kept their penalty box, and the residents this year are Aetna, American Express and McKesson.

Full methodology and lists plus explanations under CRO's 100 Best Corporate Citizens

The chicken or the egg?

A few years ago I saw a report (I think from London Business School, but can't find it again) on the comparison of students from Business Schools versus universities specializing in the humanities. The results showed in a statistically significant manner that the students from the Business Schools were less ethical than their fellow students from universities.

This was a worrying development for the deans of the Business Schools. Because it could mean etiher that less ethical persons chose to study Business, or that something in the curriculum made the students less ethical.

Since then the deans have been playing with different approaches to make sure that all students get exposure to ethics training. From making it mandatory to take an initial 2 week course on ethics, to spreading ethic case studies in all subjects. And yet the the results are still not good. An article in Ethical Corporation by Chandran Nair entitled "Business Schools are failing society" proposes some reforms that help the schools to produce more ethical graduates.