Ethics in Business Audio: Recent Episodes
Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs
What is the role of business in society? What are the ethical considerations connected to conducting business globally? This collection discusses on environmental sustainability, supply chain analysis, labor standards, and corporate giving as part of business identity creation, as well as the potential impacts on revenue that can accompany ethical business practices.
Design thinking has emerged as a new tool in humanitarianism. Proponents of the trend believe it can solve the problem long plaguing the aid community: that great ideas fail to be adopted in poor communities because they don't always take context into account. But are design's more inclusive methods still a kind of neo-imperialism? Is there a different way?
Corporate leaders' influence reaches beyond the walls of their businesses. How do they use that power, and what are the ethical, business, and political consequences? Discover how BP's John Browne and Shell's Mark Moody-Stuart influenced politics in oil-producing countries and how Browne and Apple's Tim Cook weighed in on LGBT issues. *This podcast was amended on August 3, 2015; see transcript.
This month on "Impact," we're taking a close look at a huge issue--legacy. In this case, we're examining how it relates to contemporary philanthropy and the social sector in general. Specifically, we examine the $37-billion Gates Foundation's dual legacy in promoting global health, and in shaping the social sector at large.
With 30 years of growth under its belt, has China joined the ranks of "developed" economies like the United States and Japan? What are obstacles to China's economic growth? What are its success stories? And how is Hong Kong faring?
Can today's powerful multinational corporations be a force for social good? Should they be, and if so, how should this be implemented? Are they out for themselves, their customers, society, or some combination of all three?
How can corporations work to prevent human rights violations on their watch, as well as disasters like the BP Deepwater Horizon explosion? Christine Bader discusses her time at BP, where she was part of the invisible army of people inside corporations who are pushing for safer and more responsible practices.
"There can be no choice between doing well financially and behaving responsibly in business," declares Barclays Group Chief Executive Antony Jenkins. "The last half-dozen years make it obvious that you cannot have long-term success without behaving responsibly. This has to be integral to how you operate a company."
How can global health be improved? PepsiCo executive Derek Yach speaks about the positive changes corporations are making, and Professor Yanzhong Huang discusses China's health care challenges.
ExxonMobil is rather like France, says Steve Coll. It's mostly aligned with the U.S; it's sometimes opposed, but a lot of the time it's just busy keeping track of its own separate system and really doesn't want to be entangled in U.S. power unless it serves ExxonMobil interests.
Leadership is going from being command-and-control to connect-and-collaborate; from inspecting for trust to giving it away; and from discussing success towards significance: "If we make a difference for our consumers, our people, and the world, success will find us."
David Rothkopf issues a wake-up call to Americans: We have to drop our knee-jerk, partisan attitudes and ask, "What will produce the kind of society that we want to have?" We also have to stop assuming that U.S. capitalism and U.S. views will be dominant in the future.
Does rising income inequality pose a threat to American democracy? This question has long been taboo in American politics. Yet as "Occupy Wall Street" spreads across the United States, the political consequences of income inequality are grabbing headlines as never before.
Why pretend that economics is value free? It's a product of our civilization and riddled with moral judgements, says Sedlacek. By separating economics from ethics we have created a zombie, a monster without a soul. The two have to be put back together.
How do companies such as Yahoo! and YouTube decide on whether disturbing material should be banned from their sites? What are the free speech and human rights issues involved? What guidelines do they use? This fascinating workshop discusses specific cases.
What is the underlying source of the current financial turmoil? It is not lack of technological knowledge about how to structure and to trade securities. It stems mainly from behavioral and ethical shortcomings, from regulatory failures, and from historical amnesia, says Henry Kaufman.
It's all about personal convictions: Bill O'Rourke explains how he grew Alcoa's business in Russia to $1B revenue without giving a single bribe, and how he fosters sustainability, health, and safety practices in his current U.S. position.
"Although there is no magic bullet, social entrepreneurship unlocks everybody's ability to be a change maker and to participate in the solutions to their own problems," says Susan Davis of BRAC, the world's largest development agency and a microfinance pioneer.
Can MBAs be held to "do no harm" standards similar to those of MDs? The MBA Oath was created by a group of Class of 2009 Graduates of Harvard Business School. Like the Hippocratic Oath made by doctors, the MBA Oath outlines values and ideals to which managers should commit.
Founder and CEO Ron Bruder and VP Jasmine Nahhas di Florio introduce Education for Employment Foundation, an NGO that creates employment opportunities for youth in the Middle East and North Africa. Five programs are underway: Egypt, Jordan, West Bank/Gaza, Morocco, and Yemen.
Allison Stanger shows how contractors became an integral part of U.S. foreign policy, often in scandalous ways, but maintains that the problem is not contractors, but the absence of good government. Outsourcing done right is, in fact, indispensable to U.S. interests today.
What do you think maximizes individual benefits in the marketplace? Is it cut throat competition or altruistic norms of fairness and trust? Can you have both?
"I hope that CGI is able to serve as the catalyst for action, the group that is essentially creating a market between companies and governments and NGOs to create the difference that moves the ball on each of these great global challenges."
"Money-making is the base for good business," says Columbia University's Hans Decker, "but we all intuitively know that there's more to it." Julia Kennedy talks to the former Siemens president about stakeholder value.
The Carnegie Council and the International Labour Organization (ILO) present a unique look at modern slavery from the personal, policy, and enforcement perspectives, to shed light on an insidious practice that has become part of today's labor markets.
Evan O'Neil talks with the COO and the U.S. Project Manager of Carbon Trust, an independent company set up by the U.K. government that works with organisations to reduce carbon emissions and develop commercial low carbon technologies.
This lively panel examines the intersection of Web 2.0 technologies and the effort to hold corporations to account for both the harms and benefits they create.
Geoffrey Heal examines how social and environmental performance affects a corporation's profitability and how the stock market reacts to a firm's behavior in these areas.
Does labor abuse and outright slavery still exist in the United States? Yes, says author and journalist John Bowe, who travels from Florida to U.S.-owned Saipan to investigate modern global slave labor.
This talk was part of the event "Taking Stock of Business and Human Rights: Policies and Practices," cosponsored by the Business and Human Rights Resource Centre and the Carnegie Council.
This talk was part of the event "Taking Stock of Business and Human Rights: Policies and Practices," cosponsored by the Business and Human Rights Resource Centre and the Carnegie Council.
This talk was part of the event "Taking Stock of Business and Human Rights: Policies and Practices," cosponsored by the Business and Human Rights Resource Centre and the Carnegie Council.
Christopher Avery and Devin Stewart discuss the evolution of the Business and Human Rights Resource Centre, a group dedicated to promoting greater awareness of corporate misconduct, as well as best practices. Learn what inspired Avery to establish this innovative group and about its recent successes.
Who has the responsibility to alleviate poverty and uphold human rights in a globalized world where corporations often wield more power than nation-states?