Recently, PayPal killed the accounts of anyone pushing racist views. “You have to have the courage to make those decisions” PayPal CEO Dan Schulman.” The action shows how ethical leaders can take relevant actions to promote social responsibility by their companies and key stakeholders. Echoing these concerns about social responsibility, […]
SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY
Data ethics: the new minefield for business leaders
“Data ethics” hardly has the ring of romance. Or of great urgency. Yet business leaders world-wide face a minefield. They must traverse it with their integrity in tact. It’s no longer a matter of personal choice of whether or not they want to enter this territory. There are new persistent, […]
How ethical business leaders can make sense of Artificial intelligence (AI)
Artificial intelligence (AI) is already here. At least in a most basic form. Jobs previously doable only by people can now be automated and the trend keeps accelerating. What passes as thinking machines are replacing human tasks and jobs. They are altering the skills organisations want from their people. […]
Is your dirty supply chain secret waiting to trash your reputation?
The campaign group the European Coalition for Corporate Justice wants the European Union to force firms to do human rights due diligence on their supply chains. And not a moment too soon. Amnesty International for example, recently asked 29 companies about their use of the mineral cobalt in their products. Almost […]
Goodbye to CSR, welcome to Social Commitment
What made Body Shop special was a long-term company focus on a social commitment in business Its charismatic founder Anita Roddick wanted to make a difference to how animals were treated. That is, not used for testing cosmetics. The firm’s reluctant owner L’Oréal got tired of poor sales, and has […]
Ethical fading: is it happening right under your nose?
Martin Shkreli, has been called the most hated man in America. CEO of a tiny company Turing Pharmaceuticals, he had bought the lifesaving prescription drug Daraprim from its owner Impax Laboratories. He promptly hiked the price 5,455% from $13.50 a pill to $750. He has since resigned from his job […]
Shell’s dirty secret–missing leadership integrity?
Suspended right in the centre of an oil-devastated landscape, surmounted on a pool of escaped oil, hovers Shell’s bemused CEO. All around lies evidence of black pollution. He can hardly escape the conclusion Shell has probably not been a force for good in this area—for decades. The CEO walks gingerly […]
Short-termism: The fast route to unethical business behaviour
Amazon’s founder Jeff Bezos, is helping to fund a 200 foot tall clock designed to last millennia. He calls it “The 10,000 Year Clock” being built deep inside a Nevada mountain. “We humans have become so technologically sophisticated that in certain ways we’re dangerous to ourselves. It’s going to be […]