Re-wiring what it means to be an ethical business leader and some of the trends bringing about this change.
Tag: stakeholders
Social Concern: A wake-up call for ethical business leaders
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, […]
It’s the culture, stupid!–making sense of business ethics
Travis Kalanick, Uber’s combative, and arrogant CEO is no model ethical leader. His apparent “shock horror” at finding lack of respect for employees as rampant under his regime does not convince. To Kalanick, business results out rank everything else. Integrity seems in short supply. Whether its treatment of women or […]
Seven lessons for ethical leaders from Unilever’s recent nasty experience
In some ways it was a classic case of angels versus the bad guys. On one side was Paul Polman, CEO of Unilever—long admired as the closest you get to being an ethical leader while running a huge multi-national. On the other side, a well-resourced group of ruthless deal makers, […]
Profits, performance and ethics: ready for the coming convergence?
“Top executives need to be paid a lot to be willing to do their demanding role. Company performance depends almost entirely on the top leadership’s capability. Ethics doesn’t pay, what matters is short term rewards for stakeholders.” These three widely used assertions about business sound increasingly threadbare, unsupported by credible […]
When executives become Malware
“I see this as the most damaging event for our brand in the company’s 140-year history…I don’t think these problems can be overcome overnight.” The picture of Toshiba’s CEO making a ritual deep bow of contrition while cameras whirred and flashed has gone round the world. Hisao Tinaka resigned most […]
Why reputational risk keeps grabbing the limelight
“The most valuable asset in the capitalist economy is not cash, stock or buildings, but trust.” Economist Intelligence Unit, Risk of Risks What would a serious blow to your company’s reputation cost? This was once a rather academic query–most organisations could afford to consign it to the back burner. Today […]