Business Ethics

Conflicts of interest, generational disparity hot topics for university, business initiative

Business and education leaders in Omaha, Neb., launched a community-wide initiative to create what they envision as a “world class center for Superior Business Ethics”—the Greater Omaha Alliance for Business Ethics at Creighton University.

Andy Bryant told Spring CRO Conference guests about embracing corporate culture in an era of potential Internet infamy

Being a good corporate citizen can be a combative and transformative endeavor and nearly 300 advocates of the art form gathered at the Spring CRO Conference at the Union League Club in Manhattan March 27 to hear corporate responsibility veterans relay their war stories, advice and battle plans for sustaining the drive. In his morning keynote address, Andy Bryant, Intel’s Chief Administrative Officer, said the chip maker’s goal has been to create a corporate responsibility culture.

Former WorldCom VP Cynthia Cooper spoke at the CRO Spring Conference of ethical choices, loyalty and recovery after company collapse

Cynthia Cooper said she was having her hair done at a salon one morning in 2002 near her home in Mississippi when WorldCom Chief Financial Officer Scott Sullivan called her up and “chastised” her for informing the company’s auditor, Arthur Andersen, about improper accounting entries and transfers for line costs that had no support or foundation. The dressing down from Sullivan was only the beginning of the rough treatment and periods of duress for Cooper, then WorldCom’s Vice President of Internal Audit.

Cynthia Cooper’s new book on WorldCom details inside story of firm’s historic fall

Cynthia Cooper would not buckle under the pressure. In 2002, Cooper was Vice President of Internal Audit at WorldCom when she uncovered company officials’ use of something other than generally accepted accounting principles. Time magazine named Cooper one of its “Persons of the Year 2002.”

Following is an excerpt from her new book, “Extraordinary Circumstances: The Journey of a Corporate Whistleblower” (Wiley). The excerpt from Chapter 23, “The Confrontation,” revolves around an audit committee meeting with CFO Scott Sullivan, Cooper and others on June 20, 2002.

     

CRO Magazine and Sirota Survey Intelligence have joined forces to launch a trendsetting survey to measure baseline data on Corporate Responsibility from practitioners and from the solution providers’ perspectives.

The responses will be kept confidential and secure and only group data will be presented at the upcoming March 27 CRO conference in NYC, on TheCRO.com and in the magazine.

Please respond by Tuesday March 11, 2008.

The survey is anonymous and will take only about five minutes. Clicking on the links below will bring you directly to the survey.

Practitioners: http://survey.sirota.com/Cro/Practitioners/Survey/

Providers: http://survey.sirota.com/Cro/Providers/Survey/

Many of the top business schools in the country have announced plans to move into the sustainability and/or corporate responsibility space with programs relevant to these emerging corporate trends.

Schools on CRO’s Top 10 Executive Training Programs in Corporate Responsibility 2008, however, are ahead of the curve, having already integrated the fundamentals of this growing movement in their open enrollment programs, and offering the necessary resources to companies wishing to expand their knowledge in the subject through custom courses.

Responsibility roles have progressed beyond figurehead position

Corporations are stiffening their requirements and expectations of executives hired to address social responsibility issues. In the past, said Martha Josephson, a partner and co-head of the Internet and Media practice at recruiting firm Egon Zehnder International, the CSR function “was something CEOs would put in place to demonstrate their good will and good intentions.”