From: John Yost [john.yost@procompass-ms.com]
Sent: Tuesday, December 16, 2003 6:28 AM
To: Business Leader
Subject: ProCompass Newletter - Issue 16

Issue 16 December 16, 2003

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In this Issue:

Corporate Social Responsibility

Over the past several years we have witnessed some startling examples of the lapse of ethical corporate governance. Some of our most respected corporations or their executives have been charged with acts that reflect nothing short of avarice. What happens to make apparently good executives commit acts that invite legal and financial sanctions and bring their companies to the brink of disaster? Is simple greed? Is it pressure to satisfy shareholders? Or is it a form of hubris that leads people to believe they are above the law and not responsible for ethical leadership?

Fortunately, most business executives are basically honest and ethical people. Although they may have to make many hard decisions and take risks that don’t always sit well with boards of directors or employees, their decisions are generally based on sound business principles and ethical values. The attention that has been drawn to these recent corporate failures has caused many business executives and boards of directors to consider how they can protect their companies form such forms of failure. This forms the basis of the subject of Corporate Social Responsibility.

Corporate directors and executives are increasingly concerned with the values that guide their companies, and many companies go through great lengths to define and document those values. But, Corporate Social Responsibility does not result from document or a slogan or a motto. Ethical cooperate governance results when all corporate citizens from the chairman to the mailroom, understand, apply and live up to the corporate values that ethically define the relationships between employees, customers, the community and the stockholders. This state cannot be achieved by words alone. Although words may define the goals for ethical corporate governance, it is only achieved by actions, which reflect ethical leadership throughout the organization.

For an excellent example of a statement for corporate governance I refer you to the “Credo” which has been guiding the Johnson & Johnson company for the past fifty years.

http://www.jnj.com/careers/credo.html;jsessionid=45PEJLZHWUN2QCQPCCGSZOYKB2IIQNSC

Here again, it is not just the words that define their goals that are important; but the fact that they go through the lengths necessary to assure that the values it represents are being applied.

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John Yost

ProCompass Management Services

(831) 438-7833

john.yost@procompass-ms.com

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