World’s Most Ethical Companies Rankings and Other Potential Conflicts of Interest Disclosure
Ethisphere is extremely sensitive to avoiding conflicts of interest and has strict policies and procedures in place to prevent any actual or perceived conflicts of interest.
There is no correlation between rankings and companies that pay Ethisphere or Corpedia for products or services. Corpedia has more than 600 corporations who are clients. Approximately 90% of the companies that achieve World’s Most Ethical Companies recognition annually have no material economic relationship with Corpedia or Ethisphere. While on average approximately 100 companies achieve this recognition annually, typically between ten and twelve of this highest scoring companies also happen to have a material economic relationship (products or services) with Corpedia or Ethisphere. Due to contractual limitations customary to all client engagements, Corpedia is legally prevented from publicly identifying these corporations, including those that are present on any particular year’s World Most Ethical Companies ranking.
To help keep Ethisphere’s overhead low, Ethisphere does share some resources with Corpedia. This includes office space in New York, NY and Phoenix, AZ. The New York office space is primarily for executive leadership use, business development use, and meetings with clients, NGOs and government officials. The bulk of Ethisphere’s analytic work is conducted at the Phoenix location. Furthermore, certain Corpedia personnel donate their time to Ethisphere on an uncompensated basis. The two Corpedia employees that donate the most time to Ethisphere on an uncompensated basis are Alexander Brigham and Robert Leffel.
Despite this limited resource-sharing arrangement, since inception Ethisphere has maintained a strict “Chinese Wall” between Ethisphere and Corpedia, which has been strictly obeyed and is reflective of the integrity of Ethisphere’s editorial and opinions. For instance, if a Corpedia employee assists Ethisphere work on analyzing a specific company, and that company is or becomes a client of Corpedia, that employee is prohibited under policy from participating in the client engagement. This “Chinese Wall” extends to editorial of the award-winning Ethisphere Magazine whereby Ethisphere prohibits mention of either Corpedia or any of its competitors in the magazine. This editorial policy has been followed with strict integrity without a single breach during its publishing history.
Legal and Financial Structure
Ethisphere derives its revenue from the following sources: membership dues (the Ethisphere Council and Business Ethics Leadership Alliance); magazine advertising sales; magazine subscription sales; Daily eBulletin advertising sales; “Ethics Inside Certification” sales; Ethisphere Advisory Services sales; and vendor sponsorships of the conferences and webcasts. The single largest financial and in-kind sponsor of Ethisphere is Corpedia. The largest single product category contributor to revenues is Ethisphere events, which includes all webcasts and conferences, such as the annual Ethisphere Global Ethics Summit. The smallest product contributor to revenues is Ethisphere Advisory Services Sales.
The Ethisphere Institute is an LLC. Ethisphere believes that good business ethics should be profitable to corporations as that makes the behavior self-sustaining. Ethisphere operates consistent with its motto of “Good. Smart. Business. Profit.” and thereby ensures that any profit that it may make now or in the future is subject to taxes. Ethisphere further believes that part of good corporate citizenship is paying one’s fair share of taxes.
