The following articles are written by Don Knauss, CEO of Clorox; Chad Holliday, Chairman of DuPont; Charles Harrington, Chairman and CEO of Parsons Corporation; Tom Monahan, CEO of the Corporate Executive Board; and Robert Lane, Chairman of John Deere. The five leaders discuss the role that business ethics has in: relationships with customers; relationships [...]

A company’s brand is one of its most valuable assets, and it needs to be protected accordingly. An expanding global marketplace, coupled with ever popular technologies such as video-sharing websites and social networking, bring daily threats to corporate brands everywhere. The best companies are investing in their ethics programs to help protect against [...]

Since 2001, public companies have retained law firms to conduct over 3,000 internal investigations of suspected wrongdoing by executives or employees. Lawyers can debate and disagree about the ten most important practices for conducting internal investigations, but the Ten Commandments outlined here have proven the test of time to the author, despite their seeming [...]

A few months ago, Mike Zychinski stood in the St. Louis Cardinals’ Busch Stadium as his redbirds played the Chicago Cubs. The sellout crowd numbered around 45,000, a number with special significance for Deloitte’s chief compliance and ethics officer. As he took in the smell of popcorn and hotdogs, he thought, “This is as if [...]

Located in the occidental region of the Sahara, Nigeria is a culturally rich and diverse country that has grown into a dynamic global player. The uniqueness of the country is evidenced in its rich history; a civilization founded by tribes searching for trade, transformed into an African commercial point for Portugal, England, Netherlands and France [...]

Amidst the egregious ethical violations that have earned our disdain and hijacked our economic vitality and well-being, deep down I know that the problem does not stop with the big offenders who capture headlines and populate the media. I am concerned about the “regular folks,” the people like you and me, our neighbors, colleagues and [...]

Corporate America has dramatically increased its attention and leadership in sustainability. Recent announcements highlight plans for carbon-footprint reductions, publications of sustainability reports, creation of multi-billion dollar clean energy investment funds, and the formation of sustainability coalitions with corporate customers, suppliers, and even competitors. These efforts underscore mounting evidence from investors and the public for companies [...]

There was an awkward silence after Terry Rhodes introduced himself to a group of government officials in a West African capital. The purpose of the meeting was to discuss the license that his company, Celtel International, needed to set up mobile phone service. Rhodes and his partner Dr. Mo Ibrahim founded Celtel in [...]

In 2009 there are six major international anti-bribery conventions, and new or updated laws criminalizing the bribery of domestic and foreign public officials are sprouting up everywhere. It sounds like we should be nearing the mythical “level playing field,” but while uneven and erratic enforcement remains the greatest obstacle, another dilemma lies buried in the [...]

Corruption, the abuse of entrusted power for private gain, is the single greatest obstacle to economic and social development around the world. It distorts markets, stifles economic growth, debases democracy and undermines the rule of law. It is estimated that the cost of corruption equals more than 5 percent of the global GDP (US$2.6 trillion), [...]

The healthcare industry’s current fight over healthcare reform is merely one piece of a bigger conflict, says Sophia Tickell. Instead of fighting for short term profits, the industry and its shareholders would be better suited taking a long term, sustainable approach. The attempts of the Obama Administration to push through reforms that result in some [...]

Many CEOs struggle to transform their recognition of the importance of gender equality into management practices and enforcement mechanisms. It can be a further struggle to communicate on such initiatives to stakeholders. However, the integration of gender-related information into communicating overall performance on environmental, social and governance issues through a sustainability report is [...]