In preparation for the trip to China I will be undertaking this June with my MBA classmates, there are a slew of related books and assignments that are to be completed prior to our departure. The first is a book review of one title from our class reading list.

Having seen The World is Flat in several places over the past few months, I jumped on the opportunity to read and review it. Without giving away the content of my review, I ultimately found the book enjoyable and informative and would recommend it to anyone interested in globalization or history. If you are interested in reading the full review, please download the PDF file linked below:

• Book Review: The World is Flat [PDF]

TAGS: The World is Flat | Thomas Friedman | Globalization | Book Review

Anita Campbell from Small Business Trends recently posted an article that knocked some humility into me. Be sure to check it out when you have a moment:

• On The Foolishness of Worst Business Book Lists

TAGS: CEO | Books | Business Books | Humility

Confessions of an Economic Hit Man, the New York Times Bestsller (I’m not sure why I felt compelled to throw that in there) by John Perkins, has been available for some time now. I remember seeing it in hardcover and resisting the urge to purchase it after intently reading the book jacket. At the time, I simply had too many books and magazines in my “stack.” The stack hasn’t decreased in altitude, but I managed to convince myself recently to pick the book up anyway.

After reading the preface, I am very glad that I did. Here’s a great clip from the Preface:

“Today we see the results of this system run amok. Executives at our most respected companies hire people at near-slave wages to toil under inhuman conditions in Asian sweatshops. Oil companies wantonly pump toxins down rain forest rivers, consciously killing people, animals, and plants and committing genocide among ancient cultures. The pharmaceutical industry denies life-saving medicines to millions of HIV-infected Africans. Twelve million families in our own United States worry about their next meal. The energy industry creates an Enron. The accounting industry creates an Andersen. The income ratio of the one-fifth of the world’s population in the wealthiest countries to the one-fifth in the poorest went from 30:1 in 1960 to 74:1 in 1995. The United States spends over $87 billion conducting a war in Iraq while the United Nations estimates that for less than half that amount we could provide clean water, adequate diets, sanitation services, and basic education to every person on the planet.

“And we wonder why terrorists attack us?

“Some would blame our current problems on an organized conspiracy. I wish it were so simple. Members of a conspiracy can be rooted out and brought to justice. This system, however, is fueled by something far more dangerous than conspiracy. It is driven not by a small band of men but by a concept that has become accepted as gospel: the idea that all economic growth benefits humankind and that the greater the growth, the more widespread the benefits. This belief also has a corollary: that those people who excel at stoking the fires of economic growth should be exalted and rewarded, while those born at the fringes are available for exploitation.”

The above is just a small snippet of the Preface but more than enough to highly pique my interest. If anyone has read the book I would love to know your opinion.

TAGS: Perkins | Economic Hit Man | Globalization | EHM

While searching the internet for CSR-related content this morning I saw an article on CFO.com that caught my eye called, Two Views of Virtue: The corporate social responsibility movement is picking up steam. Should you worry about it? The article appears in the December 2005 issue of CFO Magazine, and explores the value of CSR efforts in corporations as well as whether or not they are a waste of time.

“Here and abroad, consumers, nongovernmental organizations, and socially responsible investors are prodding companies to pursue a variety of social and environmental goals.

At the same time, CSR has provoked a backlash. Critics denounce the idea as wrongheaded or worse, and some argue that companies should focus narrowly on maximizing shareholder value.”

Two authors, Steven D. Lydenberg and David Vogel, were interviewed for the article and provided a fairly balanced conversation about where CSR is headed.

Lyndenberg, whose book, Corporations and the Public Interest: Guiding the Invisible Hand, “proposes strategies for making CSR an essential part of corporate management,” is fairly complementary about CSR:

“CSR is ‘a major secular development, driven by a long-term reevaluation of the role of corporations in society.’ This reevaluation, he says, is clearer in Europe, where it is commonly assumed that companies have duties to stakeholders as well as shareholders. U.S. managers may be wary of this assumption, ‘but I think that [the European] influence will be very hard to resist over the long run,’ says Lydenberg.”

I also really like the following passage the article cites from Lyndenberg’s book:

“‘Corporations create long-term wealth,’ he writes in Corporations and the Public Interest, ‘when, in addition to generating productivity gains, they preserve natural resources for future generations, create value in their relationships with their stakeholders, and do not externalize costs onto society.’”

David Vogel, on the other hand, is quite critical of the role CSR plays in various companies as well as the motive for installing them in the first place. I think Vogel makes some interesting and agreeable points though I found myself wishing he had a more positive outlook.

“Companies respond to pressures from the financial markets first and foremost, says Vogel; most of the time, CSR issues will not rank among a company’s top business risks.

“The one time CSR becomes really pressing, he says, is when a company’s brand or reputation is jeopardized — when Nike was assailed for using sweatshop labor, for example, or McDonald’s was criticized on food issues. Both companies made highly visible efforts to change some business practices and mollify their critics.”

Further, Vogel points out that CSR efforts have had a “negligible” impact on brands, claiming that CSR is rarely singled out as an “issue associated with a given brand.” Again, here I wish he were more positive. It is possible to infer that Vogel thinks CSR efforts are pointless because a company’s actions are not routinely recognized. But isn’t there merit in doing the right thing for the sake of doing the right thing?

“Overall, however, the impact of CSR on brands has been negligible, says Vogel. Surveys of the world’s top brands rarely cite CSR as an issue associated with a given brand. And companies that make most-admired lists do so by virtue of other factors — financial performance, customer satisfaction, innovation, and so on. For most investors, CSR does not factor into either their perception or valuation of companies, says Vogel.”

Vogel also makes a statement, which though it is in reference to ISO 26000, resembles the attitudes it seems some companies adopt with CSR initiatives — they are put in place simply to satiate the critics and to gain a bit of positive press:

“‘To the extent companies can figure out ways of complying with the standard at modest cost, they’ll do so,’ he predicts. ‘There are all sorts of ways to get around [such standards], and there are no penalties for noncompliance. It’s not going to be terribly effective in making companies change their policies.’”

While it is somewhat demoralizing to read such a statement, it is quite valid. I am sure many companies will seek out the cheapest and easiest means of complying with ISO 26000, because there are positive advantages to compliance, instead of embracing it as a core part of their overall CSR initiatives because it’s the right thing to do. Similarly, many companies will begin to tout their CSR departments and programs, yet most of the build-up is probably for show.

When I finished the article the first time I was left feeling somewhat frustrated. I think there are plenty of strong examples of companies that are promoting their CSR programs but clearly are not embracing the true meaning of ‘corporate social responsibility’. However, after I read the article a second time and had a moment to think things through, I decided that there is some value in pushing CSR issues in a company, even if compliance is minimal and no further efforts are made.

Some effort is better than complacency. Sure, it would be great if all major corporations immediately stopped everything and overhauled their operations and goals in an effort to be better corporate citizens, but for now, even a little bit of progress should be recognized as an achievement. Complete participation, and a genuine passion for becoming better corporate citizens, has to get its start somewhere. Let’s just make sure this train doesn’t stop.

TAGS: CSR | Corporation | Ethics | Business

As a follow-up to my recent post about Stanford University and iTunes, the Kauffman eVenturing blog points to another great resource: Educators Corner, Stanford Technology Ventures Program.

[Update] I just downloaded and watched Guy Kawasaki’s talk on his book, The Art of the Start, and although it was only a very short clip (despite the large file size), I found the information to be quite good. In short, Kawasaki emphasizes that there are three reasons to start a business:

• Increase the quality of life
• Right a wrong
• Prevent the end of something good

I’m leaving out a lot of what he mentions, so be sure to visit the site and listen to the whole presentation.

TAGS: Stanford | STVP | Kauffman | eVenturing

I first wrote about Stanford lectures, roundtables and other audio events being available on iTunes in late October. Since then, I’ve listened to all of the files I downloaded (and found about 80-90% of them to be fantastic) and today returned to the Stanford iTunes site for more.

It appears that a number of new files have been added, as well as a few new categories including one that I am very happy to see, “Philosophy Talk.” If you are unfamiliar with iTunes, you may miss the subcategories while you are browsing. For instance, when you visit the “Faculty Lectures” section also look for the subcategory tabs when you land on the first page which is currently the “Audio” tab. To the right of the current tab you should find others such as “Philosophy Talk” and “Entitled Opinions.”

TAGS: Stanford | iTunes | Cal Poly | MBA

I’ve been watching a lot of documentary films lately and recently saw Enron: The Smartest Guys in the Room. The film was fantastic and gave a very detailed look at the company’s rise and fall.

One of the most interesting parts of the film is a segment where some of Enron’s traders manipulated the California energy market during the rolling blackouts that plagued the state a few years ago. Toward the end of the segment, audio from a phone conversation between traders, as they discussed wildfires that were burning throughout California, was juxtaposed against footage of the fires rolling through the landscape. Excited that the fires would make energy rates skyrocket, one of the traders gleefully exclaimed, “Burn baby burn!”

Sweet.

Funny, that kind of sounds like the commodities trader interviewed in The Corporation who said something remarkably similar when the Iraq-Kuwait war erupted. Or was it his comment about 9/11? I can’t remember which, but I recall that he was quite pleased with the world strife — the subsequent spike in gold prices made him a bundle…

TAGS: Enron | Greed | The Corporation | Ethics

I watched The Battle of Algiers a few days ago and still have some pretty strong lingering feelings about the film. I don’t remember why I originally rented it, but I am very glad that I did. In short, the film is about the conflict between the French and the independence movement in the city of Algiers in the late 1950’s. Originally released in 1962, it was re-released in 2004. The Pentagon subsequently set up a screening of the film, which received quite a bit of media coverage at the time due to its relevance with the U.S. involvement in Iraq.

The New York Times published a very appropriate review of the film in September of 2003 (reprinted at rialtopictures.com). Following is a particularly insightful passage:

“During the last four decades the events re-enacted in the film and the wider war in Algeria have been cited as an effective use of the tactics of a ‘people’s war,’ where fighters emerge from seemingly ordinary lives to mount attacks and then retreat to the cover of their everyday identities. The question of how conventional armies can contend with such tactics and subdue their enemies seems as pressing today in Iraq as it did in Algiers in 1957. In both instances the need for on-the-ground intelligence is required to learn of impending attacks. Even in a world of electronic devices, human infiltration and interrogations remain indispensable, but how far should modern states go in the pursuit of such information?

“[Director] Pontecorvo, who was a member of the Italian Communist Party, obviously felt the French had gone much too far by adopting policies of torture, brutal intimidatio and outright killings. Though their use of force led to the triumph over La Pointe, it also provoked political scandals in France, discredited the French Army and traumatized French political life for decades, while inspiring support for the nationalists among Algerians and in much of the world. It was this tactical tradeoff that lies at the heart of the film and presumably makes it relevant for Pentagon study and discussion.”

Though I am not usually one to be drawn to “war movies,” I would highly recommend The Battle of Algiers to anyone with an interest in politics, foreign policy, independence movements or world history.

TAGS: Algeria | Algiers | Independence | Revolution | Film

In the midst of my attempts to play catch-up on all of the reading I should have completed so far this quarter, I was pleased to come across a very refreshing passage in my Managerial Accounting text this morning:

“Satisfactory ROI is important, but it is by no means the only objective of a business. In many practical problems, personal satisfaction, friendship, community responsibilities, or other considerations may be much more important than ROI.” [pg. 876]

Kudos to the authors for making such a statement!

TAGS: Accounting | Ethics | Business | CSR

What a cool concept! Tim’s a very talented photographer based in Santa Barbara, California that works for a friend of mine (another very talented photographer, David Jay). Tim’s blog was recently featured on blogger.com which led to a flood of new traffic. If you have yet to check out his work, be sure to check out his blog as well as his photography website!

TAGS: Photography | Photo | Blog | Santa Barbara