Future Ethics

05/23/2011
Posted by Harry Hertz, the Baldrige Cheermudgeon

It is hard to believe that it was almost a decade ago that a major theme for the revision to the 2003 Baldrige Criteria for Performance Excellence was business ethics and the role of senior leaders. Here we are in 2011 and the topic is still a significant focal point for organizational leaders and the general public.

Of course, Baldrige award recipients have been role models for ethics before and after 2003. In our current group of recipients two comments from our recent Quest for Excellence conference immediately come to mind: 1. Nestle Purina now being rated the most trusted pet food company for several years running, and 2. Bob Pence, President and CEO, from Freese and Nichols saying the first thing his 116-year old civil engineering firm built was its reputation.

The New York Times has a regular magazine feature by Ariel Kaminer, The Ethicist. Her article on May 15, 2011 was about the ethics of swapping super market id cards used at checkout to get discounts on highlighted products. It generated lively discussion among readers, including a comment about the choice to use the card really being a choice for wealthier consumers and that people less wealthy and on a budget need the discount received only by using the card. This then became a question of whether it is ethical for corporations to extract information from the more vulnerable consumers.

On May 16, 2011, in his first act as mayor of Chicago, Rahm Emanuel signed six executive orders on ethics.

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