Great ideas: Saving the corporate soul

Corporations that chose deception — cooking the books and paying outlandish executive salaries — have hit rock bottom. Business ethicist David Batstone presents a blueprint for change in Saving the Corporate Soul (Wiley). He outlines eight principles for creating integrity and profitability without selling out. Is your company on the right track?

1. Leadership and governance: Align personal interests with the fate of stakeholders, and act in a responsible way to ensure the viability of the enterprise.
2. Transparency and integrity: Business operations should be transparent to shareholders, employees and the public; executives should act with integrity.
3. Community: Think of yourself as part of a community as well as a market.
4. Customer care: Represent your products honestly to customers and honour their dignity up to and beyond a transaction.
5. Value the worker: Employees should be treated as valuable team members, not just hired hands.
6. Respect for the environment: Treat the earth as a silent stakeholder — a party to which the company is accountable.
7. Diversity: Strive for balance, diversity and equity in your relationships with employees, customers and suppliers.
8. Globalization: Pursue international trade and production based on respect for the rights of workers and citizens of trade-partner nations.