Corporate Citizenship: What’s a CEO to do?

(As published in Rotman Magazine, Fall 2005)

“After the ethical breakdown in both the private and public sectors, I believe Canadians are searching for a new moral compass, while recognizing the delicacy of such a journey. Regulatory agencies need teeth, but not so much that they will tear out the creative entrepreneurship of business. Companies want lower corporate taxes, but they also need state-of-the-art infrastructure to move their goods, which means that governments have to foot their bill. Our First Nations want their traditional ways to be respected, while simoultaneously needing to find new profit-making models. To me, it’s clear that a select give-and-take model must be based on an assessment of all stakeholders. This new model does not seek to undermine our culture of capitalism, but to make it better and stronger. A challenge of the corporate responsibility doctrine is that not everyone worries about the future, and that needs to change. We are definitely challenged by global issues of terrorism, natural disasters, climate change, corruption and disease, and yet too often we remain focused on short-term results, whether they are quarterly results or the next election. From a corporate citizenship perspective, both business and government need a facelift. Both sectors need to go through this debate together, and hopefully we will come out stronger as a country.”