Ethical investing and weapons

Government Pension Fund-Global (GPFG), the largest of Norway's sovereign wealth funds, blacklisted Textron.

Textron produces cluster weapons, wich are banned due to the Convention of Cluster Munitions. The convention was signed Dec. 3 by more than 100 countries (including Norway), but not the United States, China or Russia.

Kristin Halvorsen, Norway's finance minister, said that the announcement to divest 36 million USD in Textron shares by the GPFG's adminstrative board, was based on a report and an exclusion recommendation from the fund's Ethics Council.

"We cannot participate in the funding of this type of production." Halvorsen said. The Norway government simply cannot afford to soil her image by investing in clusterweapons and to not comply The Convention of Cluster Munitions they've signed.

Jord Willo

Controlling CEO Pay won't be easy

Since the start of the crisis the CEO wage has always been a subject of discussion.
President Obama’s suggested a $500,000 cap for the salaries of executives at companies receiving government support, this is a good start, but there is still a lot of work to really control these outrageous wages.

“You Try to Live on 500k in This Town” was the daring headline of The New York Times Style section after Obama proclaimed The 500k ceiling. For average working people 500.000 USD might seem a lot of money, but for CEO's who have an average of 2 to 3 million USD a year, this 500k proposal can be a disaster.

To justify this proposal there has to be a drastic change is the corporate culture of today. A generation ago, the average CEO of a big company earned 15 to 20 times the salary of the average worker; in recent years, this salary has grown to 300 to 400 times the average worker’s compensation.

These remunerations are a part of our business culture, and it'll take a long time to change this mentality.

Jord Willo

What are the social responsibilities of business?

Social responsibility has become a crucial part of business. The society requires of the (big) companies that they make contributions to charities, treat everyone they do business with well… In general, companies need to make socially responsible decisions all while earning profit.

This is more difficult than you should think. Everyone has a different opinion on what’s ethical and what’s not. So it’s impossible for a company to make a decision that will please everybody.

Furthermore are there many different values among society that it’s possible that a company has different ‘social responsibility- policies’, depending on the country the company is established.

Sander Piens

Card game teaches ethics

The department Integrity Consulting of KPMG has developed a game just for companies, called ‘Open Card’. The goal of the game is to test the morale of the employees. They need to learn how to balance making profits and acquiring a positive company-image.

This game is a part of a large integrity project that Intres, a cooperation of 1600 entrepreneurs, started this spring. Their director claims that ethical management is very important nowadays.

‘A modern business can’t survive just by focussing on profit maximization. It’s important that you also satisfy your employees, your suppliers… and not just your shareholders, he sais.

Sander Piens

Profit and corporate social responsibility

The main goal of a company is to make money. It’s very important that a business remains profitable, not only for the economy but also for its employees, customers,… We all know that a company has a responsibility to their stakeholders to grow and profit, but at the other hand, it also has a certain social responsibility towards the community.

There are some ways companies can achieve profits combined with corporate social responsibility , such as

-Act ethically: be honest when it comes to financial reporting and use faire marketing practices.

-Try to reduce your damage on the environment.

-Take part in outsourcing, but that doesn’t contain child labour, sweat shops,…

Sander Piens