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March, 2009

Hedge funds stand to gain, but also face oversight BusinessWeek, March 25, 2009 By Stevenson Jacobs
	Hedge funds are being offered a sweet deal to help the Obama administration rescue the U.S. banking system: A low-risk opportunity to scoop up soured bank assets that could one day make them a killing. But the deal could make for an uneasy partnership. "You don't want irrational regulation," said Thomas Donaldson, professor of legal studies and business ethics at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. "Hedge funds know how to trade toxic assets, and that expertise is helpful right now." (Also appeared in Accountability Central, eTaiwan News, CNBC, PR-inside.com, Yahoo! Finance Canada, TheStreet.com, Yahoo! Finance, Yahoo! Finance Australia & New Zealand, Communications Solutions Magazine, Washington Post, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Durham Herald Sun, Forbes.com (Forbes Magazine),  Yahoo! Canada, American Public Media, Winnipeg Free Press, Minneapolis-St. Paul Star Tribune, Indianapolis Business Journal, Seattle Times, 590 KLBJ, WTOP-AM 1500 Washington, The Charlotte Observer, San Jose Mercury News, and WVEC-TV ABC 13 Hampton Roads.)
Locals opine about AIG South Bend Tribune, March 21, 2009 By YaVonda Smalls
	It was the spark that ignited the indignation of a nation — bonuses totaling $165 million paid out to executives of AIG. ... So we asked three local business experts their opinion on the bonuses and the Band-Aid legislation passed by the House of Representatives. [One of the three was] Patrick Murphy, professor of marketing and C.R. Smith co-director of Notre Dame's Institute for Ethical Business Worldwide.
Shareholder Value: Time for a Longer View? BusinessWeek, March 17, 2009 By David Bogoslaw
	A wholesale reassessment of values is occurring in the business community, fueled by the financial crisis and widespread anger at both Wall Street and the billions taxpayers have been forced to contribute in bailouts. One part of this review is the notion of shareholder value, and the principles by which companies are managed. In June 2007, the Aspen Institute published a list of principles aimed at shifting the focus for companies and institutional investors from short term to long term when measuring value creation. The principles were developed in cooperation with the Business Roundtable Institute for Corporate Ethics, investor groups such as the California Public Employees' Retirement System (CalPERS), and the Center for Audit Quality. They advocated industry best practices to develop forward-looking strategic metrics and suggested companies improve the way they communicate their business strategies to investors to avoid offering—or responding to—quarterly profit estimates. (Also appeared in SmartBrief.)
Experts see high hurdles to void AIG bonuses Outrage on AIG, but options less clear The Philadelphia Inquirer, March 17, 2009 By Chris Mondics
	Despite public furor over bonuses paid to executives of the failed insurance giant American International Group, President Obama has few legal options in seeking to force AIG to return the money. "If it is in an employment agreement, there is an obligation to pay the bonus," said John Martini, a Philadelphia-based lawyer and expert on employment contracts at Reed Smith L.L.P. "Typically, there is no wiggle room." On a strictly ethical basis, the bonuses are indefensible, said Thomas Donaldson, a professor of business ethics at the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School. (Also appeared in Black Enterprise Magazine, airamericaradio.com, American Chronicle Trading Markets, Quote.com (Lycos), and Philly.com.)
Is It Time to Retrain B-Schools? The New York Times, March 15, 2009 By Kelley Holland
	The master’s of business administration, a gateway credential throughout corporate America, is especially coveted on Wall Street; in recent years, top business schools have routinely sent more than 40 percent of their graduates into the world of finance. But with the economy in disarray and so many financial firms in free fall, analysts, and even educators themselves, are wondering if the way business students are taught may have contributed to the most serious economic crisis in decades.
Carnegie Council Event, April 9, 2009: Restoring Trust in the Global Financial System Investors.com, March 13, 2009
	The Carnegie Council announces a luncheon panel on April 9, 2009, which will explore these issues [of public trust in the global financial system]. The panelists are: -- Neal Flieger, Chairman, Global Public Affairs, Edelman -- Stephen Jordan, Senior Vice President and Executive Director, Business Civic Leadership Center -- Seamus McMahon, Partner, Booz & Co., Strategy+Business Magazine -- Christian Menegatti, Managing Editor & Lead Analyst, RGEMonitor.com -- Tom Donaldson, Mark O. Winkelman Professor, Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania (Moderator). (Also appeared in PR-CANADA.net, PR-USA.net, Banker & Tradesman, et al.)
Profit, Patriotism and Bear Raiders Real Clear Politics, March 12, 2009 By David Paul Kuhn
	Warren Buffet has repeatedly compared this financial crisis to World War II. Franklin Roosevelt used to analogize the Great Depression to wartime. But if an economic crisis swallows a nation like war, then how should we receive "bear raiders" who are taking advantage of the current rules and market chaos to pummel businesses and worsen the crisis? Then there is the moral debate, never popular among traders. Ethical questions of "the common good" are "engaged" when Americans bet against the market and aggravate the crisis, [Waheed] Hussain [assistant professor of business ethics at University of Pennsylvania 's Wharton School] said. "We rightly limit moral free space sometimes in a crisis through law," Thomas Donaldson said, also a business ethics professor at Wharton. "There's never a justification for limiting basic freedoms, i.e., to a fair trial, or to free speech, but the right to short sell doesn't make the cut." (Also appeared in Yahoo News.)

The Oxymoron of ‘Business Ethics’ Proves Its Worth Miller-McCune, March 11, 2009 By Emily Badger

The business-ethics think tank the Ethisphere Institute has for the last few years been quantifying the ethical spine of corporations, calculating their “ethics quotient” as a measurement of several-dozen criteria like philanthropic giving, enforced codes of ethics and anti-corruption compliance. Ethisphere’s most recent list of the world’s 100 “Most Ethical Companies,” released last summer, included no American banks. Another study, released last month, concluded companies committed to sustainability have fared significantly better during the economic crisis than their industry averages. “There’s a moment now for us to be the generation that makes business better,” said R. Edward Freeman, director of the Olsson Center for Applied Ethics at Virginia’s Darden School of Business. “There’s a moment now to say, ‘Look, if you don’t believe this (only)-shareholder-value-(matters) model is bankruptnow, I don’t know what to tell you. Because, I really would be speechless.’”

Study Shows Business School Students More Likely to Cheat thehoya.com, March 2, 2009 By Jenny Rogers
	Amid economic worries, recent studies have claimed that business school students cheat more than students in other schools, adding yet another concern to the business world. Rutgers University Business School professor Donald McCabe conducted two different studies, one of which, published in 2006, surveyed 54 colleges in the U.S. and Canada during the 2002-2003 and 2003-2004 school years. This study found that MBA students cheat more than graduate students in any other field. The other study, yet to have been published, focused on undergraduates from the fall of 2002 to the spring of 2008. George Brenkert, director of the Georgetown Business Ethics Institute and editor in chief of Business Ethics Quarterly, said that without his own research he would trust McCabe’s survey. “I know we have had cheating here at Georgetown,” he said. “There’s much more teamwork in other parts of the graduate [business] program, which may give rise to greater opportunities for cheating.” (Also appeared in Accountability-Central.com.)

Company executives: Well compensated? The Virginian-Pilot, March 1, 2009 By Philip Walzer
	“I’m very much a performance-oriented guy,” [Smithfield Foods CEO C. Larry Pope] he said. “When the company does well, I do well. When the company doesn’t do well, I don’t do well.” The question from Washington to Main Street these days is whether enough companies are following that philosophy. Executive pay and bonuses have come under ferocious public and political glare – and, in some cases, government control – with the revelations of lush packages for executives as their firms wither. “You don’t have to be an economist to see the inherent problem,” said Jared Harris, an assistant professor at the University of Virginia’s Darden School of Business who last year wrote an essay titled “What’s Wrong with Executive Compensation?” (Also appeared in Quote.com and TMCnet.com.)

2009 CSR International Leaders Rankings Corporate Sustainability & Responsibility (CSR) Website, March 2009
	At CSR International...[we invite] CSR professionals, students and enthusiasts to tell us who they think are the leaders that have had or are having the biggest impact on CSR. ... [Included here are] ...the results of the 2009 CSR International Leaders Ranking, which is based on an online poll conducted during February 2009. We have grouped and ranked the leaders in six categories: Thought Leaders, Business Leaders, Academic Leaders, Activist Leaders, Advisory Leaders and Political Leaders. Note that although some would not ordinarily be thought of as "CSR Leaders", the question was about their impact on the CSR agenda. CSRI 2009 Academic Leaders Ranking: 1. John RUGGIE • 2. C. K. PRAHALAD • 3. David GRAYSON • 4. Jane NELSON • 5. Jeffrey SACHS • 6. Amartya SEN • 7. Stuart HART • 8. Herman DALY • 9. R. Edward FREEMAN • 10. Dirk MATTEN

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