A World in Trust
Leadership and Corporate Responsibility

“The case against CSR: Healthier foods, energy conservation and more fuel-efficient vehicles didn’t become common until they became profitable … The only sure way to influence corporate decision-making is to impose an unacceptable cost – regulatory mandates, taxes, punitive fines, public embarrassment – on socially unacceptable behaviour. Pleas for CSR will be truly embraced only by those executives who are smart enough to see that doing the right thing is a by-product of their pursuit of profit. And that renders such pleas pointless.” Dr Aneel Karnani, Wall Street Journal “It’s clear we need a better way to evaluate business leaders. Moving forward, it appears that the new metric of corporate leadership will be closer to this: the extent to which executives create organisations that are economically, ethically and socially sustainable.” James O’Toole and Warren Bennis “Companies can show they are in touch with the real world and public concerns around fair play by looking long and hard at pay and incentive structures … Core values are … meaningless unless brought to life in performance reviews, reward and incentive structures, and confidential ‘whistle blowing’ hotlines … Businesses cannot always expect the public to like what they do, but they can and must work harder to ensure their actions are understood.” Catherine May, Group Corporate Affairs Director, Centrica “Institutions must prepare to move away from their traditional investor-led, one-way method of communication via dense and complex reports. All businesses should prepare for a sea-change in which they build and sustain an open and honest dialogue with the public.” Philippa Foster Back, Director, Institute of Business Ethics “In a growing number of companies CSR comes close to being embedded in the business, influencing decisions on everything from sourcing to strategy. These may also be the places where talented people will most want to