1996-1997 Annual Report

Overview

Service to Members

The Minnesota Center for Corporate Responsibility has served its 115 member companies and other clients by adding value to their organizations through topical programs, networking among professionals, and publications on important issues and ideas. Programs covered three principal areas: business ethics and international business ethics, work/life policies and strategies for employers, and leadership and values in organizations. Over 1000 individuals were directly involved in programs and events held at St. Thomas or in nearby hotels and meeting facilities. An additional 1045 member company employees participated in 24 family education courses organized at 6 company sites by MCCR’s Families That Work! project. Well over 2000 individuals have received MCCR publications, and a sizable but unknown number of individuals have seen articles originated by the Center or heard speeches by MCCR President Robert MacGregor in venues around the globe.

[Membership increased slightly to 121 member companies after the end of the fiscal year.]

Benefits to St. Thomas

MCCR operations during the past year have benefited the University of St. Thomas and the Graduate School of Business by building working relationships with MCCR’s 115 member companies and their executives and by increasing the national and international visibility of St. Thomas. The Center has worked to strengthen its working relationships with UST faculty members in the graduate school of business, the Management Center and with other St. Thomas projects and activities.

Future Priorities

Although still evolving, MCCR’s planning for the future places high priority on four strategies:

• increasing the Center’s international business ethics services and visibility,

• enhancing the value of the professional networking and exchange of information that occurs among members companies through MCCR programs and services,

• building partnerships with related and competing organizations (such as the UST/GSB, the Management Center, Minnesota Business Partnership, the Caux Round Table, and with Business for Social Responsibility), and

• adding to the direct services that MCCR can offer to companies (an ethics consulting service is being implemented).

Challenges for the Future

To accomplish these goals the Center must address six challenges:

• Building additional staff capacity to conduct research on practical management issues in corporate responsibility (adding associate faculty or senior fellows attached to the Center for example).

• Enhancing the quality and content of MCCR publications to provide useful and timely information to members.

• Substantially increasing MCCR’s contacts and working relationships within member companies.

• Building a closer, more integrated working relationship with the University of St. Thomas and building effective working partnerships with other organizations.

• Improving the diversity and the effectiveness of the MCCR Board of Directors and strengthening the role of the new Executive Management Committee.

• Securing adequate funding. The expansion of programming and reach envisioned by the Center cannot be achieved without a significant increase in the Center’s financial resources.

Financial Performance

MCCR ended the fiscal year with a positive financial balance. The Center’s revenues totaled $330,600 against spending of $323,100. Revenues were generated by membership dues and contributions paid by the Center’s 115 member companies ($270,000), registration fees ($53,500), and sales of publications ($7,000). MCCR also received significant in-kind support from the University in the form of office space, administrative, human resources, accounting and computer systems support.

Core MCCR Programming for 1996-97

During the 1996-1997 calendar year, the Minnesota Center for Corporate Responsibility focused its programming and services on three core issues:

• Business Ethics and Global Business Ethics

Primarily promoting awareness of the Caux Round Table Principles for Business (originated by MCCR) in front of businesses, associations, and governmental bodies worldwide. MCCR President Robert MacGregor has participated in well over 50 national and international meetings including the Private Sector Group of the UN Initiative on Human Settlements (Habitat) in Nairobi and Istanbul, CRT meetings in Switzerland, New York and Arizona, a conference in Germany on business and municipalities leading to the Bremen Declaration, a Mexico City conference on top business leaders, and meetings AIESEC, the world’s largest student organization, in Washington, Basel and the Dominican Republic. Although the focus is not global, MCCR also assisted faculty at the University of Minnesota and the University of Oregon in developing a grant proposal to the National Science Foundation to study the links between quality and ethics. The Center’s Annual Meeting attracted approximately 250 business guests and featured Dominic Tarantino, chairman of Price Waterhouse World Firm speaking on Taming the Global Frontier. His speech highlighted the work of MCCR, the CRT Principles for Business, the need for progress on global business ethics, and the challenges of making the Internet safe for business.

• Values and Leadership in Organizations

Primarily two program series: four Roundtable Discussions on Aligning Values and Actions in Organizations and three CEO presentations on Leadership and Values featuring the CEOs of Norstan, NSP and Lakewood Publications. The Roundtable Discussions were designed an implemented with assistance from two independent consultants, Carol Pine and Chuck Kingsley, working closely with MCCR.

• Work/Life Strategies for Employers

Primarily in three ways: one, publication of a major report titled Creating High Performance Organizations: The Bottomline Value of Work/Life Strategies; two, by developing The Work« Life Network, a bi-monthly meetings for business and nonprofit professionals, and three, the Families That Work! project. In addition, the Center participated in and reported on the national conference of the Alliance of Work/Life Professionals and aided researchers from Purdue University in identifying research contacts in the Twin Cities business community for a study of managers working reduced loads.

• Creating High Performance Organizations, MCCR’s Task Force report, was published with generous financial support from Ceridian Corporation. The report has been publicized nationally and over 400 copies have been sold by MCCR (generating billings of $3419.00).

• The Work«Life Network, regularly involving 35-45 professionals, has convened five times to-date here at the Minneapolis campus. Topics vary: telecommuting, child care, elder care, schools and learning, benefits and flexibility.

• Families That Work! is an MCCR program offering work-site-based education programs for employees. It is directed by Patti Schneider and provided 24 different courses at 6 different member companies to approximately 1045 registrants.

In addition, the Center developed programs and co-sponsored programs with speakers covering a wide range of issues related to corporate behavior and corporate citizenship: crime, the environment, sustainable development, sales practices, spirituality and business, diversity, and corporate citizenship models.

During the fiscal year, MCCR consultant, Bill Bockelman, completed extensive interviews with Twin Cities business and public sector leaders in preparation for writing a history of corporate citizenship in Minnesota. Initial drafts have been developed and publication is expected in the Spring of 1998.

Partnerships

MCCR’s Executive Management Committee and Board of Directors called upon the Center to developing effective partnerships with complementary organizations as one important strategy for future development. To that MCCR has taken the following steps:

• MCCR has explored (and continues to explore) the prospects for developing a contractual relationship with the Caux Round Table that would institutionalize the Center’s current informal support for the CRT and for promoting the CRT Principles for Business in the US and around the globe. During the past year, MCCR designed and implemented an Internet web site for the CRT. The CRT is committed to reimbursing MCCR for the cost of creating and managing the site.

• MCCR has developed a regular cooperative relationship with the Upper Midwest Chapter of Business for Social Responsibility (BSR). BSR was identified as a key competitor (at the national level). MCCR has initiated dialogues with the national president of BSR, met with most members of the BSR local steering group, has entered in joint planning for a Fall 1997 program and shared invitation lists for selected events during the past year.

• MCCR has continued its relationship with a national initiative titled CHARACTER COUNTS! which was developed by the Josephson Institute to promote character education for youth. MCCR is a member of the national coalition board for CHARACTER COUNTS!. MCCR has supplied the Bloomington Rotary, South High and 19 other Minnesota secondary schools with information on CHARACTER COUNTS! program ideas and curricula.

• To complement our programs on Work/Life, MCCR is a member of the United Way of Greater Minneapolis steering committee on Steps to Success which offers work/life information to nearly 100 small businesses in the metro area, and MCCR cooperates closely with the University of Minnesota’s Children, Youth and Family Consortium (CYFC).

• The Center took an important step forward in developing a working relationship with the Minnesota Business Partnership (MBP) by organizing, with Partnership support, a forum featuring Honeywell’s CEO Michael Bonsignore speaking on Minnesota HEALS anti-crime initiative led by Honeywell and other Twin Cities businesses and nonprofit and public sector organizations. Mr. Bonsignore is MBP’s chairman for the coming year and has made this a key MBP initiative. (The forum convened at the Minneapolis Club on July 8 with an audience of more than 80 including several CEOs.)

Co-Sponsorships

The Center sponsored a number of programs deemed important to members and constituents during the year. Co-sponsorship enables MCCR to call members’ attention to the importance of an issue and program and often indicates involvement in the design and planning for a program. Programs include: The Stakeholder Dialogue convened by the Koch Chair in Business Ethics, the UST Multicultural Forum, the Spirituality and Business conferences developed by the Heartland Institute, the statewide Sustainable Development conference developed by a collaborative of environmental groups, and a Natural Step training on environmental strategy for business.

MCCR began cooperating with HealthPartners, an MCCR member company, in planning and co-sponsoring a regional conference organized by HealthPartners on Brain Development in Early Childhood. The conference is titled SMART or Stimulate Minds At the Right Time. It convenes October 9, and MCCR, along with Susan Seitel, president of Work and Family Connection and a member of MCCR’s The Work« Life Network, will facilitate a conference workshop on How Business Can Support Infants and Toddlers.

MCCR was also successful in convincing member companies and other organizations to sponsor or co-sponsor MCCR programs and activities. Ceridian Corporation provided $3500 in funding to sponsor publication of the Center’s Work/Life report. In addition, twenty-one member companies stepped forward to sponsor MCCR’s Annual Meeting and provided $22,410 over-and-above registration fees for their own employees.

Communications

In the area of communicating with members and other constituents, MCCR had mixed results in the past year. four very important objectives were met:

• MCCR designed and implemented its own web-site containing a wide array of information and publications, including the CRT Principles for Business in five languages, extensive information on Work/Life strategies and resources, current and past Executive Summary essays, links to other relevant web-sites, and occasional papers and speeches. [ http://www.stthomas.edu/mccr ]

• In an effort to communicate more effectively with St. Thomas audiences, MCCR placed a number of articles and announcements in UST’s Masterpieces during the year. These included articles on work/life policy and on MCCR’s participation in Vice President Gore’s national Family Reunion V conference on Work and Family in Nashville.

• MCCR developed an inviting, readable and more efficient format for publishing speeches and occasional papers. The Center published and distributed Robert Kuttner’s The Battle Over Corporate Responsibility speech from the 1996 Annual Meeting, David Koch’s speech Leave Your Mark: There is Still Time! on corporate citizenship, and Dominic Tarantino’s speech Taming the Global Frontier. Publication of General Mills’ CEO Steve Sanger’s speech on Diversity Strategy at General Mills to the UST MultiCultural Forum and Honeywell’s Michael Bonsignore’s speech on the Minnesota HEALS anti-crime initiative are in process using this format as of late summer 1997.

• MCCR developed and published a new format titled Reports to Members and Friends to communicate information on Center programs and activities. Four updates were issues during the past year, and a fifth in July 1997 reporting on Spring activity and plans for the Fall of 1997.

• Articles about MCCR issues or programs appeared in a number of US publications and in foreign newspapers. The Center’s Work/Life report was reviewed by the Star Tribune. MCCR’s work with TSI Inc. was written up in The Journal, a local newspaper serving Shoreview and north St. Paul communities.

• MCCR published five Executive Summary essays written by CEOs during the fiscal year, fewer than the average 10-12 published in past years.

Center Management

The Center is staffed by Robert MacGregor, president; David Rodbourne, director of programs, Terri Hastings, program coordinator; Marlys Fletcher, office manager; and several St. Thomas work study students during the year ( Christy Botts, Stephanie Erickson, and Michelle Goryl).

During the past year MCCR created an Executive Management Committee drawn from executive ranks of member companies to advise the Center on strategy and programming. This committee was established to increase member involvement and sense of ownership in the Center. The Committee developed an initial strategic report titled The Future of MCCR, delivered recommendations to the Board of Directors, and advised staff on program opportunities.

Audiences Served

Nineteen MCCR programs and events during 1996-97 served 1,002 participants. In addition, President Robert MacGregor’s speaking engagements at conferences in the U.S. and internationally reached at least several hundred other individuals and more than fifty different organizations. The Center’s publications are routinely mailed to a list of 1800 persons, and articles developed by the Center have appeared in a variety of publications in the Twin Cities and across the nation reaching an unknown number. Finally, MCCR has been cited in articles related to the Caux Round Table’s Principles for Business and international business ethics in several newspapers around the world.

The Center’s Families That Work! project served 1045 registrants (the actual number of individuals would be fewer since some registered for multiple courses) through 24 courses at 6 member company locations.

Total audience served exceeds 4,000 persons.

Finance

Spending for the fiscal year totaled $323,100 against revenues of $330,600. Staff salaries and benefits account for approximately 71% of MCCR expenses. Printing, duplicating and postage accounts for approximately 12% of the Center’s costs (reflecting expenses related to marketing programs, publishing reports, and communicating with members). MCCR generated approximately $270,000 in revenues from Member Company dues and contributions. In addition, the Center earned revenues of $53,500 on seminars and workshop registration fees and $7,000 on sales of reports and publications. MCCR also received significant in-kind support from the University in the form of office space, administrative, human resources, accounting and computer systems support.

Submitted to the University of St. Thomas: August 26, 1997

Center for Ethical Business Cultures

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Phone: 651 962 4120 or 800 328 6819 Ext. 2-4120 ▪ Facsimile: 651 962 4042

Email: mail@cebcglobal.org

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