Report to Members & Friends 

Mid-Year Action Report

December 2000

As shared with you at our September Annual Meeting 2000, CEBC’s three key strategies are (1) developing services in ethics, work/life and corporate citizenship; (2) growing our financial resources through membership and fund-raising; (3) building our internal capabilities (Board, staff, technology, etc.) The following report details the momentum we are building.

CEBC Annual Meeting: 300+ members and guests participated in the Center’s Annual Meeting 2000 which featured Movers and Shakespeares: The Bard’s Guide to Building Ethical Culture. Through the magic of theatre, we explored ethical themes. The meeting, held September 27, 2000, elected directors and approved a new, up-dated set of bylaws for CEBC.

Shannon Receives CEBC Distinguished Corporate Citizenship Award: James Patrick Shannon was presented with the Center’s third annual CEBC Distinguished Corporate Citizenship Award at its Annual Meeting 2000. This award reflects the commitment of all member companies to the ideals embodied in the Center’s mission. Jim exemplifies this vision in every respect. His sustained and imaginative leadership in business and in public life stands as a model for all of us and for all future Minnesota business leaders. We are proud of his service to CEBC and to our communities. Shannon is former Vice President, General Mills, Inc., and President and Executive Director, General Mills Foundation.

Ethics Training Modules: Lisa Dercks, CEBC’s VP, Ethics, and Honeywell’s former ethics officer, is working with attorneys and consultants to develop a set of training modules focused on specific ethics and compliance topics. The first module will be available in January, and is entitled Ethics Overview for Senior Executives. Other modules currently under development include the Americans with Disability Act and the Family Medical Leave Act, immigration, labor law, health care, export control, the Foreign and Corrupt Practices Act, employment harassment, product liability, trademarks, and white collar criminal prosecutions overseas.

 

Leading with Integrity: Jim Mitchell, retired Chairman of IDS Life Insurance and our Executive Business Fellow, Leadership, is guiding the Center’s Leading with Integrity™ project, focused on identifying ways in which ethical leadership adds value to business. We recently held the first of a series of small group sessions for business leaders on building ethical business cultures.

 

The Minnesota Business Ethics Forum, sponsored by CEBC and the Society of Financial Service Professionals, will be held on May 22nd, 2001. The Forum will focus on developing ethics programs for small and mid-sized companies and will be held in conjunction with the Minnesota Business Ethics Award™. An award nomination form is enclosed. CEBC Academic Directors Ken Goodpaster and Norman Bowie and Executive Business Fellow, Leadership, Jim Mitchell will serve on the panel of judges for the award. Ron James will be the keynote speaker for the Forum and Lisa Dercks will lead a seminar to assist small and mid-sized companies in developing ethics programs.

 

Ethics Training Scenarios: Lisa Dercks and her team are developing over 25 ethics scenarios to be used by companies for internal ethics training. Each scenario includes a short fact-pattern and a leaders guide. The first scenarios will be available in January.

 

Ethics Program Development and Improvement: Lisa Dercks is developing guidance for small, medium, and large companies to assist them in building ethics management programs from the ground up. The first guidance, which will be available in February, will be designed for mid-sized companies. The Center is also consulting with member and non-member companies to assist them in creating and improving their ethics management programs.

 

Ethics Network: CEBC’s Business Ethics Network^SM members participated in the Privacy workshop at Dorsey & Whitney’s Corporate Counsel Symposium. Upcoming Network meetings will focus on training executives in ethics management, conflicts of interest issues, gifts and gratuities (including the Foreign and Corrupt Practices Act and the Organization on Economic Cooperation and Development’s anti-corruption convention), and ethics and technology (software licensing issues). Subsequent meeting topics, like the current ones, will be selected based upon the needs and interests of network members.

 

Business Simulation: CEBC developed and ran a business decision-making simulation for the MBA orientation program at the Carlson School of Management at the University of Minnesota. The simulation, which blended ethics, crisis decision making, and international business management, was rated 4th highest out of 18 activities in the CSOM orientation. It has also been used in UST undergraduate and Executive MBA classes.

Work Life Summit: With plenty of input from CEBC, organizers of the National Council on Family Relations annual conference in Minneapolis designed a special Work Life Summit to bring together business leaders and academic researchers. The Summit included presentations by several CEBC staff and member company representatives.

 

The Work«Life Network^SM: The Network’s October meeting featured Skip LeFauve, former Chairman and President of Saturn Corporation, speaking on leadership, management and labor relations at Saturn. In November, Network members participated in the Work Life Summit held in conjunction with the NCFR conference (above). Planning meetings with CEBC member companies in December outlined a series of strategic moves to strengthen CEBC’s work/life initiatives and services to members.

 

Retention Research: CEBC Work/Life Research Fellow and UST faculty member Teresa Rothausen – in partnership with several CEBC member companies – is mid-stream in a research project looking at why high performing employees have left their organizations. This is CEBC’s first research venture and includes a special emphasis on partnering with member companies in the design and execution of the research.

 

Third Annual Spirit and Work Conference: CEBC’s Bob Shoemake is working with colleagues from the University of St. Thomas to design a 10 May 2001 conference, Through the Lens of Faith, on the relationship between faith and work.

Culture of Corporate Citizenship Released September 27th: Culture of Corporate Citizenship: Minnesota’s Business Legacy for the Global Future, the Center’s book outlining the development of corporate citizenship in Minnesota, hit the bookstores September 27. Copies have been sent to all CEBC member company CEOs. At least one of our member CEOs, whose company was recently acquired, has ordered copies for the entire management team to reinforce the importance of corporate citizenship. The book can be ordered from your bookseller or from Galde Press (800-777-3454). Author Bill Bockelman is to be congratulated for his excellent work.

 

Incentives for Giving: David Rodbourne, CEBC VP, participated with the Minnesota Council on Foundations, the Minnesota Keystone Program^SM, the Minneapolis and Minnesota Chambers of Commerce, and Initiative Funds in developing a funding proposal titled Building Business Investment in Community, a statewide initiative including research on community involvement and developing incentives to increase business giving and community engagement. The Center will play a lead role in the research phase of the three-year project which has received major funding from New Ventures in Philanthropy.

UST and UMN: CEBC partners with the region’s two outstanding graduate schools of business. Ron James has met with key university officials including both university presidents, Mark Yudof (U of M) and Father Dennis Dease (UST). Ken Goodpaster and Norman Bowie, with assistance from a U of M intern) are conducting an inventory of educational and research efforts at St. Thomas and the U of M that might be resources for CEBC research and projects. Lisa Dercks has been a guest lecturer at both schools, and is a faculty member for UST’s Mini-Master’s in International Management, in which she teaches international law and ethics.

 

Business for Social Responsibility (BSR): Ron James met with BSR President Bob Dunn to continue discussions on building a strategic working relationship between BSR and CEBC. The Center has cooperated for a number of years with BSR’s Upper Midwest Chapter.

 

Caux Round Table: Ron James participated in the September meeting of the Caux Round Table in Singapore. The meeting focused on international corporate governance models. CEBC and CRT are exploring a number of potential joint projects.

The Center thanks Board member Tony Andersen for his generous contribution in September. Tony joins Board colleague David Koch in providing transition support for CEBC.

We have contacted six large private foundations and both the University of St. Thomas and University of Minnesota Foundations to test feasibility and lay the groundwork for our major funding effort.

Membership retention is good and we are having some success recruiting previous CEBC members.

Board of Directors: The CEBC Board welcomes Robert Dayton, CEO of the Okabena Company, as a new member and Katherine Tunheim, President & CEO of Tunheim Santrizos Co., as a candidate for election. On-going renewal of the Board is a key element of CEBC’s strategic plan.

Ron James participated in the Canadian Centre for Ethics and Corporate Policy conference in Toronto. The event is hosted in part by Roger Parkinson, publisher of the Toronto Globe and Mail and a CEBC board member. This marks CEBC’s second year working with our Canadian colleagues. Ron has also connected with the Southern Institute on Ethics in Atlanta. CEBC’s Terri Hastings attended the Ethics Officers Association annual conference in Chicago and the European Business Ethics Network conference in England. CEBC staff participated in the international conference of Business for Social Responsibility. The New York meeting included numerous delegations and presenters from around the globe, featured the CEOs of Texaco, Johnson & Johnson, and Interface, and celebrated BSR’s links to CSR Europe.

Speaking

Ron James addressed the Minnesota Chamber of Commerce Annual Issues Forum on the value of keeping employee work/life issues central to business and public policy. Ron James spoke at the October 26 board meeting of the Minneapolis Downtown Council. Ron was also the keynote speaker at the Heartland Institute Thoughtleaders’ Forum on Going for the Gold or Going for the Goal. CEBC’s VP, David Rodbourne, participated in a national Stakeholder’s Roundtable aimed at increasing business involvement in child care initiatives and in a national conference at UCLA on Education for Family Centered Community Development. Rodbourne serves on the Advisory Council for the University of Minnesota’s Children Youth and Family Consortium. Lisa Dercks, CEBC’s VP, Ethics, spoke on a Legal Negotiation Workshop panel in September, where she focused on the ethical issues to be considered in legal negotiations. Also in September, Lisa presented a paper on business ethics and the European Commission at the European Business Ethics Network’s 13th Annual Conference. Later in September, she spoke at a higher education seminar on the role of business ethics in higher education. In October she participated on a panel in a Briggs & Morgan Breakfast Briefing on current issues in the workplace, and on a panel on corporate governance. In November, Lisa spoke on a panel on business ethics at Business for Social Responsibility’s Annual Meeting.

CEBC hosted a visit by French engineer Olivier Dubigeon, who was on a fact-finding assignment to North America on behalf of seven French organizations interested in how American companies handle business ethics and social responsibility. Two member companies and several affiliated organizations donated their time to meet with Olivier and exchange information on business ethics practices. Center staff also met with Prahbu Guptara, director of the Executive Development Center in Wolfsberg, Switzerland.

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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Business Partnering with the University of St. Thomas - Minnesota