Culture of Corporate Citizenship

Minnesota's Business Legacy for the Global Future

Wilfred "Bill" Bockelman 

Commissioned by the Center for Ethical Business Cultures

How did Minnesota – a distant, isolated American state – and its Twin Cities business community become known world-wide for the citizenship and integrity of its corporations and corporate leaders? Natives sometimes weary of reminders of Minnesota’s reputation, but the fact remains that leaders from cities across the United States and delegations from Europe, Asia and the Americas keep singing Minnesota’s praise and asking – how did you do it?

Putting together the pieces of that puzzle is the challenge undertaken by Minnesota author Wilfred "Bill" Bockelman as he weaves a thought-provoking story in Culture of Corporate Citizenship: Minnesota's Business Legacy for the Global Future. The book, commissioned by the Center for Ethical Business Cultures (CEBC), tells the story of Minnesota business leaders whose commitment to community well-being was as firm as their commitment to profitability.

Bockelman understands that cultures are not created overnight. He has reached back across the decades interviewing corporate community leaders, tapping into their perspectives and striving to understand the roots of their commitment to this concept of corporate social responsibility. Kenneth Dayton, former CEO of Dayton Hudson (now Target), is quoted saying: "I happen to think that being the CEO of a corporation, large or small, is every bit as high a calling as being an educator, or being in the field of religion, medicine, law or any other occupation. The CEO has the opportunity to impact a community more than almost anyone else, and therefore it is an incredibly high calling and opportunity to make this community and this nation a better place." That spirit has been played out in the lives of many of our business leaders.

The story is not only one of origins and roots. The book is aptly subtitled – Minnesota’s Business Legacy for the Global Future. In an era of protest against free trade, NAFTA, the World Trade Organization, and the World Bank, we are compelled to think about the responsibilities that any business has to address ... the profound social, civil and environmental challenges arising out of rapid globalization. Can the tools of corporate citizenship developed out of a commitment to one’s own immediate community and stakeholders serve us in this new age of multi-nationals stretching across innumerable national and cultural boundaries?

Ron James, named CEBC President and CEO in July, states that the book "illuminates an asset that we often take for granted. Bockelman has helped remind us of what we have achieved, the effort it required, and of the special character of many of our leaders and corporations. But clearly we ought not assume the legacy will continue. Globalization and the constant stream of mergers and acquisitions that we have witnessed over the last decade have changed our corporate landscape and leadership. While many leaders are as committed today as those in years past, wisdom compels us to work hard at inventing new models and new forms of business-community leadership." 

This is an engaging read, a thoughtful, probing effort to understand how Minnesota got to where it is today, and a thought-provoking effort to imagine what it takes to move forward. When asked to reflect on his book, author Bockelman said much of the credit goes to the many business people who shared their stories and who constantly pointed him in the direction of others. Bockelman said he knew he was on to something when Harlan Cleveland said "I don’t think I have ever read an ‘authorized autobiography’ of an organization and social process delivered with such delightful informality, in such accessible language."

So what is at stake in this constant stream of change? Perhaps Marilyn Carlson Nelson, Chairman and CEO of Carlson Companies, said it best in a Keystone speech: "Those of us in my generation have drunk from wells we did not dig ... Metaphorically speaking, we are here today to talk about the transfer of a precious heirloom from one generation to another, a precious heirloom handed down to us by those who went before – our community."

Praise for Culture of Corporate Citizenship

Culture of Corporate Citizenship: Minnesota's Business Legacy for the Global Future is timely, informative, stimulating and inspiring. It helps us understand how Minnesota's outstanding legacy for corporate citizenship evolved and why it has been sustained through the years. This is a message to those who worry whether newcomers to the ranks can carry on the legacy we have inherited from our pioneer corporate leaders. The answer is that the next generation, being more diverse, will not only continue the legacy, but will improve it and pass along an even better legacy to future generations.

Reatha Clark King, Ph.D.
President and Executive Director of General Mills Foundation
and Vice President of General Mills, Inc.

My entire life I've been fortunate enough to learn at the feet of giants – my father Curtis L. Carlson, and the Dayton, Pillsbury and Koch families among them. These men, women, and companies valued community as much as corporate success, and in doing so created a special ethic here in Minnesota. This book captures their spirit and legacy and will be instructive for those who wish to do the same.

Marilyn Carlson Nelson
Chairman & CEO
Carlson Companies

Bill Bockelman has written a lucid and fascinating account of how some real-life corporations have worked together in Minnesota to improve the community they share. Everyone who encounters Minnesota's business climate learns that constructive social partnership and bottom-line profit-making both come naturally to Minnesota-based corporations. This book explains how that ethical fusion got started, and why the spirit endures. It also tells how Minnesota's business principles came to be the first draft of the global code of corporate responsibility known as the Caux Round Table Principles for Business.

Harlan Cleveland
Former U.S. Ambassador to NATO
President Emeritus of the University of Hawaii
Founding Dean of the Hubert H. Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs at the University of Minnesota

This history of Minnesota business leadership in the moral arena is remarkable. And there's a clear theme in the tale – corporations reflecting on their social responsibilities in systematic ways. Moreover the plot thickens as the story unfolds. Today the reflections embrace global challenges, not just local ones. And today we see professional education at the table with business in new and practical ways. This is a history with a future!

Kenneth E. Goodpaster
Koch Endowed Chair in Business Ethics
University of St. Thomas

Bill Bockelman's welcome new book Culture of Corporate Citizenship has that shining quality of good writing which Henry James once admired as "the density of specification." It carefully and economically identifies the best ethical and moral practices in specific companies in Minnesota, but stops short of that preachy chauvinism which many of us slip into when describing the underlying values we prize in our home state. Persons who read this masterful piece of solid research with as much care and attention as Bockelman has spent in researching it and writing it are in for a treat. But after reading it they should keep a wary eye out for chauvinism in their own vocabulary. It's hard to be humble if you are a Minnesotan.

James P. Shannon 
Auxiliary Bishop of the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis, 1965-1968
Executive Director of the Minneapolis Foundation, 1974-1978
Vice President of General Mills and Director of the General Mills Foundation, 1980-1988

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