Telling The Minnesota Story

The Principles Attract Interest Around The World

James J. Renier

Chairman, Board of Directors

Minnesota Center for Corporate Responsibility 

Some business people have been understandably skeptical about The Minnesota Principles. The subtitle of the document reads, "Toward an Ethical Basis for Global Business." High-minded aspirations at best, they have concluded. But the events of the past 24 months should have changed their view. It is now obvious from the spontaneous explosion of interest among people in all companies of all sizes and from all countries all around the world that The Minnesota Principles represent an idea whose time has come. Nearly 10,000 copies of this guide to business conduct are now in circulation.

This intense interest is not that surprising, if you really think about it. People from all parts of the world - with vastly divergent cultures - have rushed into the global market to buy, sell, trade, and negotiate at a rate hitherto unimagined. It has been, as we say, "a whole new ball game." But this game seems to have no rules, at least none that everyone agrees on.

The Minnesota Principles do not ipso facto provide the rules, but they do address the growing realization among players in the global market that rules are needed. It can be said that business is ultimately about making and keeping promises, and that is fundamentally true, but it is also too simple. Bribes offered and taken can qualify as promises made and kept. The full reality only emerges when promises are imbedded in and respectful of a set of more general rights, responsibilities, and obligations. It is their attention to this larger framework that explains the not-so-surprising response to The Minnesota Principles.

So what has been the history of this remarkable document in the two years since it was drafted by a group of Minnesota business people? I have already noted that nearly 10,000 copies have been printed, and these have been copied and circulated at companies and universities many times over. The story becomes even more impressive when we consider where these copies are and who is reading them.

The Minnesota Principles began their journey around the world in the summer of 1992, when the Twin Cities business leaders took the document with them to an international meeting in Caux, Switzerland. A group of European and Japanese business leaders had been meeting semi-annually at the Swiss resort for seven years to discuss ways to reduce trade frictions among their countries. They call themselves the Caux Round Table.

By the time the 1992 meeting was over, the group had endorsed The Minnesota Principles for the widest possible discussion. It was the first time the group had taken such an action.

Six months later, members of the same Minnesota group presented The Minnesota Principles to two of Japan's leading business organizations, the Keidanren and the Keizai Doyukai, in Tokyo. MCCR board member Charles M. Denny, Jr., presented them on television in Japan and many other parts of Asia. During the same trip, the Minnesotans carried The Minnesota Principles to the governor, mayors, and economic ministers of China's rapidly growing Guandong Province. In Bangkok, Thailand, The Principles were discussed with business reporters and U.S. government representatives.

In 1993, a group of business and government leaders from St. Petersburg, Russia met with MCCR representatives to discuss The Minnesota Principles. The Russians invited MCCR to help them promote the standards among business people in St. Petersburg.

In February 1994, representatives of the Caux Round table incorporated most of The Minnesota Principles into a new document, Principles for Business, being published under the auspices of the Caux Round Table.

More recently, The Minnesota Principles have been shared with business leaders in South Africa and also incorporated in a report for the National Association of Black Chambers of Commerce. Late this spring they were discussed at an international conference in Mexico and at a United Nations meeting on consumer issues in New York. A UN Committee has asked MCCR for assistance in spreading discussion of The Minnesota Principles around the world.

Newspapers in London, Germany, Japan, Hong Kong, and Thailand have published articles about The Minnesota Principles.

As I see it, there are three very clear messages in all this activity. First and foremost, The Minnesota Principles are an example of what can be done when business leaders are willing to invest their own time and talent in a right cause. Two, the world's business people are hungry for an ethical benchmark, by which they can measure and judge their actions in the global market. And three, the already fine reputation of Minnesota businesses is being convincingly affirmed every time The Minnesota Principles are read and discussed.

The continuing need to sustain that reputation is the reason why many of us devote time and effort to the Minnesota Center for Corporate Responsibility. A senior executive in one of our state's largest firms has pointed out that Minnesota companies enjoy a certain prima facie legitimacy simply because they come from Minnesota. The state's reputation for honest business practice and hard work attaches to its citizens and its companies wherever they go.

That reputation is our most valuable collective asset, and The Minnesota Principles have added value to it. By taking them to the world, we ultimately take it to the bank.

© 1994

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