Clinical Professor NYU Stern School of Business, lots of other hats, even more opinions. Author of Higher Ground, Harvard Business Review Press, February 2024.
@HollinsMargaret
@BylineTimes
For 40 years, British politics has been dominated by a xenophobic terror of ‘economic migrants’. Meanwhile, ultra-wealthy kleptocrats coming to Britain to buy its football teams, entire swathes of its major cities, its newspapers, and its politicians has largely gone unremarked”
In the
@WSJ
today, I argue that today's ethics programs need to go far beyond legal risk, and consider compliance, culture and corporate responsibility in a more holistic and strategic way. I welcome your comments!
It's my last day at
@BSRnews
and I'm overwhelmed with gratitude to all my colleagues and friends for the incredible opportunities I've had. My next adventure starts very soon, I'll be the new Executive Director of
@EthicalSystems
. Much to do and I could not be more excited!
I've read about 100 columns in the last 24 hours on why businesses shouldn't be silent on abortion. Every journalist out there seems to assume that "taking a stand" is the thing to do.
Here, for
@barronsonline
, I argue that this is completely backwards:
Oh totally, a city in the desert with air conditioned beaches, giant malls, unbearable temperatures much of the year, man made islands and no tax on gas. Sounds super resilient.
I’m writing a book for Harvard Business Review press, on an era where we no longer believe that as long as a business doesn’t break the law, decisions to maximize profit are ethically neutral.
Join our
@EthicalSystems
mailing list for updates!
What gets measured gets managed - right?
Well no, actually. What gets measured gets manipulated.
More from me in
@qz
on the trouble with transparency🪞🪞🪞
“It turns out that reporting is not a proxy for progress. Measurement is often nonstandard, incomplete, imprecise, and misleading. And headlines touting new milestones in disclosure and socially responsible investment are often just fanciful “greenwishing”
Watch
@JonHaidt
and
@FollowAlisonT
discuss how stakeholder capitalism, employee activism, and the growing transparency of company political values, make the prospect of a depoliticized corporate culture dubious. via
@NYUStern
Would there be a benefit to a smaller gap between CEO and employee compensation, in terms of employee perceptions of company culture, motivation, commitment, or other important factors?
We take a look in this new post —>
On
@qz
today I argue that the current approach to corporate responsibility is no longer fit for purpose, given public anger over abuses of trust and power by business.
Companies have committed to “balance” the interests of all their stakeholders. What does this *actually* mean?
When everyone is yelling at you, how do you decide who to listen to?
Today in the
@WSJ
, I try to answer this question!
One of the big downsides of the ESG movement is that — at least for now — we've prioritized disclosure over actually doing something.
I discuss this, and much more, with the brilliant
@mby
on his latest Purpose podcast:
I have no business winning awards for anything, but this is a great list of 50 top women in sustainability globally, and I’m very proud to be in such company!
Acceptable email response times are a funny thing. How long before your response is considered slow?
Private sector: half a day, or in some contexts, ten minutes
NGO: a week
Academia; four months
🙄
On this podcast for
@thedecisionlab
,
@JonHaidt
and I discuss polarization in the workplace, how ethics has become a strategic advantage, and much more! 👇👇👇
99 smartphones are transported in a handcart to generate virtual traffic jam in Google Maps. Through this activity, it is possible to turn a green street red which has an impact in the physical world by navigating cars on another route!
#googlemapshacks
“The level of cognitive dissonance is becoming absurd. Consultancies have embraced the fads for DEI and ESG with the same enthusiasm that they once embraced downsizing and leveraged buyouts. But their billable hours tell a different story.”
“We will start to see a gulf opening up between companies that embrace stakeholder capitalism and ESG rhetoric, and those… maximising short term shareholder value”: Crystal gazing with
@pgupta79
- what a fun conversation!
Should companies pull out of
#Russia
? What about
#China
? Should they speak up on abortion rights, or gun control?
The
@FT
reviews the situation, with thoughts from me and many brilliant friends
Coronavirus is going to show whether all today’s responsible business rhetoric means anything when the going gets tough.
Watch the gap between what businesses should do, and what they actually do. From
@Edgecliffe
in the
@FT
, with thoughts from me!
Did you miss last week's
@NYUStern
webinar, with me and
@JonHaidt
discussing polarization, employee activism and organizational culture? The video is here:
via
@YouTube
Let's talk about today's fears of "voter fraud," why the modern GOP pushes them, and how they have warped our politics since 1986, shall we?
In 1986, Reagan's sixth year, the GOP had to defend vulnerable Senators elected w/him in 1980. (The House was already Democratic).1/
Check out our new report from
@wef
- The Rise and Role of the Chief Integrity Officer. We describe how organizations are transforming in response to new pressures on corporate integrity:
Fascinating! For all the predictions about remote work damaging ethical conduct, the opposite seems to be true. With less social pressure, whistleblowing has skyrocketed:
via
@business
In which I argue that
#sustainability
practitioners might be well served to focus a bit less on the business case for
#ESG
, and a bit more on how humans actually change their minds:
In early 2012, I read a dystopian novel about a pandemic in NYC, where the clueless protagonist repeatedly fails to escape to the Catskills.
I married the author 16 months later and am now living through his novel, but from the Catskills.
More here!
The thinking of anticorruption activists has shifted significantly in recent years, as
#LuandaLeaks
shows.
Kleptocrats gonna kleptocrat - let's focus on the accountants, lawyers and consultants that make all the looting possible.
More here:
Oh, look at that!
Maybe if I describe myself as a "polymath" people will be more keen to give me money and less keen for me to moderate their panel/give their nephew free career advice/review their pitch for free?
Maybe not.
I have just finished grading professional manifestos from 45 undergrad seniors, and its all crypto analysts, doing crazy things with blockchain, an influencer with 440k TikTok followers! We are in for quite the culture shift, even in more conventional jobs, just wait.
When you order an English breakfast tea in New York, and then watch as the barista pours cold milk in first, tops it up with hot water, and finally dunks the bag 😱😱😱
London bound, thank god!
We've all heard a lot about CEO activism, but practical advice is thin on the ground. My new article on
@HarvardBiz
today discusses what companies can and should do:
2020 disrupted and transformed many things, including organizational culture. There is much to do in 2021, and our directors
@FollowAlisonT
and
@JonHaidt
would love to continue the conversation on fostering ethical culture as we look ahead in the new year.
Hey
@ManelWatchUS
curious if there is a term for the exhaustion that comes from repeatedly being asked to be the token woman/moderator on what would otherwise be a manel?
“ It’s hard to think of another recent instance in which one human being has defied the collective expectations for his behavior and provided such an inspiring moment of service to the people, clarifying the terms of the conflict through his example”
“It’s not diversity in surface-level demographic characteristics of team members that enhances collective intelligence. It’s deep-level diversity, where team members differ in their viewpoints and information.”
I am absolutely not an influential person on any form of social media. But this Linked In post has had well over a million views in 72 hours. 2 conclusions: 1) Zelensky resonates, more than any other political leader in living memory 2) men adore Elon Musk
As infection concerns boost remote working, “everybody in New York thinks they’ll sit at home and get takeout, but nobody who delivers takeout or Amazon parcels gets paid sick leave,” points out Alison Taylor, executive director of NYU Stern's Ethical Systems centre.
Coronavirus is going to show whether all today’s responsible business rhetoric means anything when the going gets tough.
Watch the gap between what businesses should do, and what they actually do. From
@Edgecliffe
in the
@FT
, with thoughts from me!
When business better reflects public opinion than government, we are truly in interesting times:
145 business leaders implore Senate to act on gun violence, saying doing nothing is ‘simply unacceptable’
JPMorgan was warned by its compliance team over the “great risk” of corruption just days before it transferred funds to a former Nigerian oil minister convicted of money laundering via
@markets