Ethisphere Names 100 Most Influential People in Business Ethics 2007

Ethisphere Magazine brings to light the connection between ethics and profit and they’ve just released the 2007 100 Most Influential People in Business Ethics. A panel of ethics experts nominated and ranked individuals who made an impact on the way we did business this past year.

The list has some expected nominees like Nobel Laureate Al Gore and Wal-Mart President & CEO H. Lee Scott, Jr. There are also many surprises and a couple of people I sort of forgot about. Like Wang Shouye’s mistress who, yes, made the list for exposing Shouye’s economic crimes, an act that led to his expulsion from China’s national legislature.

Nine categories were used to compile the list including:

Government and Regulatory - Did the individual impact government rules or enforcement trends?

Business Leadership - Did the individual substantially transform a specific business’ operational practices consistent with profitable ethical leadership, forcing competitors to follow suit or fall behind?

Non-Government Organization (NGO) - Did the individual impact a company’s (or industry’s) practices through external, non-regulatory leadership either through positive collaboration or negative publicity for a positive end?

Design and Sustainability - Did the individual substantially contribute to or lead a product or service redesign, which resulted in less natural resource use, or increased consumer acceptance of sustainability without diminishing the quality of the original product or service?

Media and Whistleblowers – Did the individual raise awareness on a critical issue or expose corruption?

Thought Leadership – Did the individual conceive of new approaches or otherwise materially contribute to the field of business ethics theory in a way that could be easily applied by corporate leaders?

Corporate Culture – Did the individual show success to transforming the ethical culture and behavior of a corporation or institution, particularly if such corporation or institution previously had a less than ethical culture and values system?

Investment and Research – Did the individual impact corporate behavior through influencing investor decisions and the deployment of investment capital due to research or institutional fund management practices?

Legal and Governance – Did the individual impact any legal cases which set the precedents in corporate compliance, or influence trends or structure in effective corporate governance for public and/or private companies?

Ethisphere says: “You may not agree with the politics, methods or actions of all of the people on the 100 Most Influential in Business Ethics for 2007. In fact you probably don’t. However, the bottom line is that all of these people influenced business ethics and resulting business behavior over the course of the year, whether that be influencing customers to demand ‘greener products’ from companies, to requiring greater disclosure by corporations about product safety, to forcing companies to look at their anti-bribery or anti-competitive compliance programs. All were influential somehow.”

So who are 2007’s 100 Most Influential in Business Ethics? Find out here.

• Ethisphere Magazine Profile on Corporate Social Responsibility
• Via CSRwire