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Profit With Principles

Tue, 17 Nov 2009 00:00:00 GMT

Imagine you are the general manager of a Spanish company with hotels in the Caribbean. On your first trip there, you discover candidates for cleaning staff at your hotel are required to have pregnancy tests. It’s legal, and no one seems to mind, but it occurs to you that women could be having abortions to get jobs. What do you do? In his new book, Business Ethics in Action, Domènec Melé poses dilemmas like this in a bid to get the new generation of managers, executives and consultants thinking about how to deal ethically.

Rooting Out Corruption in the Business World

Tue, 01 Sep 2009 00:00:00 GMT

When we talk about corruption, we tend to think about the public sector, forgetting that if the practice exists, it is because a second party, normally in the private realm, takes part in or consents to it. This paper reviews the concept of corruption from a business standpoint and proposes a road map for fighting it in the private sector.

Better Banking in Latin America

Fri, 17 Jul 2009 00:00:00 GMT

Do financial institutions in developing countries have any specific social responsibilities? IESE’s Francesc Prior and Antonio Argandoña would say yes – particularly when considering that lack of financial depth is an important obstacle to economic growth in less developed nations. Here the authors present the underlying causes of low financial depth and provide examples of financial industry best practices in three emerging economies: Colombia, Ecuador and Peru.

Conciliation in Catalonia: Most Have Policies But Rarely Apply Them

Tue, 14 Jul 2009 00:00:00 GMT

Organizing work schedules may seem simple, yet each day big and small businesses alike, across all sectors, face the challenge of balancing profits for the business with benefits for the people involved. This study undertaken for the Catalonian government addresses the topic by examining the circumstances of more than 600 Catalonian businesses.

A Moral Crisis?

Mon, 11 May 2009 00:00:00 GMT

Much has been written, and even more will be, about the economic and political causes of the crisis, both the immediate and underlying ones. But does the crisis have an ethical component? IESE Prof. Antonio Argandoña believes it does, and analyzes this factor in his article, “The Financial Crisis: The Search for Ethical Criteria.”

Microfinance: Economic Profitability or Social Performance?

Wed, 22 Apr 2009 00:00:00 GMT

More than a quarter century ago, Muhammad Yunus challenged decades of conventional economic wisdom by offering loans to poor people. That $27 from his own pocket, divided among 42 women, has since become $25 billion in loans offered to 5.5 million people. The once pioneering field of microfinance now faces a new era, with new risks and challenges. What direction should be taken?

Can the Company Achieve the Common Good?

Mon, 20 Apr 2009 00:00:00 GMT

What exactly is the common good? Can it be achieved within the company? Moreover, is it beneficial for an organization to seek the common good? In this paper, Antonio Argandoña offers reflection on these questions along with a practical “dictionary” for making political and social philosophy compatible with the theory of the company when discussing the concept of “good.”

CSR: An Airbag for the Crisis

Wed, 15 Apr 2009 00:00:00 GMT

While corporate social responsibility may not have averted the current financial crisis, it certainly could have reduced the chances of it happening or at least mitigated its consequences. This is the argument put forth by IESE Prof. Antonio Argandoña in the article “Can Corporate Social Responsibility Help Us Understand the Credit Crisis?”

Toehold Artisans Collaborative: Firm Footing for Indian Workers

Tue, 14 Apr 2009 00:00:00 GMT

In the year 2000, when the Nike Corporation was reeling from widespread criticism of sweatshops in Asia, the Toehold Artisans Collaborative was just forming in southern India. In the paper “Toehold Artisans Collaborative: Building Entrepreneurial Capabilities to Tackle Poverty,” writers and researchers Sindhu Shanmugam and Ramakrishna Velamuri present a case study about a community-based business cooperative aimed at improving the quality of life of over 400 artisan families from the southern Indian town of Athani.

The Dark Side of Stakeholder Management

Thu, 26 Mar 2009 00:00:00 GMT

Bernie Madoff, Lee Kun Hee and, less recently, WorldCom, Parmalat and Enron. In the wake of all this white-collar crime, people are calling for corporate social action. A Stakeholder Management approach could be the answer. But when a CEO is juggling everyone from employees to charities, the water surrounding their actions and results becomes murky. In “Does Stakeholder Management Have a Dark Side,” Carmelo Cennamo, Pascual Berrone and Luis R. Gomez-Mejia take a look at how managers could use causal ambiguity for their own ends.