By: Simon Read, Personal Financial Editor Leading companies are failing to tackle gender diversity at board level, experts warn. That’s despite a government deadline demanding they publish proposals to boost the number of female board members. In February Lord Davies called on FTSE 350 companies to achieve “urgent change” and announce aspirational goals within the [...]
How employees know when to break the rules
Tuesday, August 23rd, 2011By: John Warrillow Recently, I saw a “pop-up” concert performed by my friend Lenni Jabour at big-box book retailer Indigo in downtown Toronto. A pop-up show is an unannounced event in a public space, and Ms. Jabour has been choosing to commandeer pianos sitting unattended in public places. The shows are one part civil disobedience and three [...]
Decision Fatigue: another drag on our ability to achieve corporate integrity
Monday, August 22nd, 2011An article in this weekend’s New York Times magazine caught my attention: Do you suffer from decision fatigue? Good question…not just in our personal lives but in our corporate environments as well. Routinely, companies and governments and other organizations commit to act with integrity, then fail to make the decisions needed to achieve and/or sustain [...]
Romney to Hecklers: ‘Corporations Are People’
Thursday, August 11th, 2011By: Ashley Parker DES MOINES, Iowa — Mitt Romney, who likes to promote his years in the private sector when out on the stump, offered a glimpse into his own business perspective at the Iowa State Fair on Thursday, telling a group of hecklers, “Corporations are people, my friend.” Mr. Romney was speaking at the fair’s [...]
Moving from personal integrity to corporate integrity
Thursday, August 11th, 2011Most people understand ‘personal’ integrity. Most people can tell you the origins of their own sense of integrity. For me, personal integrity is built on the ethical values shared in my family and the many communities I’m connected to… combined with the moral lessons of my Christian faith…supplemented by professional accountabilities as a lawyer. Yet what [...]
Blind spots in corporate management
Monday, August 8th, 2011In my last blog, I talked about our fear of blind spots in reactions to ‘natech disasters’ (natural hazards triggering technological disasters). The super high radiation leads from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant in Japan make everyone nervous. Individual countries and the nuclear energy industry will have to choose how to update safety standards for [...]
Oil sands expected to undo carbon cuts
Sunday, August 7th, 2011The development of Canada’s oil sands will single-handedly undo greenhouse gas gains made by weaning the country’s electrical supply off coal, a government study predicts. The Environment Canada forecast of Canada’s carbon output over the next decade casts in stark terms the challenge facing the country as it pursues major energy development at a time [...]
Ogoniland oil spills: Shell admits Nigeria liability
Wednesday, August 3rd, 2011from BBC News Africa Oil giant Shell has accepted responsibility for two devastating oil spills in Nigeria’s Ogoniland region. The Bodo fishing community sued Shell in the UK, alleging that spills in 2008 and 2009 had destroyed the environment and ruined their livelihoods. Their lawyer said they would seek hundreds of millions of dollars in [...]