FEBRUARY 2004 BROADSHEET - Just Business: A question of Ethics
The meeting on 29 January, 2004 began with a well-attended AGM chaired by our President, Walter Herriot OBE. All existing Officers and Committee Members were re-appointed, a new fee structure was explained by our Treasurer, Ken Dickson, and there was broad support for the club name change to “Cambridge Enterprise & Technology Club”. We were also pleased to recognise our Chairman, Roy Cuthbert, for 10 years of dedication and service to the club.
Following the AGM, two speakers addressed the topic, “Just Business: A question of Ethics”. They provided us with an awareness of the ethical issues that we face in business and they helped us to consider how we might recognise and respond to these issues. Our first speaker, Dr Richard Higginson, Director of Studies and Lecturer in Christian Ethics at Ridley Hall, Cambridge, spoke on "Business Success Through Working Effectively With All Stakeholders". Dr. Higginson began his talk with a thought provoking analysis of the words, “just business”. Should we engage in “just business” separate from any ethical context or should we engage in “just business” with the emphasis on justice (or fairness)? It was pointed out that there is, by no means, agreement on whether business needs ethics. Should the ultimate focus of stakeholders (customers, community, employees, suppliers and shareholders) be on shareholder value or on a better society? Dr Higginson quoted interesting statistics supporting the idea that being a “caring” company can financially pay off for shareholders. In conclusion, while the concept of justice is not simple, it continues to be relevant and important in business. There is some evidence to indicate that over the long term, companies benefit from a good stakeholder focus and this is not fundamentally incompatible with capitalism.
Our second speaker, Ms My-Linh Ngo, is an analyst with Henderson Global Investors in the area of sustainable and responsible investment (SRI) analysis. She currently manages over £1,200 m in SRI assets with social, ethical and environmental dimensions. The topic of Ms Ngo’s talk was “The Pharmaceuticals Industry: Ethically Challenged?” She began by providing an overview of Henderson’s SRI business where the proposition is to “do well by doing good”. Backed by her recently published research titled “Sustainability, Responsibility, and Ethics in the Pharmaceutical Industry”, she highlighted key ethical issues of particular significance. While recognising that pharma is inherently beneficial to society by improving, ensuring, and extending quality of life, there are increasing societal concerns ranging from R&D focus (e.g. profitable health needs vs global health needs and genetics engineering technologies), to conduct (e.g. animal testing and marketing). In conclusion, Ms Ngo summarised some lessons learnt which included engaging stakeholders to anticipate issues, recognising, acknowledging and addressing ethical dilemmas upfront, building trust through transparency and openness, and adopting ethical standards company-wide.
This was a thought-provoking meeting that finished with our usual lively question and answer session.
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