Caux 2002

Globalization:  From Conflict to Opportunity
The Ninth Annual Junior Round Table Meeting
Caux, Switzerland
July 20-24, 2002

This is the 9^th year there was a JRT session during the CIB (Caux Initiatives of Business) summer conference in Caux. There were 26 participants from 10 different countries. The Junior Round Table participated in the plenary sessions and CIB workshops ( focussing on globalization at a personal, a business or community or a global level) and organized it's own activities like different workshops, a hike and the traditional fondue on the top of the beautiful Col de Jaman overlooking "Lac Leman". As the previous years an inspiring group of participants of different cultures and backgrounds were together to exchange experiences. As one of the participants said afterwards “the JRT is always a good breeding ground for inspiring ideas”.

Opening of the conference

The opening of the conference by Menso Fermin and Steven Greisdorf (Co-directors of the CIB) started with welcoming all participants and introducing Bernard Margueritte (International Communications Forum) and Paul Kok (Junior Round Table). During the opening session defining Globalization was the main subject.  In a world were borders are disappearing rapidly it is important to find a balance between the changes (technical, economical and social) and the challenges that come along. Having global partnerships is facing challenges together and understanding cultural aspects. Globalization is redefining  power and control. The influence of heads of businesses and politicians is important to face global challenges (diseases, internet technology, terrorism) ahead. Taking the lead in ethical challenges today is even more important with many crises in the corporate world. Both governments and companies are subject to the restraints of sound economics and the power of the market. Responsibilities of companies and governments in relation to the challenges in the developed world and operating in the developing world should be examined and defined. Climate changes, ethical behavior of CEO's and bridging the gap between rich and poor. Defining the international business responsibilities in the developing countries is as important as partnership with governments to make sure everybody is contributing to their amelioration and resolution. Globalization starts in our own community and in our own families with defining values and principles and by living them. Holding people accountable for their actions and starting bridging gaps through true communication from the heart.

JRT Group Hike

The traditional Junior Round Table hike took place and is the ideal way to get to know each other better. Unfortunately due to some rain in the morning we had to cancel the picnic. We had a nice walk to a nearby "Auberge" with some beautiful sights in different angles on the Mountain House and the lake of Geneva . We had around 10 enthusiastic hikers including some first time participants from several major countries in Europe , Eastern Europe , United States and Mexico . Conversations about our countries, cultural  background, profession and education and sharing personal experiences helped to give a better understanding of the problems and challenges we are facing in our community and working environment today. By walking together and relating on all these issues we realized that globalization is something that is very close (especially in Caux) and can't be denied.

Globalization as a conflict

During the plenary session on Sunday Dr. Kimon Valaskakis (former Canadian ambassador OECD, president club of Athens ) discussed globalization as a conflict and who will benefit from it? Unfortunately terror has successfully benefited from globalization were other issues like economics, technical development, environment, security, refugees and immigration problems stayed behind. He stressed the importance of global governance since a lot of issues can't be resolved at a national level anymore.  With a border less world comes the breakdown of rules. It is impossible to run the world without these rules. You can't deny globalization, isolation is not a solution. Creating a large forum of former head of states and leaders of multinationals should encourage the process of focussing on solutions that work beyond cultural differences and ethical values. A discussion followed on setting priorities after responses of Hein Bogaard (JRT participants and working at the Ministry of Development Aid, Netherlands ) and Shanti Narain (former member Indian Railway Board). 

JRT session: “Bridging the gap between rich and poor”

“There is a large distance between rich and poor people, within as well as between societies”. Rather than talking about how the system of international economy is unjust, or what the Government or the WTO should do to bridge the gap between rich and poor, the JRT talked about what we can do ourselves.
Hein Bogaard introduced the session and said that we are living in an age of communities. People are looking for identification and personal contact. Some of the other participants, especially from
Eastern Europe , said that in their countries it was more of an age of individualism. Despite the difference of view, we had a fruitful discussion on the potential role of communities. Everyone is a member of one or more communities: the family, a football club, a church, the European Community, the company you work for, an NGO or an university. Within these communities, people can transfer knowledge or money, inform each other about their situation and that of others, give the good example to the other members of the community or organize themselves to help other groups of people in need. These are all very practical and common ways in which communities can help to bridge the gap between rich and poor. The difficult question is of course how we as individuals can organize existing communities or begin a new one. On the one hand, it appears relatively simple: give the right example, communicate, talk to people, invest some time and money, seek people with similar ideas.  On the other hand, this requires a lot of courage and without at least a few willing ears you won't get very far. The JRT as such is the kind of community that can be a launching pad for other activities. We are a group of young people, full of initiatives and capable of helping each other through sharing experiences and maybe giving some practical help.

Personal responses to globalization

Globalization at the personal level introduced Pierre Cadet (director L' Observatoir d'Ethique, France ) who talked about personal responses to globalization. O.D.E. is an independent organization with the mission of assessing ethical practices in all kinds of organizations (companies, associations) through analysis of it's behavior in social responsibility, environmental respect and economical equity. Pierre Cadet motivated why an ethical reflex is needed nowadays and named events like Enron, Tyco, money laundering, athletic doping and stressed the ethical need on a business and family level. Ethics is not only reserved to intellectuals but it constitutes a movement from the heart.  Introduction of ethics in business and politics as an art of responsible behavior, going further than making a distinction of good and evil but introduces a judgement related to specific values taking into consideration the specific field they are to be used in (medical, business, political). By publishing an ethical guidebook for consumers in which companies are analyzed on 7 criteria it gives each citizen the possibility choosing which companies are developing an ethical behavior.  Another example of Ethics in action is introducing ethical labels to ensure that environmental constraints and other ethical criteria are respected. Besides changing the behavior of consumers the ODE is responding to needs of shareholders, associations and companies in order to develop this approach.  Practical guidelines of how we can check the ethical behavior of companies will give us the opportunity  to re(act).

JRT session: “Integrating core values with our daily work”

The discussion started with the question “what core values are important in our daily work?“. Different statements were discussed like

• From marketing point of view: “balance profit making with society interest, consumer perception and education to achieve loyalty to the buyers”. In some countries the green label is very popular. By buying clean products, people have the idea they can contribute to a better world and they are prepared to pay more for that. By education and showing examples, other companies/countries can follow these ideas.

• “Belief and trust the products that you sell/deliver, other wise don’t do the job”. From Eastern European point of view, this was not that easy because the economic situation makes it necessary for both partners to have a job to be able to support the family.

• “Professional behavior which means trustworthy, reliable, communicate the good and the bad news to both customers/suppliers and employees”. This referred to a remark that also in economic difficult situation, you should have an open discussion with the stakeholders and ask them to think creatively how the company can reduce costs;

• “Improvement of quality instead of easy sales”. Instead only reducing costs, no matter the quality level will lead to customer deceit. Also being honest with the customer asks for focussing on the production and reducing costs on that way.

Conditions to create a good environment is to improve ethical business behavior are top- and middle management who are living the examples (“walk the talk”). Also being able to talk with your boss about examples of ethical behavior (also that this is not a black and white discussion). As managers ourselves we can show persistency in our believes and convince the team we are working with and build trust and respect in the team to be honest with each other and talk about ethical issues.

“How can we convince a team?” Start by expressing yourselves (not in a provocative way) and find people who agree on your point of view. Give an example of ethical behavior and live by example. Several of the participants had experienced the impact of that on other people. Some of our Eastern European friends put the attention on the fact to be aware of fear, because that prevents people to speak up. Only by showing that you as a manager can be trusted, people are able to talk contribute and take actions!

Culture change

There was a workshop on culture change by Eric Andren, Pleiadian Consulting, England .  The workshop focussed on the definition of a corporate culture, it’s value and how it is created and maintained. A funny role play illustrated the culture within a fictive company and how they interacted and communicated with an applicant for a vacant position (played by Steven Greisdorf). The way of communication, and behavior are essential parts of a corporate tradition or culture. A corporate identity can be a powerful part of the working environment, to build confidence and confirming expectations. It will introduce values and norms that are important for the corporation. It can create power and people can become afraid without a culture to speak up due to fear of competition or losing a job. Cultures are inevitable in companies, it creates security and it will often help to view the world with a different set of values.

JRT session: Assessment tool to determine ethical behavior of organizations

Talking about what the impact is of business ethics on the business (profit), the JRT participants came forward with different examples of ambiguous situations. “Ethics is influenced by culture but also by external pressure like public opinion and official inspections”. “There can be differences in culture between headquarters and local branches”. “After a merger, differences in business ethics can become clear”. Because of the presence of a young doctor from Poland , we also talked about ethics in the medical sector and the influence of privatization/scarcity of “training places”. When you need the training place to become certified and there are a lot of candidates, you are not that free in speaking about business ethics because you could easily loose your job.

On the question what we could do about improving business ethics, ideas came up to have ethical codes of conducts published and that companies should be measured along their own codes. In the JRT session of 1997, the JRT already made an assessment tool to determine ethical behavior of organizations. This tool is based on the Code of Conduct made by the Caux Round Table (CRT). This tool can be found on the JRT web-site and some of the JRT participants became very enthusiastic to try this tool on their own organization. Our Mexican participant is going to introduce this tool as part of the MBA program on Ethics in Mexico .

At the end the discussion the question was asked “whether this is good enough”, that we have a tool to be able to measure? We discussed the current bookkeeping scandals of Enron and Worldcom. Some times a crisis is needed to really change things in the World. The question is whether people are convinced that this crisis is severe enough to start changes. We are convinced that there is enough reason to improve the ethical behavior of our own company/environment.

The Way forward

At the end, we always ask for feed back on this 9^th JRT meeting. As very positive points were brought forward the different kind of cultures and nationalities represented (Europe (Netherlands, France, UK), USA, Canada, Eastern Europe (Poland, Slowakia, Albania, Armenia, Romania, Moldavia) and Mexico, The group spirit among others because of the hike, the fondue, the joint service shifts. And the fruitful / inspiring discussions on the personal level. As points to improve were the fact that the participants missed some dedicated extra time for the JRT (extra day in the program) and focus more on subjects and explore them in depth for example by inviting a speaker in the JRT session. These points to improve will be taken into account in the organization of the next meeting.

At the end was also discussed the Interim Meeting of the JRT in India/Panchgani. This will be linked to the CIB meeting with the theme  “Globalization: Embracing Opportunity, creating Synergy”  in January 9-12, 2003 . From the JRT participants present, 8 volunteered directly enthusiastically to help to organize this meeting. With this feeling of GROUP SPIRIT, we will organize a new INSPIRING meeting in India in January 2003.