Good Ethics, Good Business

My CEO Warren Staley gave a great speech on Business Ethics at Kansas Uni... Here is an excerpt:

I believe that one way to choose wisely is to focus on areas that are fundamental to both the economic and the aspirational drivers of your business. For Cargill, worker safety and product safety are areas where we have chosen to try to lead in our industry. Our employee safety index has improved year over year for the past 15 years, bringing us well below industry averages for lost time accidents. In the meat business, we have developed innovations like steam pasteurization to reduce e-coli risks dramatically and have shared the technology with competitors because we believe safe food is an industry responsibility, not an asset to exploit for competitive advantage.

Another area in which we have chosen to lead is trustworthiness. You saw this mentioned in the reprise of Cargill’s culture. It was important in our early years, when grain trading often rested on oral commitments. Our word became our bond.

Trustworthiness involves much more, however. Paying your bills on time, giving accurate weights and grades, not taking advantage of a supplier in a predicament – all of these are examples of routine business conduct that, over time, determines whether you are a company with whom others wish to do business.