The CSR Report

APEsphere is seeking interns

noreply@blogger.com (Andrew Newton) — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 23:03:00 +0000

APEsphere.com is seeking media interns. Opportunity to learn about corporate responsibility and green ethical living. #journchat #csr

APEsphere.com has launched

noreply@blogger.com (Andrew Newton) — Wed, 28 Jan 2009 14:32:00 +0000

Angela and I are proud to announce that following a year and a half of gestation APEsphere.com launched last week.

You might think the launch date, 20th January 2009, was a touch optimistic, everyone’s attention being drawn to a somewhat larger event in Washington. But we chose the 20th precisely because it was the inauguration day of a US president elected on a platform of Change, and APEsphere is a news and networking organization devoted to bringing about change in the place of business in society.

Capitalism is evolving; profits can no longer come before people or planet. The culture of capitalism is also evolving; people are searching for lives, no longer satisfied with consuming lifestyles.

How we conduct business, who we choose to work for, invest in or buy from - these are choices we should make with full awareness of business impacts and our influence over them.

We believe that news reporting on the role and performance of business should be rebalanced. It isn't enough to report business news from the perspective solely of investors. Business activity also has impacts on customers, employees, families, communities, the natural environment, supply chains and even people who are affected by how others use products they have bought - something we call the "use chain".

APEsphere helps catalyse this change through original reporting (by professional and by you, the citizen journalists), by the sharing of news reported elsewhere, as well as opinion, expert analysis, and dialogue. And on APEsphere you are part of a community, because without community, there can be no collaboration, no concerted action, no change.

APEsphere is not a free-for-all. While there are other sites built on news sharing, none is as focused on the role played by business in our communities and across the world. We promise to moderate the conversation to preserve our focus, and we encourage you to help by keeping to the APEsphere Code.

The CSR Report will shortly be resurrected at its new home on APEsphere.com.

We look forward to your feedback onn the new site, as well as your participation. Just APEmail me once registered.

Welcome to APEsphere, and the path to a new capitalism.

Best wishes

Andrew Newton and Angela Peterson Newton
Co-Founders
APEsphere.com

Mother necessity drags carmakers into our world

noreply@blogger.com (Andrew Newton) — Mon, 19 Jan 2009 16:52:00 +0000

#csr:

After years of treating greener cars as a niche market, automakers are indicating that green tech will lead their innovation efforts.

Image courtesy Netsirk3 via Flickr

A new global survey of auto industry executives by consultancy KPMG found that green technologies occupied the top three slots in answers to the question: what are the most important areas for innovation over the next 5 years.

The survey also found that investment in innovation is expected to remain steady during the recession.

Will the US government act as a responsible owner?

noreply@blogger.com (Andrew Newton) — Sat, 17 Jan 2009 22:12:00 +0000

#csr:

What kind of owner will the US government be having ploughed $200 billion into private financial institutions?

Image courtesy mashget via Flickr

Against the background of growing interest in responsible investment, the launch of the UN Principles for Responsible Investment, and an increasingly activist institutional shareholder base, we now have a giant walking onto the stage: the US government.

The San Francisco Chronicle article linked here credits the government with having overcome Citigroup's resistance to breaking up its business and asks whether Bank of America may be next in their sights.

This could get even more interesting though. Private financial institutions have been coming under pressure to address their indirect social and environmental impacts, and to varying degrees have heeded that pressure by the publication of appropriate lending policies.

With a progressive government in Washington being forced to take large stakes in major financial institutions, surely there is an opportunity to bring greater balance (read responsibility) to the lending and underwriting decisions of their portfolio companies?

Let's hope that opportunity does not get missed.

Where Satyam breaks from being India's Enron

noreply@blogger.com (Andrew Newton) — Sat, 17 Jan 2009 21:36:00 +0000

#csr:

Information Week's Rob Preston interviewed both Enron and Satyam's CEOs a short period of time before their respective falls from grace.

Image courtesy mashget via Flickr

He describes many reasons to distinguish the two cases, but it seems possible to distil it down to this: Enron was led by an arrogant man who built a business consisting of hot air; Satyam was run by a flawed but genuine business builder who leaves behind a still substantial business.

The jury has already returned a verdict in support of the Enron summary. But what will emerge over time regarding Satyam's Ramalinga Raju?

Microsoft: too big to breathe

noreply@blogger.com (Andrew Newton) — Sat, 17 Jan 2009 19:09:00 +0000

#csr

Microsoft has lost a complaint brought against it to the European Commission over the company's bundling of Internet Explorer with Windows.

Image courtesy ericandalice via Flickr

Europe has stricter competition law than the US, and the bundling has been held to constitute an abuse of Microsoft's market dominant position in the operating systems market.

Microsoft has been told it has 8 weeks to respond to the decision, after which it must comply with an order to distribute Internat Explorer browser separately from its operating system Windows.

The company previously lost an EU case against its bundling of Windows Media Player with Internet Explorer.

Personally, I find Internet Explorer too slow for my purposes and have converted over completely to using Firefox. Firefox's market share hit 20% last December for the first time. Makes you wonder what it could achieve if the 90% of people who use Windows OS were confronted with an informed choice of browser on Day 1.

Satyam embarrasses corporate governanance award giver

noreply@blogger.com (Andrew Newton) — Sat, 17 Jan 2009 17:12:00 +0000

#csr

You might call it the "In Search of Excellence" problem, after one of the first business books to set about the risky task of identifying businesses that stand out above their peers, only to watch them fall to the bottom.

Image courtesy rust.bucket via Flickr

The World Council for Corporate Governance has rescinded the Golden Peacock award for corporate governance it awarded to Indian outsourcers Satyam.

This article asks what can be learned about good governance from the fraud revelations that have engulfed the company.

Splitting Citi in two

noreply@blogger.com (Andrew Newton) — Sat, 17 Jan 2009 17:03:00 +0000

Image courtesy sheikh.tuhin via Flickr

#csr

I have been covering Citi's progress (and regress) these last few years on corporate responsibility issues.

So now the group is to be split in two.

The financial supermarket model created by former group head Sandy Weill gave rise to numerous regulatory headaches. The racey culture of Salomon Smith Barney seemed a bad fit for such a major banking group that above all things needed to be trusted.

Embedded conflicts of interest gave Citi unwelcome headlines following the technology bust, and it seemed to me then that the business model on which the supermarket idea was based only made sense if conflicts of interest were permitted to run wild.

The group was so powerful that the subsequent CEO Charles Prince described it as a "quasi-public institution" and regulators and commentators everywhere classified as "too big to fail". Yet there was this huge structural flaw that based the group's success on embedded conflicts. It was difficult to see how such a powerful institution would be brought to its knees, yet the business model seemed unsustainable.

In retrospect I would speculate that the reining in of its more egregious business practices created a huge mismatch between earnings expectations and Citi's ability to deliver. The lending binge was the group's way out, but it merely delayed the inevitable demise of the financial supermarket idea.

New World, New Capitalism: collated live posts part 3

noreply@blogger.com (Andrew Newton) — Sun, 11 Jan 2009 18:55:00 +0000

Third roundtable: How can we regulate capitalism?

146:Day 2 of the Sarkozy/Blair New World, New Capitalism symposium is about to start. 9:12 AM Jan 9th from txt
147:I will be live blogging until the end of the conference at 1pm. This session is on regulatory responses to the crisis. 9:18 AM Jan 9th from txt

Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf

148:First speaker: Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, President of Liberia 9:24 AM Jan 9th from web
149:EJS: We should seek an equilibrium appropriate to each country and to each period, avoiding ideological approaches. 9:32 AM Jan 9th from web
150:EJS: Not a question of more or less regulation, but regulation conducive to ensuring development. 9:33 AM Jan 9th from web
151:[Bio note: EJS was previously minister of finance and held positions in private financial institutions inc Citi before becoming President] 9:34 AM Jan 9th from web

Edmund Phelps

152:Next speaker: Professor Edmund Phelps, Columbia University, Nobel Prize for Economics 2006 9:37 AM Jan 9th from web
153:EP: Businesses heavily regulated by govt or stakeholders are less inclined to take risk. 9:48 AM Jan 9th from web
154:EP: Must not put the brakes on capitalism. Can rein in speculatiaction by the banks and get them back to their classic role. 9:51 AM Jan 9th from web
155:[Getting the impression that although this conference is framed as change oriented, most participants are defenders of the status quo.] 9:53 AM Jan 9th from web

Francois Chereque

156:Next speaker: Francois Chereque, General Secretary of the French Democratic Confederation of Labor 9:55 AM Jan 9th from web
157:FC: Regulation should encourage business to take into account all stakeholders, and reporting should cover social/environmental impacts. 10:00 AM Jan 9th from web
158:FC: Need new corporate governance to integrate stakeholders so that strategy is crafted for the long term. 10:02 AM Jan 9th from web
159:FC: Need to choose a new path of growth with more equitable distribution of the benefits and integrating social and environmental priorities 10:04 AM Jan 9th from web

Howard Davies

160:Next speaker: Howard Davies, Director London School of Economics, former head of Financial Services Authority 10:05 AM Jan 9th from web
161:HD: Too close to the crisis to see entirely how it occurred, other than loose lending and loose regulation of that lending. 10:06 AM Jan 9th from web
162:HD: Flaws in international regulatory architecture: "more a product of evolution than of intelligent design." 10:07 AM Jan 9th from web
163:HD: Main issues: 1/ new governance banks and new frameworks for understanding market dynamics 10:11 AM Jan 9th from web
164:HD: 2/ Banks depend on complex social contract with the state inc regulations, permitting risk taking. This contract needs reexamination. 10:12 AM Jan 9th from web
165:HD: 3/ Where do we draw the regulatory line? Require legislation not regulation, and global coordination. G20 has rejected this. 10:14 AM Jan 9th from web
166:HD: New public dialogue/political language needed if going to sustain capitalism in face of sceptical and increasingly angry public. 10:16 AM Jan 9th from web

Zdenek Tuma

167:Next speaker: Zdenek Tuma, Govv 10:16 AM Jan 9th from web
168:Next speaker: Zdenek Tuma, Governor, Czech National Bank 10:17 AM Jan 9th from web
169:ZT: Please do not respond with too much regulation. 10:20 AM Jan 9th from web

Jean-Claude Trichet

170:Next speaker: Jean-Claude Trichet, President of the European Central Bank 10:21 AM Jan 9th from web
171:JCT: Current crisis stems from widespread undervaluation of risk in the global financial system, especially in the most advanced economies. 10:25 AM Jan 9th from web
172:JCT: lack of policy response down to vew that regulation should not stifle financial innovation, markets knew best and could self-regulate. 10:27 AM Jan 9th from web
173:JCT: Financial institutions have found that their risk management systems were not robust, being based on past data from stable periods. 10:28 AM Jan 9th from web
174:JCT: Highly leveraged, limited capital reserves, investment banking business models, resulted in limited shock absorption capacity. 10:31 AM Jan 9th from web
175:JC: 1/ Address short-termism through management incentives frameworks and more effective internal risk measurement and control systems. 10:32 AM Jan 9th from web
176:JCT: 2/ review regulation to ensure it is not contributing to the cyclicality of banking, eg in accounting, leverage, capital requirements 10:34 AM Jan 9th from web
177:JCT: 3/ Enhance risk disclosure of complex instruments at all levels, particularly in institutions and markets that are unregulated now. 10:36 AM Jan 9th from web

Discussion

178:Q&A: Howard Davies: Need a European equivalent of federal charter in US rather than passporting system, to prevent Icelandic bank situation. 10:43 AM Jan 9th from web
179:Francois Chereque: The debate keeps moving away from social and environmental issues, reverting always to financial control. 10:47 AM Jan 9th from web
180:FC: Need an international institution to do for social and environmental concerns what WTO does for trade. ie global regulation. 10:51 AM Jan 9th from web
181:Edmund Phelps: Need to recapture values of old capitalism with its focus on innovation and real value. 10:54 AM Jan 9th from web
182:EP: Not enthusiastic about stakeholderism. It holds up innovation and the abandonment of activities that have outlived their usefulness. 10:57 AM Jan 9th from web
183:EP: Yes, there is imperfect information and unions can fill that gap, but against idea that innovator has to get permission of stakeholders. 10:58 AM Jan 9th from web
184:Discussant: Arseniy Petrovych Yatsenyuk, Member of Parliament, Ukraine 11:00 AM Jan 9th from web
185:APY: Need to build capacity in existing international organisations to handle crisis. Plus legally binding obligations. 11:03 AM Jan 9th from web
186:Moderator: if strengthen international institutions to deal with crisis, how do we address concerns about their democratic legitimacy? 11:16 AM Jan 9th from web
187:Howard Davies: Need a permanent G20 (or G whatever) body keeping financial regulation constantly under review to connect to democracy. 11:17 AM Jan 9th from web
188:HD in brief: democratic political interest in financial regulation should be for life, not just for crisis. 11:18 AM Jan 9th from web
189:Francois Chereque: There is a role for stakeholders in ensuring democratic accountability [I think he was saying]. 11:20 AM Jan 9th from web

Closing session with Eric Besson, Tony Blair, Francois Fillon

190:Live blogging from the New World, New Capitalism symposium, Paris. Closing session: Eric Besson, Francois Fillon and Tony Blair 11:48 AM Jan 9th from web

Eric Besson

191:Besson: if you are gong to resist a lapse into protectionism, you must protect the people. 11:51 AM Jan 9th from web

Tony Blair

192:Next speaker: Tony Blair 11:56 AM Jan 9th from web
193:TB: The world has changed fundamentaally and we must change with it. The financial system is broken and needs fundamental reform. 11:59 AM Jan 9th from web
194:TB: the financial system must serve the real economy not its own ends. 11:59 AM Jan 9th from web
195:TB: the role of the state is to restore balance to the system, not with a vested interest but as guardian of the public interest. 12:00 PM Jan 9th from web
196:TB: not abandoning capitalism but to sustain it and restore its ability to sustain society. So we must learn the correct lessons. 12:01 PM Jan 9th from web
197:TB: the right lessons should put the system back on its feet, not destroy it. 12:02 PM Jan 9th from web
198:TB: Paradox of situation is the clash between short term and long term. Need creativity and innovation in long term, not the current caution 12:03 PM Jan 9th from web
199:TB: We want a system tht rewards people with good ideas, but which rewards ingenuity and innovation, not idle speculation. 12:04 PM Jan 9th from web
200:TB: When we talk about "moralization", what we really mean is that capitalism should be at the service of society, aligned with pub interest 12:05 PM Jan 9th from web
201:TB: role of democratic system is to ensure that the market system works fr the public interest. 12:06 PM Jan 9th from web
202:TB: bubbles have happened and will continue to happen. The difference is the global interconnectedness. This began in US, affects everyone. 12:07 PM Jan 9th from web
203:TB: multilateralism is now necessary, not merely desirable. Concept of social justice as objective globally can be the necessary unifier. 12:08 PM Jan 9th from web
204:TB: The real political distinction is between modernisers and the past, between active and passive, open worlders and protectionists. 12:09 PM Jan 9th from web

Francois Fillon

205:Now Francois Fillon, Prime Minister of France 12:13 PM Jan 9th from web
206:FF: If we do not take the present crisis as a prompt for fundamental change, what yet greater catastrophe do we need? 12:17 PM Jan 9th from web
207:FF: The future lies with a responsible capitalism, where each takes on the consequences of the risks they take, equitable, invests in future 12:20 PM Jan 9th from web
208:FF: first priority is to put in place a new international cooperation. France proposes extension of G8 to include major developing countries 12:23 PM Jan 9th from web
209:FF: Concrete measures needed from G20 meeting on 2 April on eg regulation of hedge funds, credit, capital requirements harmonization 12:27 PM Jan 9th from web
210:FF: need to stabilize energy prices. Need greater transparency regarding the price. Examine the possibility of longer term price commitments 12:29 PM Jan 9th from web
211:FF: Europe has shown the way on climate change action but cannot act alone. 12:30 PM Jan 9th from web
212:FF: All countries can encourage corporate social responsibility, as French Development Agency is doing in developing countries. 12:32 PM Jan 9th from web
213:FF: Hope this will lead to an international norm regarding corporate responsibility just as we have on product security and quality. 12:33 PM Jan 9th from web
214:FF: If it is not us who reinvent our world, other actors will involve themselves in more radical forms of disagreement. 12:36 PM Jan 9th from web

New World, New Capitalism: collated live posts part 2

noreply@blogger.com (Andrew Newton) — Sun, 11 Jan 2009 18:49:00 +0000

Roundtable session 2: Globalization and social justice

83:The next session will debate inequality between states and inequality within states. Are such inequalities inevitable within capitalism? 2:16 PM Jan 8th from web
84:Afternoon session starting: can globalization generate social justice? 3:11 PM Jan 8th from web

Pascal Lamy

85: Keynote speaker is Pascal Lamy, Director General of WTO 3:11 PM Jan 8th from web
86:PL: Talking about relationship between a globalized market economy, and the idea of social justice. 3:14 PM Jan 8th from web
87:PL: Two schools of thought for solution. 1/ nothing new here in the challenge being presented, remedy with a state run solidarity system 3:16 PM Jan 8th from web
88:PL: 2/ The way a globalized market economy works involves a paradigm change, brings about major upheaval on global scale. 3:18 PM Jan 8th from web
89:PL: 2/cont'd Such discontinuity now requires solution-finding between nations. Solidarity systems designed for pre-globalized world. 3:19 PM Jan 8th from web
90:PL: I belong to second school of thought. need to rethink systems of social solidarity on a planetary scale. Where is decision legitimacy? 3:20 PM Jan 8th from web

Kamal Nath

91:Next up: Kamal Nath, Minister for Commerce and Industry, India 3:21 PM Jan 8th from web
92:KN: There is no one-size-fits-all form of globalization. In India, all-inclusive distributive justice is a key globalization issue. 3:27 PM Jan 8th from web
93:KN: When we talk about social justice we have to talk also about the structural flaws in globalization. In India people have no safety net. 3:31 PM Jan 8th from web

Neelie Kroes

94:Next: Neelie Kroes, European Commissioner for Competition 3:32 PM Jan 8th from web
95:NK: This crisis should not overeshadow the fact that globalization has pulled millions out of poverty. Recessions are cyclical. 3:34 PM Jan 8th from web
96:[Is she serious? If the ruptions set off by this crisis are cyclical ie built into system then surely system needs fixing] 3:36 PM Jan 8th from web
97:NK: Government intervention is inevitble from time to time. Now need better, not more, regulation. 3:37 PM Jan 8th from web
98:NK: Big risk is panic leading to protectionism. 3:38 PM Jan 8th from web
99:[Neelie Kroes seems to me the face of the business backlash to come. I hope the EU's CSR initiatives are safe out of her reach.] 3:42 PM Jan 8th from web

John Monks

100:Next up: John Monks, General Secretary of the European Trade Union Confederation 3:44 PM Jan 8th from web
101:JM: I told you so. 3:45 PM Jan 8th from web
102:JM: The big risks are protectionism and of social unrest arising from unemloyment. 3:48 PM Jan 8th from web
103:JM: Disagrees with Tony Blair's comment that it is only a crisis of financial capitalism. Inflated returns expectation killed the real econ. 3:49 PM Jan 8th from web
104:JM: Afraid of 1930s style protectionism. Governments will need to work together. 3:53 PM Jan 8th from web
105:JM: Need a social dimension - not a pure WTO approach - to trade if all out protectionism is to be avoided. 3:53 PM Jan 8th from web

Wouter Jacob Bos

106:Next up: Wouter Jacob Bos, deputy Prime Minister and Minister Finance, The Netherlands 3:54 PM Jan 8th from web
107:WJB: Globalization and social justice can be combined, though restraints have always been needed. 3:55 PM Jan 8th from web
108:WJB: But the trade off between globaization/liberalization and social justice has profoundly changed through changing risk. 3:56 PM Jan 8th from web
109:WJB: also lacking international institutional capacity to keep pace with international business. 3:56 PM Jan 8th from web
110:WJB: Rules of who wins and who loses from globalization are changing. "Everyone benefits" from globalization i actually about averages. 3:58 PM Jan 8th from web
111:WJB: In reality there are many in developing and developed world who concretely do not benefit. 3:59 PM Jan 8th from web
112: WJ: For first time, we are questioning whether the next generation will be better off than our own. 3:59 PM Jan 8th from web
113:WJB: Will need to get used to talking about morality and values, not just regulation. 4:00 PM Jan 8th from web
114:WJB: Thought this morning's session was a missed opportunity. Did not really get into question of capitalism's values. 4:00 PM Jan 8th from web
115:WJB: Capitalist societies need to discuss whether they need a new balance between always wanting more, and knowing we have enough. 4:03 PM Jan 8th from web
116:WJB: the biggest crisis is not the financial crisis - that will get better. The food crisis and the climate crisis are only getting worse. 4:04 PM Jan 8th from web
117:WJB: Solving these bigger problems might be a more critical need for the long term health and legitimacy of capitalism. 4:05 PM Jan 8th from web

Joseph Stiglitz

118:Next up: joseph Stglitz 4:06 PM Jan 8th from web
119:JS: No one ever promised that global capitalization would generate social justice. 4:07 PM Jan 8th from web
120:JS: Adam Smith merely said that in ideal conditions market economy leads to efficency. What we are seeing now is clearly inefficient. 4:08 PM Jan 8th from web
121:JS: Rules of trade hve been set to not only embed inefficiency but also social injustice. 4:09 PM Jan 8th from web
122:JS: Absence a disaster, our notions of social justice largely stop at the border. We don't look at global social justice. 4:10 PM Jan 8th from web
123:JS: Political frameworks for justice have not kept pace with globalization. 4:11 PM Jan 8th from web
124:JS: The American free Trade Agreement is actually better classifed as a managed trade agreement. 4:12 PM Jan 8th from web
125:JS: The agreement set different standards for workers in different countries, based on their respective democratic power. 4:12 PM Jan 8th from web
126:JS: Agreements can help, but eg the pharma agreement re provision of lifesaving medicines to developing countries put profits before lives. 4:15 PM Jan 8th from web
127:JS: International trade rules and games are carried out on a hugely unlevel laying field. no sense of social justice. 4:17 PM Jan 8th from web
128:JS: There are 192 countries. G20 is an advance, but what about the rest? Informal Gs undermine the international institutions such as UN. 4:18 PM Jan 8th from web
129:JS: UN is the appropriate forum. [First person today to mention the UN, to my recollection] 4:19 PM Jan 8th from web

Youssef Boutros-Ghali

130:Next up: Youssef Boutros-Ghali, Minister of Finance, Egypt 4:20 PM Jan 8th from web
131:YBG: Not globalization that is producing inequality, but national government policies, taxation regimes. 4:24 PM Jan 8th from web
132:YBG: People tolerate inequality because eg in the US they are led to believe in the American dream. Now realising that is not so. 4:25 PM Jan 8th from web
133:YBG: The big risk now is off a protectionist backlash. 4:27 PM Jan 8th from web
134:YBG: Is the EU going to be part of the solution, or just continue to demand openness in others but not of itself? 4:27 PM Jan 8th from web
135:YBG: Agreed with Stiglitz regarding need for strong competition regulation. Also need tax harmonisation. 4:29 PM Jan 8th from web

Thomas J Mulcair

136:Next up: Thomas J Mulcair, Federal MP (Liberal Party) and formerly Quebec's Minster of Sustainable Development. 4:31 PM Jan 8th from web
137:TJM: When you are dealing with any group of negotiations you have to analyse the power each party has to enforce the terms. 4:35 PM Jan 8th from web

Gong Cheng

138:Next up: Gong Cheng, student participant from the London School of Economics 4:38 PM Jan 8th from web

Discussion

139:Now the Q&A. Neelie Kroes defends EU's attempts to ease trade inequalities, which had been criticised as unsystematic. 4:46 PM Jan 8th from web
140:Kamal Nath responds to question regarding how India ensures everyone at home benefits from globalization by attacking western subsidies. 4:51 PM Jan 8th from web
141:Stiglitz criticizes GDP as a measure of success. That measure did not include measures of sustainability or equity. 4:55 PM Jan 8th from web
142:Stiglitz endorses president Sarkozy's new commission on measures of success. 4:56 PM Jan 8th from web
143:Re subsidies, Stiglitz criticises the distorted democratic processes resulting from extensive lobbying of US politicians. 4:58 PM Jan 8th from web
144:Stiglitz points out that with healthcare system as it is, the healthcare system is measured on econ contribution rather than health levels. 4:59 PM Jan 8th from web
145:That's a wrap on coverage for today. Back tomorrow for regulation session. Do let me know what could improve. 5:11 PM Jan 8th from txt

New World, New Capitalism: collated live posts part 1

noreply@blogger.com (Andrew Newton) — Sun, 11 Jan 2009 18:21:00 +0000

Introductory session with Eric Besson, Tony Blair, Angela Merkel and Nicolas Sarkozy

1:Arrived in press room at the New World, New Capitalism symposium. Its a popular conference. Apparently 250 journos present. 10:06 AM Jan 8th from web
2:Watched Nicolas Sarkozy and Tony Blair meet each other all smiles outside. Angela Merkel is here too, unexpectedly. 10:07 AM Jan 8th from web

Tony Blair

3:Tony Blair is speaking in French. Good French. He jokes about the luxury of giving advice without responsibility for actioning it. 10:09 AM Jan 8th from web
4:TB: the crisis is evolving constantly and honest people are saying "we don't know what to do". Hoping the room is full of dishonest people 10:11 AM Jan 8th from web
5:TB: "There is no doubt that we need radical action" 10:12 AM Jan 8th from web
6:TB: 1/ need to fix the financial system, distinguishing long term need for regulation from short term need for credit in the system. 10:13 AM Jan 8th from web
7:TB: 2/ Impact on real economy means demand side stimuli needed. So spend to build for the future: renewables, education, technology. 10:15 AM Jan 8th from web
8:TB: 3/ Support those left unemployed by the crisis. 10:15 AM Jan 8th from web
9:TB: 4/ Rebalance economic relationship with China. 10:16 AM Jan 8th from web
10:TB: longer term framework needed: 1/ better regulation. 2/ reform anachronistic international institutions like G8. 10:20 AM Jan 8th from web
11:TB: ...insisting we need an international system of governance up to the challenges of climate change, the Middle East conflict, the Congo 10:21 AM Jan 8th from web
12:TB: Globalization is a state of mind, a fact, not an economic phenomenon but a social, media one too. Ah...first mention of stakeholders. 10:23 AM Jan 8th from web
13:TB: For new capitalism, not seeking return to past, but something more stable and sustainable. 10:24 AM Jan 8th from web

Angela Merkel

14:Now its Angela Merkel. My German is not up to this. Must get a translation headset 10:26 AM Jan 8th from web
15:oh good, they have started a French simultaneous translation 10:29 AM Jan 8th from web
16:AM: For market economics, but not the form in place now. 10:31 AM Jan 8th from web
17:AM: Wants to organize a G20 meeting in US on the subject of financial regulation, to ensure financial sector plays its proper role. 10:32 AM Jan 8th from web
18:AM: We need the political will to force the financial sector not to take too much risk. 10:34 AM Jan 8th from web
19:AM: repeating Blair's call for a new institutional architecture fit for the 21st century. 10:35 AM Jan 8th from web
20:AM: response has to be more than just more regulation. Need the institutional architecture to support it. 10:36 AM Jan 8th from web
21:AM: Criticizes the advice given to states by the likes of the IMF in the past. 10:38 AM Jan 8th from web
22:AM: We have a human rights charter. We also need a charter for a sustainable economics. 10:39 AM Jan 8th from web
23:Merkel just finished. sounded increasingly like Blair as she went on. "Sustainable economics" 10:42 AM Jan 8th from web

Nicolas Sarkozy

24:Nicolas Sarkozy has taken the stage. He is very pleased to have got Blair and Merkel over to Paris. You can tell. 10:43 AM Jan 8th from web
25:NS: Despite the humanity healing moment when the Berlin wall fell, globalization has created a void of values and solidarity. 10:48 AM Jan 8th from web
26:NS: Globalization has bad side too: growing inequality between and within countries, huge imbalances 10:52 AM Jan 8th from web
27:NS: pure financial capitalism is "immoral". 10:53 AM Jan 8th from web
28:NS: But the crisis in financial capitalism is not a crisis of capitalism itself. We must moralize capitalism, not destroy it. 10:54 AM Jan 8th from web
29:NS: How do we convince our constituents that we will protect them without giving in to protectionism? 10:55 AM Jan 8th from web
30:NS: Europe needs UK to help impose the will of the G20 on Washington. 10:57 AM Jan 8th from web
31:NS: ...I want to reassure the bankers in the room... [why?] 10:59 AM Jan 8th from web
32:NS: [no reassurance yet. He is complaining about how bonus-earners lend to anyone, then after the bust lend to nobody] 11:00 AM Jan 8th from web
33:NS: The public is rght to be scandalized by the loss of billions while sky high bonuses continue to be paid. 11:01 AM Jan 8th from web
34:NS: Everyone has to play their role, including shareholders. 11:01 AM Jan 8th from web
35:NS: Rebase capitalism on simple regulations, encourage entrepreneurs, stimulate economy with investment in education, innovation etc 11:04 AM Jan 8th from web
36:NS: The crisis liberates us [from an unacceptable ideology] 11:05 AM Jan 8th from web
37:NS: the US can no longer dictate terms. There is no longer one strong currency, one model. 11:08 AM Jan 8th from web
38:NS: there is no longer a split between left and right, socialist and liberal, but between conservatives and those embracing change. 11:09 AM Jan 8th from web
39:Sarkozy sits down and it is time for a break! 11:09 AM Jan 8th from web
40:This Twitter feed is a live blog from the New World, New Capitalism symposium in Paris. 11:09 AM Jan 8th from web
41:Next up the first roundtable. Tony Blair will be hosting this on the subject of "the values of new capitalism". 11:13 AM Jan 8th from web

First Roundtable: Values of New Capitalism

44:Financial Times is hosting and moderating this next session on the values of new capitalism, which includes Tony Blair. 11:35 AM Jan 8th from web
45:Tony Blair up first. 11:37 AM Jan 8th from web

Tony Blair

46:TB: themes: long-termism, the concept of accountability to the stakeholder,a return to role of state as guardian 11:42 AM Jan 8th from web

Giulio Tremonti

47:Now Giulio Tremonti, Minister of Economy and Finance in Italy, who is comparing the crisis to a video game where monsters just keep coming 11:43 AM Jan 8th from web
48:OK I've lost his thread after the video game. Not sure its the translation from Italian into French into English 11:45 AM Jan 8th from web

Jean-Paul Fitoussi

49:Could not follow that at all. Moving on now to Jean-Paul Fitoussi, Professor Economics, Paris Sciences Po 11:51 AM Jan 8th from web
50:JPF: Treatment of economics as a maths science instead of moral science has brought us to crisis. 11:54 AM Jan 8th from web
51:JPF: the financial sector perpetuates the lie that they can perform better than the market average. 11:55 AM Jan 8th from web
52:JPF: moral failure was acceptance of a system that excludes moral consideration 11:57 AM Jan 8th from web
53:JPF: tension between one person, one vote and one euro, one vote 11:57 AM Jan 8th from web
54:JPF: democracy and market complementary: democracy makes market legitimate. 11:58 AM Jan 8th from web
55:JPF: there is a natural moral impulse passed on from generation to generation. 12:00 PM Jan 8th from web
56:JPF: we need to regulate to reduce inequality within the economy. 12:01 PM Jan 8th from web

Amartya Sen

57:Next up: Amartya Sen 12:02 PM Jan 8th from web
58:AS: limitations we are now observing in market-based capitalism were already observed by Adam Smith 12:06 PM Jan 8th from web
59:AS: Adam Smith recognised the potential for market capitalism to give rise to inequaltiy 12:07 PM Jan 8th from web
60:AS: values crucial to take us beyond ideology. Need values of fairness and humanity to ensure benefits shared more equitably 12:08 PM Jan 8th from web
61:AS: not a question of being pro or anti capitalism. 12:09 PM Jan 8th from web
62:AS: Important to expand G8 into G20. Need civil society representation from developing countries, not just government representation. 12:12 PM Jan 8th from web

Michel Rocard

63:Next: Michel Rocard, Former Prime Minister of France, Euro MP 12:12 PM Jan 8th from web
64:MR: Capitalism is more democratic than any other system known. But the present crisis reveals a meltdown in values. 12:14 PM Jan 8th from web
65:MR: Low growth rates in developed markets in recent decades have resulted in 15% of population being in precarious work. 12:19 PM Jan 8th from web
66:MR: the social balance achieved by capitalism could be lost. 12:20 PM Jan 8th from web
67:Next Francis Fukuyama 12:24 PM Jan 8th from web

Roundtable discussion

68:At last. Into the debate. 12:41 PM Jan 8th from txt
69:The moderator from the FT put fellow Brit Blair on the spot re Mandelson quote: don't care how much money you make so long as pay taxes. 12:45 PM Jan 8th from web
70:Blair replies that what we have lost following liberalization is a proper balance between the market promotion and social cohesion. 12:46 PM Jan 8th from web
71:FT moderator disappointed n one has talked about financial innovation. Hmmm 12:48 PM Jan 8th from web
72:Not sure what to expect from such a group, but it all so far seems to lack a concrete direction. These are thought leaders, not followers. 12:52 PM Jan 8th from web
73:Nice phrase "revenge of the future on the present" 12:55 PM Jan 8th from web
74:Mod to Fukuyama: how will Obama handle multilateralism? The US leadership has failed. It is in Europe that you find leadership. 1:07 PM Jan 8th from web
75:Moderator: what will be the role of the state? Fukuyama replies there is a danger of state overcompensating. 1:17 PM Jan 8th from web
76:Fukuyama: the state must build international institutional capacity. 1:18 PM Jan 8th from web
77:MR: the state is a bad entrepreneur, nor should it always be the fireman. 1:20 PM Jan 8th from web
78:MR: [interestingly] Role of state includes appropriate choice of indicators of progress. 1:23 PM Jan 8th from web
79:JPF: re stakeholders: quotes clark, economist from 19th century. [who basically foreruns Friedman: moral role of industry is productivity. 1:28 PM Jan 8th from web
80:Tony Blair: a university friend remained Marxist after university and recently told Blair "you see I was right". Easy to draw wrong lesson. 1:30 PM Jan 8th from web
81:TB: State should nourish the system, support it. Best way is to enable citizens to make the right, informed choices. 1:31 PM Jan 8th from web
82:End of first session. This is a live blog feed from the New World, New Capitalism symposium in Paris. 1:32 PM Jan 8th from web

Collated posts from the New World, New Capitalism symposium

noreply@blogger.com (Andrew Newton) — Sun, 11 Jan 2009 18:16:00 +0000

[#csr] So that I could get my arms around all that was said at the New World, New Capitalism symposium in Paris last week, I have collated and ordered all the posts from my live blog of the events into 3 posts, which I will post following this introduction.

While the "tweets" I sent via Twitter are not a biblical record, the collection of posts certainly give a good idea of the tone of the event and the specific stances taken by many of the speakers.

I hope you find them useful as a record of the event and look forward to your comments on content.

Yet more photos from the New World, New Capitalism symposium in Paris...

noreply@blogger.com (Andrew Newton) — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 14:23:00 +0000

...can be found at my Flickr photostream.

Here, though, is a snap of the cheeky chappie himself, one of the only real reformers present at the event, Joseph Stiglitz.

Thanks again to everyone who followed my live blog of the event on Twitter.

More photos from New World, New Capitalism symposium

noreply@blogger.com (Andrew Newton) — Fri, 09 Jan 2009 07:18:00 +0000

..are available at my Flickr photo stream.

Photos from New World, New Capitalism

noreply@blogger.com (Andrew Newton) — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 13:04:00 +0000

Tony Blair

Francis Fukuyama

FT moderator and Tony Blair

Live blogging: "New World, New Capitalism" Symposium, Paris, 8-9 January 2009

noreply@blogger.com (Andrew Newton) — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 21:19:00 +0000

Thursday and Friday this week I will be live blogging the New World, New Capitalism symposium initiated by president Nicolas Sarkozy of France and former prime minister Tony Blair of the UK.

For these two gentlemen the current global economic crisis is proving more than a little embarassing.

Mr Sarkozy is trying to convince a sceptical French public that progress requires adoption of the very same wholesale privatization and deregulatory approaches that have been implemented in the UK and in different ways in the US.

Tracing the economic crisis to these deregulatory approaches is not difficult, and that leaves aside the social and political costs of permitting a narrow definition of business' interests to trump all other public policy considerations.

The themes of the three sessions promise a truly profound examination of the causes of that which has become not just an economic crisis but also, according to the front covers of most major news periodicals at least, a crisis of capitalism. The sessions are:

Day 1:
Values of new capitalism
Globalization and social justice

Day 2:
How can we regulate capitalism

You can follow my live blog at http://twitter.com/apesphere, although longer posts (if I get the time) may well begin their lives here. You can also see a feed of the Twitter posts in the top right hand corner of this blog page.

See you tomorrow.

Where am I going with this?

noreply@blogger.com (Andrew Newton) — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 08:19:00 +0000

Those of you who have been following this blog through its convulsions will know that I am struggling to work out what it can reasonably achieve.

I have experimented with several different formats, all based on the premise that I wanted this blog to cover everything in the CSR universe. Maintaining such coverage involves reviewing between 2,000 to 3,000 headlines from over 200 sources that feed my feedreader each day.

This is unsustainable. When I manage to keep up with this torrent of news I have no time for my day job (book writing and the development of a new website).

I am going to have to revise my ambitions for this blog based on the recognition that although we need a site that provides a comprehensive review of all developments reflecting on the place of business within society, one blogger cannot pull it off alone.

On top of this, there are some very good blogs out there focusing on specific subject areas - such as clean energy, green living, business regulation in particular sectors - and anyone interested in specifics would, at this juncture, be better served by being pointed in the direction of those sources.

So what should this blog aim to cover?

My broader writing program focuses on the management of business's relationship with society and the planet, and with the philosophy underpinning our understanding of that relationship.

The management task builds on the experience I gained in compliance roles in the financial sector, encapsulated in my 1998 book The Handbook of Compliance. I am in the process of revising that work to subject it to the rigor of the perspectives developing in the second strand of my writing: the philosophy of business.

It seems to me that this blog should follow this same dual focus, highlighting news developments that tell us something about the task of managing a business's relationship with society and planet, and exploring the bigger questions they raise about the role of business.

In the epicenter of the economic scandal that now rocks the world there is much debate about the future of capitalism. This is only right; the economic earthquake emanating from Wall Street and financial centers the world over is symptomatic of a profound flaw in our business culture. It had become acceptable for business to have a parasitic relationship with society and planet, instead of a symbiotic relationship.

Now that events have revealed the unsustainable nature of this approach, we need to chart a course towards a better, more evolved capitalism. This blog's proper place is in exploring the flaws of the present system, joining that conversation about alternatives, drawing its threads together into a vision of what the future holds for business and bringing to life what that means for the management task.

Over the next day or two I will work out in more detail what I will be covering going forward, and rework my news feeds accordingly so that they are more tightly focused on the blog's core purpose.

I hope you will stay with me on this new journey.

GE insists green tech is still good for the gander

noreply@blogger.com (Andrew Newton) — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 19:49:00 +0000

While GE Financial Services is reining in financing other people's green tech ventures, GE remains committed to its own Ecomagination product programme. The dissonance is explained in a follow up post to the Wall Street Journal blog entry on GE yesterday.

The fact remains that falling oil prices and the scarcity of credit are making renewables unattractive from a purely economic point of view, leading John Whitehead of Environmental Economics to conclude:

Pricing nonrenewable energy (e.g., cap-and-trade, carbon tax) to account for the associated negative externalities (i.e., pollution) would keep the demand for renewable energy going strong. Since we can't much afford renewable energy subsidies with a big budget deficit, I will go so far as to say that high nonrenewable prices are the only way to reach the point where we significantly shift to renewable energy.

Timely, then, that word is leaking out that a President Obama would pressure Congress into passing a cap-and-trade or carbon tax regime within 18 months of taking office. The big stick will be the prospect of tight EPA regulation.

From the horse's mouth

noreply@blogger.com (Andrew Newton) — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 14:26:00 +0000

Presumably, now that HSBC Chairman Stephen Green has joined the chorus blaming the economic crisis on excessive bonuses and badly aligned remuneration packages, corporate responsibility professionals (including regulatory compliance professionals) will now be get the ear of human resources professionals tasked with structuring rewards.

Lobbying for calmer tempers

noreply@blogger.com (Andrew Newton) — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 13:29:00 +0000

Hearings begin on Capitol Hill today regarding the future of financial regulation. Forbes assesses the prospects of reform against the background of a wall of lobbying money moving in on every significant decision maker in Congress. They conclude that:

if financial services lobbyists hope to get what they want, their best option may be to stall and let congressional tempers subside. "The atmosphere I sense is anger," says Heritage's John of the thinking on Capitol Hill.

While the rush for reform after Enron produced some suffocatingly bureaucratic new governance regulation in the form of Sarbanes Oxley, there is much to be said for anger. It creates the political will necessary to break through deeply entrenched and deep-pocketed resistance by those with vested interests in the freedom to act wrongly.

Take AIG, for instance. The company has reluctantly reined in external lobbying expenditure (but not closed its main lobbying arm, its governmental affairs department) even though the taxpayer-funded bailout left the government owning 80% of the company. One would have thought that AIG would have a rather good communication line into its owners without continuing to pump money into lobbying.

Lets hope legislators - buoyed by their outraged constituents - stay angry long enough to ensure that the money politics that underpinned the weak regulation that licensed this economic crisis to develop, does not now undermine this opportunity for reform.

Glass ceiling in a recession

noreply@blogger.com (Andrew Newton) — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 12:57:00 +0000

According to a survey of women in the financial sector, another consequence of the economic crisis in Europe will likely be efforts to break the glass ceiling on female advancement in business.

Is this the problem it appears? A separate report issued by the Institute of Economic Affairs argues that pay gaps are less influenced by discrimination than by individual lifestyle preferences, that no amount of regulation or diversity initiatives will redress.

I have come across what I thought was pretty robust research before into this issue (see for example "Selling Women Short" by Louise Marie Roth, which analyses discrimination in the financial sector). Which of these reports resonates most with your own experiences?

The nitty gritty on dealing with foreclosures - and how the bailout won't help them

noreply@blogger.com (Andrew Newton) — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 12:11:00 +0000

Fascinating piece here about a community organization that is acting as an intermediary coordinating the work in New York City between different agencies involved in helping to resolve the foreclosure crisis. The article provides down-to-earth explanations of what is happening on the foreclosure front lines, and the set of relationships and arrangements that link Main Street to Wall Street, and so to the economic crisis. The story does not inspire confidence that the bailout is going to get to the root of the problem.

One of the interviewees is Michael Hickey, executive director of the Center for NYC Neighborhoods, who became immersed in the problem while working in CSR at Deutsche Bank where he had been Vice President at their Community Development Finance Group, and the community development program officer of the Americas Foundation. One point that leapt out at me is how an individual can move along a scale from the macro of business decisions to the micro of their impacts on individual homeowners, from emotional distance to empathic engagement and action.

Cost cutting the environmental way

noreply@blogger.com (Andrew Newton) — Tue, 21 Oct 2008 11:16:00 +0000

Credit is drying up for green tech as much as for anything else, but what about corporate environmental initiatives that don't generate revenue? Joel Makower makes the case as eloquently as anyone that are the last of the projects that should face the accountant's axe during a recession.

Of course, this still leaves the question of what will happen to those projects and plans designed to reign in a company's environmental footprint (or social impact) within limits society finds tolerable, where those initiatives simply cannot be argued to benefit the bottom line.

GE's ecomachinations

noreply@blogger.com (Andrew Newton) — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 21:22:00 +0000

So while the social investment forum claims green risk capital is flowing into investment funds, GE has pulled out of financing new clean-energy projects. Blame the credit crunch. It echoes the news that biofuels are struggling to get new developments off the ground for lack of credit.

While the recession may have the perversely positive effect of reducing carbon dioxide emissions, the crunch is also having the decidedly negative effect of constraining the much needed development of renewable energy technology.

From these few headlines it appears that equity investment (risk-bearing investment in companies) is holding up and perhaps expanding (despite broader stock market anxiety), but lending to companies and to projects (like wind farms) is as dry as any other form of credit right now.

Have I got this right?

Update: A solar industry insider has predicted that solar installations are going to find it hard to find credit for the next four years.

Late update: The HuffPo has weighed in on the pro-environmental effects of economic recession.

The German Cap

noreply@blogger.com (Andrew Newton) — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 17:57:00 +0000

The bank bailout approved by the German authorities today included a salary cap for senior bank executives of Euro 500,000 ($670,200) and a ban on discretionary bonuses and dividend payments as long as the bank remains indebted to the government.

Simple. Logical. Clean. A significant disincentive for further screw-ups.

Too much so for Wall Street?