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• December

Panel: 'Good ethics is good business'

By Bill Sheridan
MACPA Electronic Communications Manager

Despite the recent spate of high-profile scandals, bankruptcies and indictments, corporate America remains in relatively good health.

That message surfaced numerous times during the course of a "business ethics summit" in Baltimore. The event, sponsored by the Baltimore Business Journal and WYPR Radio, brought six business experts and ethics scholars together to discuss the scandals and how they have affected the public's trust in corporate America.

The consensus? If businesses are to thrive and serve the public at the same time, ethical behavior must be a top priority — and at most companies, it is.

"The overwhelming majority of CEOs operate their companies in an ethical manner that we'd all be proud of," said James Brady, Mid-Atlantic managing director for Ballantrae International and former secretary of the Maryland Department of Business and Economic Development. "Let's not assume the system is diseased. There are some diseased people out there, but all in all, corporate America is healthy."

Both Brady and Lee Lundy, former vice president and general counsel of the Campbell Soup Company, believe the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002 will help eliminate many of the "sloppy" practices that led to the recent scandals. That "sloppiness" includes poor or shady oversight by executives and boards of directors, and the corresponding cooperation of what Lundy called the corporate "gatekeepers" — lawyers, analysts and accountants.

The panelists agreed that if corporations are to properly serve the public's interest, they must be built on solid ethical ground. In fact, when asked if businesses can do the right thing and still be successful, all panelists answered with an emphatic "yes."

"The mark of a successful company is its ability to do things ethically," said Christopher Driesbach, chair of the College of Notre Dame's Philosophy Department.

Josh Newberg, a business ethics professor at the University of Maryland, agreed. "Good ethics is good business," he said.

According to Lundy, it all starts at the top. "If a CEO establishes an environment that is seen as being ethical," he said, "you get a system that is self-righting."

The panel also included Joseph Haskins, CEO of Harbor Bank of Maryland; and Maury Weinstein, president and founder of System Source. Marc Steiner, executive vice president of WYPR Radio and executive producer of "The Marc Steiner Show," moderated the event.