When Good Companies Do Bad Things

WHEN GOOD COMPANIES DO BAD THINGS:
RESPONSIBILITY AND RISK IN AN AGE OF GLOBALIZATION
by Peter Schwartz and Blair Gibb

"The notion of corporations taking on social issues for the greater good is gaining
momentum, not only because of political correctness but because it can strengthen a
company's long-term strategy. Peter Schwartz and Blair Gibb examine well-known cases of
companies like Shell, Nike, Texaco, and Nestle, illustrating the huge financial risks of
corporate assumptions that lead many companies to make poor choices. When Good
Companies Do Bad Things explores the strategic relationship between know-how and
integrity, demonstrating how companies that do not embrace the deeper meanings of these
terms can jeopardize their own reputations and future prosperity. The authors present new
approaches that demonstrate how it is possible to translate social value into business value."


"A good reputation is certainly an asset for any company, but to a public that has raised
its expectations of business' responsibility to society, being good just isn't good enough.
More than public relations posturing or kowtowing to political correctness, social
responsibility in corporations is proving essential to the long-term success of companies in
today's globalized economy. Businesses must now contend with a globalized public that is
increasingly aware of business' obligations to society and expects a level of accountability
that most companies cannot meet. Good companies must go beyond merely being good -
they must have integrity and a strategy aligned with it.

"Integrity in business has traditionally meant being honest, upright, and ethical, but in
response to globalization, companies are being forced to move beyond this definition and
add to it another fundamental quality - integration with society. Corporations must anticipate
and respond directly to the demands of public opinion rather than waiting for government
intervention, mediation, and regulation to force them into action. When Good Companies Do
Bad Things explores the strategic relationship between know-how, integrity, and integration,
demonstrating how companies that fail to embrace the deeper meanings of these terms
jeopardize their reputations and future prosperity.

"Peter Schwartz, author of The Art of the Long View, and Blair Gibb recount well-known
cases of companies like Shell, Nike, Texaco, and Nestle, companies that found themselves
facing accusations of hazardous environmental practices, racism in the workplace, and
human rights violations. To themselves and the corporate world they were each considered
good companies, until they were blindsided by issues on which large segments of the public
felt that their trust had been violated. Schwartz and Gibb present new approaches to avoid
the financial pitfalls of bad corporate assumptions and enable good companies to make
good on translating social value into business value.

CONTENTS
Acknowledgments
Preface
Introduction
1 Social Responsibility in the Context of Globalization
2 Business as Villain: A Historical Overview
3 Corporations Today
Royal Dutch /Shell
Unocal
Nestle
Texaco
Union Carbide
Nike
A. H. Robins
Stepping Over the Line
Summary: Phases of a Crisis
4 Risk Management or Scenario Thinking?
The Nike Business Idea
5 Best Practice - and Beyond
What Is Best Practice?
Beyond Best Practice
6 Reperceiving Social Responsibility
Steps in the Reperceiving Process
Cheap Labor and Competition - Race to the Bottom?
Environmentalism
Equal Employment /Racial and Gender Issues
When Bad Countries Happen
7 Business, Governments, and Nongovernmental Organizations
NGOs in the New World
Governments in the Globalized Economy
The Media-Turning up the Heat
8 Issues of the Future
9 New Stories
10 Getting Personal
Stop and Think
Identify Your Opportunities
join Your Colleagues
Seek Out Epiphanies
Use Your Learnings
Continue the Process
11 Why Good Companies Do Bad Things
Appendix
Notes
Index

ABOUT THE AUTHORS
"PETER SCHWARTZ is Chairman of the Global Business Network and author of the
bestselling The Art of the Long View. He is the former head of scenario planning at Royal
Dutch/Shell in London and directed the Strategic Environment Center at SRI International.

"BLAIR GIBB is a GBN principal, former planning officer at Amnesty International's
London headquarters, an international trade specialist, and poet."


1999, 194 pages. Order #DR436, $30.95.

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