What’s Up?
European Literati Club Lauds
Harrington for Lifetime
Contributions
Dr. H. James Harrington, former board member of
AQP and former president of the American Society for
Quality, was honored on April 11 in London by the
European Literati Club with the presentation of a
lifetime achievement award at the club’s annual
Literati Award for Excellence ceremony. The award was
given in recognition and honor of Harrington’s
literature contributions to the advancement of quality
and organizational performance.
Harrington’s award was based upon his many
technical papers, monthly column in Quality
Digest, publications in European journals, articles
and columns in AQP publications, CD-ROMs he has produced,
and numerous books he has authored.
Harrington retired as COO from Systemcorp in January 2002
and now is the chief executive officer of the newly
formed Harrington Institute (www.harrington-institute.com)
with offices in San Jose, California; Orlando, Florida;
and Ottawa, Canada.
Good Guys Are Prospering: “100 Best
Corporate Citizens” Outperform S&P 500
Peers
Socially responsible behavior pays off on the bottom
line. That’s the conclusion of research based on
Business Ethics’ 100 Best Corporate Citizens
list, which shows the financial performance of these
companies was “significantly better” than
others in the S&P 500, according to researchers at De
Paul University in Chicago. That’s good news for
the companies on this year’s list, released (April
22, 2002) by Business Ethics magazine.
The ranking is based on quantitative measures of
corporate service to seven stakeholder groups:
- stockholders,
- employees,
- customers,
- the community,
- the environment,
- overseas stakeholders, and
- women and minorities.
The top five companies for 2002, in rank order,
are:
1.
IBM,
2. Hewlett-Packard,
3. Fannie Mae,
4. St. Paul Companies, and
5. Procter &
Gamble.
Twenty-six firms made their first appearance on the
list this year. Newcomers include: Bank of America (15),
Lucent Technologies (17), and Federal Express (22). For
the complete list see www.business-ethics.com
.
The cutting-edge practices of these firms offer
model business strategies in areas ranging from layoffs
and sweatshops to predatory lending and the environment.
These firms show there are better ways to handle these
issues than the ruthless practices that are too often the
norm.
- Fannie Mae (3) with its $2 trillion program, the
American Dream Commitment, aims to increase home
ownership rates for minorities, new immigrants, young
families, and those in low-income communities. In 2001,
more than 51 percent of Fannie Mae’s financing
went to low- and moderate-income households. “It
is our goal to keep expanding our reach to impaired
borrowers and to help lower their costs,” said
Barry Zigas, senior vice president in Fannie
Mae’s National Community Lending
Center.
- Avon (10) ensures employees at its suppliers have
the best working conditions possible. All Avon
factories and suppliers—both domestically and
abroad—must pass an audit based on Social
Accountability 8000 standards covering issues like
employee safety, wages, and the right to join
unions.
The 100 Best Corporate Citizens story appeared in
the March/April issue of Business Ethics, which
for 15 years has been the premier publication for the
movement to bring greater social responsibility into
business. Free sample issues and subscriptions can be
obtained by calling 612-879-0695. For more information,
plus full list and story, see www.business-ethics.com
.
(Statistical analysis for the list was done by
Sandra Waddock and Samuel Graves of the Carroll School of
Management at Boston College in Chestnut Hill, MA. Social
ratings were provided by KLD Research & Analytics of
Boston, a research firm serving socially responsible
investors.)
Benchmarking and Performance Improvement
Resource
The Benchmarking and Performance Improvement
Resource Web site at http://www.theBPIR.com was developed
by the Centre for Organizational Excellence Research
(COER), Institute of Technology and Engineering, Massey
University in New Zealand. The site’s uniqueness
stems from how all the information within the site can be
viewed through a choice of business excellence models
(Baldrige, European Business Excellence Model, APQC
Classification Framework, etc.) and its extensive
collection of performance measures, benchmark data,
improvement tools, and best practice case studies
covering all aspects of organizational improvement.
Membership includes full access to over 600 business
periodicals.
Partners in developing the resource include
Industry Week, Cranfield’s Centre for
Business Performance, Global Benchmarking Network,
Emerald Library, Proquest, and many more that have
enabled COER to provide leading-edge information and
articles from around the globe.
For more information contact Dr. Robin Mann,
director, Centre for Organizational Excellence Research,
Institute of Technology and Engineering, Massey
University via e-mail at R.S.Mann@massey.ac.nz
.
Return to
top
June 2002 News for
a Change Homepage
High Impact Consulting— Getting Real
Results
