It may sound like an oxymoron to some – talking about ethics in the corporate context in a world still reeling from the excessive greed that led to the financial crisis of 2008.  But less than three years later, CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) has become the newest buzzword in business schools, multinational enterprises and at international conferences.

The latest gathering to address the subject took place in Geneva (June 30-July 1) at the Global Ethics Forum, bringing together academics and CEOs from some 20 countries in Europe, Africa, Latin America and Asia and at least one government representative, France’s Ambassador for Bioethics and Corporate Social Responsibility, Michel Doucin.

Forum organizer Christoph Stuckelberger of Globethics.net in Switzerland opened the discussion by listing some current management theories: “managing by objectives - or by nepotism or favoritism. Then there’s ‘management by helicopter’ - you fly in as a CEO, make a lot of dust and you disappear.  (Today) we’re talking about management by ethical values as the basis for guiding a company.”

Stuckelberger said the biggest challenge is the tension between profit and ethics. “How do we deal with this not only on good days but also on bad days?  It’s easy to be ethical when you have a good growth rate but what do we do in times of crisis and social challenge?”

During the two-day forum, participants attended workshops on the role of government, the private sector, business schools and NGOs on the importance of implementing ethical values in all these sectors.  Most agreed that respecting human rights and the environment and stamping out corruption are the best ways to have long-term sustainability for the economy as a whole instead of short-term gain for a few.

Jacques Spelkens, head of social innovation at the French utility giant, GDF Suez, believes CSR policies enhance a company’s reputation which can give them a competitive edge.  He cited the example of how GDF landed an important natural gas contract in Australia even though their bid was more expensive than others because it included measures to protect the environment and the local community.

Even emerging countries are taking the subject seriously.  S.D. Shibulai, a co-founder of Infosys, the largest IT company in India, told the gathering that Infosys has a mandatory ethics training program for all employees in the 32 countries where it operates and a policy of zero tolerance for ethical violations.

Despite the earnest and positive presentations given by the likeminded individuals at the forum, resistance to the word ‘ethics’ was indicated in the first global survey on business ethics, presented by Dean Rossouw, CEO of the Ethics Institute of South Africa.

He noted that in some parts of the world, respondents preferred terms other than 'business ethics', such as 'corporate social responsibility', 'corporate sustainability' or 'corporate social investment'.  “It seems the ‘E’ word is still not always mentioned in corporate circles,” he said.