Ethics and business

The dominant economic and social model leads us to consume more than our planet's available resources, and to suffocate ourselves. It's an unsustainable model.

In this context, companies have a major role to play. It is imperative that we take a step back, reverse our logic and turn profit into a means of serving social cohesion and ecology. Business is not just a machine for producing results for the benefit of shareholders alone; it is also a political institution concerned with the preservation and management of the global commons.

 

This book shows that, far from being limited to sterile moralizing, the ethical approach helps us to make a diagnosis and propose criteria for decision-making and action. To do this, the author draws on theoretical research and field experience, which over the past twelve years has taken her to several countries to meet a wide range of stakeholders: from a senior civil servant in Tamil Nadu to a widow in the Niger Delta, from a sales executive in Mexico to a multinational tax manager in France and an NGO boss in Indonesia. The answers we need to come up with together will certainly come from dialogue and political action, but they also and above all depend on the strength of our convictions and our commitment.

 

Cécile Renouard heads the "CODEV - Companies and Development" research program at the ESSEC Iréné Institute, which assesses the societal performance of companies such as Total in Nigeria, Rio-Tinto Alcan in Ghana, Veolia in India and Danone in Indonesia and Mexico. Professor of social and political philosophy at the Centre Sèvres, she also teaches at the École des Mines de Paris and ESSEC business school. She is the author of several books, including La Responsabilité éthique des multinationales (PUF, 2007), 20 Propositions pour réformer le capitalisme (co-edited with G. Giraud, Flammarion, 2012).