ICCA's 2nd International Conference

on

"GLOBALIZATION AND

THE GOOD CORPORATION"

June 26 - 28, 2007

International Center for Corporate Accountability (ICCA) is pleased to announce its Second International Conference to be held at the Newman Vertical Campus of Baruch College in New York City. The general theme of the conference is “Globalization and the Good Corporation.”

This conference will build on the success of ICCA’s First International Conference that was held in May of 2004. The theme of that conference was “Corporate Codes of Conduct for Multinational Corporations: Promises and Challenges.”

The Second Conference will broaden the scope of issues covered under the umbrella theme of “Globalization and the Good Corporation.” Some of the topic areas to be developed include:

GLOBALIZATION AND CORPORATE SOCIAL ACCOUNTABILITY

• Corporate and Industry-based Voluntary Codes of Conduct – A New Form of Corporate Governance and Social Accountability

• Globalization and Human Rights

• Globalization, Outsourcing, and Supply-Chain Management – Issues of Fairness and Distributive Justice

• Impact of Globalization on the Preservation of the Commons

CORPORATE GOVERNANCE AND CORPORATE REPUTATION

• Corporate Reputation in the Age of Globalization: how to build it and how not to lose it

• Corporate Communications, Issue Advertising

• Role of the CEO in Developing CSR Strategy

• Corporate Boards

• National and Regional Perspectives

CORPORATE COMMUNICATIONS, ISSUE ADVERTISING

• Current Trends in CSR-Sustainability Reporting

• Communication Strategies for CSR and Sustainability Issue-Advertising

• Corporate Responsibility and CSR Branding

MANAGING FOR RESULTS

• Corporate Social Performance, Transparency and Accountability

• Global Reporting Initiative

• Certification and Third-Party Compliance Verification

BUSINESS ETHICS, CORPORATE RESPONSIBILITY AND CORPORATE SOCIAL ACCOUNTABILITY

• What are the “moral minimums” that a business/industry must comply with?

• How should ethical standards be created and implemented within the corporation?

• Corporate Culture and Ethical Conduct

• The Role of Corporate Ethics Officers

• The Role of CEO and Corporate Board in Creating an Ethical Environment for Corporate Conduct

TRIPLE BOTTOM LINE - PEOPLE, PLANT, AND PROFIT

• Creating Economic and Financial Values through Sustainable Investing

• Environmental Protection and Sustainable Growth

• Socially Responsible Investing in Emerging Markets

• Alternative Investments – Sustainable Private Equity Funds

CORPORATE GLOBAL CITIZENSHIP

• Corporate Philanthropy and Public Service

• Micro-Credit and Poverty Alleviation

• Community Development – Employee Volunteer Programs

SHAREHOLER ACTIVISM

• NGOs as Activist Shareholders

• Public Employee Pension Funds and Sustainable Investment

• Socially Responsible Outsourcing

• Global Employment Policies, Wages and Working Conditions

• Divestment from Countries with Serious Human Rights Abuses

NGOS AS CIVIL SOCIETY ORGANIZATIONS

• Business – NGO Engagement

• Challenges and Opportunities in Creating Business-NGO Alliances

CASE STUDIES – LEARNING FROM EXPERIENCE

• Case-studies reporting actual experiences of companies, industry groups, and NGOs

• Regional and National Orientations in CSR and Sustainability

FAITH-BASED VALUES AND ETHICAL NORMS

• Impact of Faith-based Values and Ethical Norms on Corporate Conduct

• Role of Religion in Creating Ethical Norms

• Hindu Values in the Context of Indian CSR

GLOBAL INITIATIVES IN CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY AND SUSTAINABILITY

• Global Compact

• The UN Millennium Development Goals

• The World Bank’s Code of Professional Ethics

• European Charter of Fundamental Rights

• UNEP Financial Initiative

Deliverables from the Conference

Selected papers presented at the Conference will be published in the special issues of the following top-tier journals:

Journal of Business Ethics              Notizie de Politeia (Italy)
Business Ethics Quarterly               Transnational Corporations (UNCTAD)            
Business and Society Review             Corporate Governance (UK)            
Global Economy Journal                  Journal of Human Values (India)
Human Rights Quarterly

CSR Network

We are planning to use the occasion of the second conference to create an informal and relatively unstructured network of academically-based "think tanks" and "research centers" from around the world. The goal is to build this network as a means of mutual support in the development of new ideas and projects where we share common interest.

The following centers and organizations have joined ICCA’s CSR Network:

Asian Institute of Management Ramon V. del Rosario, Sr. Center for Corporate Responsibility (Philippines)

Center for Business Ethics, Bentley College (USA)

Coston Family Chair in Leadership and Ethics, Jepson School of Leadership Studies, University of Richmond (USA)

Council for Social Responsible Investment (New Zealand)

Georgetown Business Ethics Institute (USA)

INSEAD

Institut für Kirche und Gesellschaft (Germany)

DePaul University Institute for Business and Professional Ethics (USA)

Institute of Organization and Administrative Science, University of Zurich (Switzerland)

International Business Ethics Institute (USA – UK)

International Labor Rights Foundation (USA)

International Society of Business Ethics and Economics (ISBEE)

Management Centre for Human Values (India)

The Humane Network, University of St. Gallen (Switzerland)

The Randall L. Tobias Center for Leadership Excellence, Indiana University (USA)

Registration Fee

The estimated registration fee for conference participation:

                                     Early Registration           Late Registration
                                    (Before April 16,2007)       (After April 16,2007)
Corporate, Business Industry &
International Ogranizations                 $400                          $475

Academics, NGOs	                          $300	                   $375

Doctorial Students
(with valid student ID)                     $200	                   $250

UN Gala Dinner                               $95                           $95

This fee includes all conference materials, snacks and beverages during coffee breaks and happy hour for three days. We are also planning a formal Gala Dinner to celebrate the success of the conference. However, the fee for attending the Gala Dinner would be in addition to the regular registration fee for the conference.

Financial Support

We have made a commitment to provide partial support for travel-related expenses to NGOs from Third World countries to participate in the conference. We consider this to be our foremost priority. However, our resources are extremely limited. Therefore, we would give first preference to those candidates who are able to finance part of their trip from other sources.

Please Communicate With Us

If you are interested in attending the conference or participating in the conference as a presenter, a session chair, a member of planning committee, or a member of a review committee, please complete and return to us the “Interest Form.” We would be happy to forward you Conference Registration Form as soon as our budget and fees are finalized.

For further inquiries or information, please contact:

Ms. Olga Emelianova
Director for Project Services
International Center for Corporate Accountability, Inc.
Tel.: (646) 312-2230
Fax: (646) 312-2231
Olga_Emelianova@baruch.cuny.edu

By the time the last microphones were turned off and the 300-plus exhausted but excited participants headed to the airports to return to their offices all over the globe, it was clear that the inaugural conference on Voluntary Corporate Codes of Conduct for Multinational Corporations, sponsored by ICCA, the Wharton School and the World Bank, had surpassed expectations as a forum for new ideas on corporate accountability. In addition to having the opportunity to present their strategies for corporate citizenship, the wide range of delegates enjoyed the chance to meet face-to-face with many of the leading figures in business ethics worldwide. Among the many highlights were direct encounters between representatives of multinationals, including Mattel, Disney, and Nike and the organizations set up to monitor them, such as Oxfam, the Fund for Peace (Washington, D.C.), Global Social Compliance (New York, NY) and Investor Responsibility Research Center (Washington, D.C). The information in the presentations was consistently fresh and cutting edge, but it was the discussion sessions that often proved most memorable. The questions were pointed, the exchanges frank and lively. The effect was an experience of transparency on the part of both corporations and scholars that was personal rather than rhetorical. As S. Prakash Sethi, the president of ICCA, commented after the closing session, “By bringing together important spokespersons of involved stakeholders, e.g., corporate and industry representatives, academic experts, and informed scholars, representatives of national and international organizations, and number of civil society, we ensured an open-ended and face-to-face discussion of ideas that helped to destroy many of our pre-conceived notions, and prejudices about the motives of other groups whose views may be inconsistent to those held by us.”

Dr. Sethi adds, “Another important element of the conference was our ability to facilitate participation by NGOs from many poorer and developing countries in Asia, Latin America and Africa. These groups work in the trenches, so to speak, and have first-hand on the ground knowledge and understanding of the issues. And yet their views are seldom heard at similar gatherings because of the financial constraints. ICCA was able to raise sufficient funds from our friends and supporters to facilitate such participation and thereby provided a new and more relevant look to these issues.”

The conference offered an ideally multifaceted, multinational forum for advancing the work many of the participants had already done on voluntary codes of conduct for the labor and environmental practices of major global businesses. Co-hosted by the International Center for Corporate Accountability, Inc. (ICCA), Zicklin School of Business (Baruch College, CUNY), Carol and Lawrence Zicklin Center for Business Ethics Research (The Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania), and the World Bank Institute of the World Bank, the event gathered many of the most prominent civil society organizations devoted to workers’ rights and the environment worldwide. The range of expertise gathered was vast, from economists to legal scholars, environmental scientists, political scientists, engineers, religious leaders and ethicists. The range of topics was also immense, from human rights and working conditions to free speech, socially responsible investing, bribery and corruption, environmental protection and sustainable development and corporate ethics. As the conference progressed through its four days of intense, briskly paced sessions, a sophisticated and practical conversation evolved regarding not only the creation of codes of conduct, but ideas for their implementation and compliance, monitoring, research and ways of disseminating codes through organizations, publications and the media.

It would be impossible to catalogue all the highlights of the multifaceted agenda, but certainly those who attended would be unlikely to forget, for example, the keynote addresses from Mary Robinson, outgoing High Commissioner for Human Rights at the United Nations and former president of Ireland or the candid view of the impact of socially responsible investing by Barbara Krumsiek, CEO of the Calvert Group and a leader in the field. Among the most heated discussions and closely watched sessions were those devoted to labor issues in mainland China as well as environmental issues and the legal details of ensuring compliance to codes of conduct. For the texts of many of the presentations, please see the Publications page of our Web site.

In addition to the sessions and discussions held at the new Baruch College vertical campus in midtown Manhattan, the participants had the opportunity to gather socially at a gala dinner at the United Nations in the delegates’ dining room. In keeping with the locale, the conversation at the gala and throughout the conference was global in scope and civil in tone. By the end of the week, with their horizons broadened and the satisfaction of having their views heard and their questions answered, the participants returned to the important work of advancing the implementation and enforcement of corporate codes of conduct worldwide.

Responses to the conference have been overwhelmingly positive from these who attended the conference, and also from those who could not attend but had an opportunity to access materials from the conference proceedings. Based on these responses, and also at the urging of various sponsors and supporters, ICCA is giving serious thought of holding a follow-up conference in 2007 or 2008. We would encourage everyone interested to please communicate to us your thoughts and suggestions.

Sethi to Attend Clinton Summit
ICCA President Invited to Conference with Heads of State, Business Leaders

29 August, New York—Prakash Sethi, president and founder of ICCA, is among the world leaders invited to participate in the inaugural Clinton Global Initiative, meeting in New York during September 15 through 17. Sethi will join a star-studded guest list, a who’s who of global power players, including Prime Minister Tony Blair, President Jacques Chirac, Secretary General Kofi Annan, King Abdullah of Jordan, Shimon Peres, Condoleezza Rice, Bill Gates, George Soros, Rupert Murdoch, Henry M. Paulson Jr. (CEO of Goldman Sachs), Jeff Immelt (CEO of General Electric), Charles Holliday (CEO of Dupont), Dick Parsons (CEO of TimeWarner), among other notablesThe historic discussions will focus on four areas: poverty, forging a partnership between the developed and developing world, religious conflicts and reconciliation, the environment and enhancing governance. Fifteen experts at each roundtable session—heads of state and of major multinationals as well as NGOs, and religious organizations—are charged with former President Clinton with offering an action plan for change. Although the event has drawn comparison with the Davos World Economic Forum and other international think tanks of its kind, the host distinguishes its action plan. “If you just want to talk, don’t come,” cautions Clinton. “If you want to make a commitment, come because we’re going to check and see if you did it.”

The four areas of the agenda dovetail particularly well with the recent work of ICCA, which recently has included advising the United Nations Global Compact. As Sethi comments, “This opportunity to present our ideas to major agents of change who are willing to address our most pressing concerns is also one way to realize that what we do is on the leading edge of world issues. When you have the undivided attention of heads of state and major multinationals, change is inevitable.

For more information on the event, including a schedule and list of speakers, visit www.clintonglobalinitiative.org