Corporate Responsibility
September 28, 2009 - by AntonThis week, was a very special week at Adelphi University. Two highly reputable guest lecturers emphasized on corporate responsibility, thanks to the Hagedorn lecture series.
Stephen B. Heintz, President of the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, went a lot deeper in his lecture than simply telling young minds to do the right thing. His lecture concentrated on how to help our world reduce pollution and emission of toxic gases into the air. “Private, public, and non-profit sectors must work together in order to save our planet,” he stated. Otherwise, by the next century parts of Manhattan and Long Island will be deep under water due to the rise in the global temperature, not to mention many other parts of the world. The way we can prevent that, Mr. Heintz said, “is to make clean energy cheap, and to make dirty energy expensive.”
Robert B. Willumstad, former Chairman of the Board of AIG spoke about his first-hand experience during the midst of the financial crisis. This was the first time he spoke publicly about what went on at AIG during his 91 days as the leader of the organization. He broke down his career at AIG into days, hours, and even minutes to remind us what happened and what impacts that had on his decisions. “If it was not for my persistence with the Federal Reserve, AIG would have went bankrupt,” Mr. Willumstad said. As soon as he was able to acquire a loan of $85 billion from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, his career ended as the chairman of the firm. He was issued a $22 million severance package from AIG, but he declined it, “I prefer not to receive severance payments while shareholders and employees have lost considerable value in their AIG shares.”
Both speakers inspire corporate responsibility from different perspectives. All companies have responsibility to earth, because without a healthy planet there will be no businesses. In the mean time, individuals must be corporate responsible, because corporate responsibility starts from individual right doing. Being responsible on the personal and corporate level is extremely important, because it directly promotes consumer confidence and trust in you.
