CAUX ROUND TABLE

Presented by Amit Kumar Singh

CAUX ROUND TABLE

The Caux Round Table is an international organization of senior business executives aiming to promote ethical business practice. It was founded in 1986 by Frits Philips, president of Philips. Frits Philips had been alarmed to hear from reliable sources that the Japanese were dumping their products on the Western market and he feared a growing trade war. He saw the need for trust building between international executives and for Corporate Social Responsibility practices. The CRTs Principles for Business were published in 1994, incorporating western concepts (human dignity...) and Japanese ones (kyosei, interpreted as living and working together for the common good). It was presented to the UN Social Summit in 1994. It has since become a standard work, translated into 12 languages, and has been used as basis for their internal ethical assessments by international companies such as Nissan.

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The CRT's principal activities are an annual meeting and the publication of best-practice guides for various types of organization. Every three years, the annual meeting is held at Caux, Switzerland, where the original initiative took place in 1986. Its chief executive is Stephen B. Young; it has set up chapters in many regions of the world. Stephen. B. Young is the Global Executive Director of the Caux Round Table, an international network of experienced business leaders who advocate a principled approach to global capitalism. Young has published Moral Capitalism, a well-received book written as a guide to use of the Caux Round Table ethical and socially responsible Principles for Business. In 2008 Prof. Sandra Waddock of the Carroll School of Management of Boston College listed Young among the 23 persons who created the corporate social responsibility movement in her book The Difference Makers.

CRT PRINCIPLES

The CRT Principles for Business were formally launched in 1994, and presented at the United Nations World Summit on Social Development in 1995. The CRT Principles for Business articulate a comprehensive set of ethical norms for businesses operating internationally or across multiple cultures. The CRT Principles for Business emerged from a series of dialogues catalyzed by the Caux Round Table during the late 1980's and early 1990's. They are the product of collaboration between executives from Europe, Japan, and the United States, and were fashioned in part from a document called "The Minnesota Principles." The CRT Principles for Business have been published in twelve languages, reprinted in numerous textbooks and articles.

PRINCIPLES FOR BUSINESS

The Caux Round Table believes that the world business community should play an important role in improving economic and social conditions. Through an extensive and collaborative process in 1994, business leaders developed the CRT Principles for Business to embody the aspiration of principled business leadership. The CRT Principles for Business are a worldwide vision for ethical and responsible corporate behavior and serve as a foundation for action for business leaders worldwide. As a statement of aspirations, The CRT Principles aim to express a world standard against which business behavior can be measured. The Caux Round Table has sought to begin a process that identifies shared values, reconciles differing values, and thereby develops a shared perspective on business behavior acceptable to and honored by all.

These principles are rooted in two basic ethical ideals: kyosei and human dignity. The Japanese concept of kyosei means living and working together for the common good enabling cooperation and mutual prosperity to coexist with healthy and fair competition. "Human dignity" refers to the sacredness or value of each person as an end, not simply as a mean to the fulfillment of others' purposes or even majority prescription.

PRINCIPLES FOR GOVERNMENTS

It is the responsibility of governments, working with local and international business to see that the essential elements for development are brought into being. The task of developing a poor nation into a prosperous nation will not be achieved unless certain conditions exist. The various steps the poorer nations must take to attract investments are all things that help assure a return on that investment. As the elements are put into place, the opportunities for private business to create new wealth become more and more appealing. The private sector as the producer of goods and services must be able to flourish if a prosperous economy is to be created. Therefore, the Caux Round Table offers the following Principles for Governments in the expectation that better government supporting the entrepreneurial endeavors of socially responsible businesses around the world will generate greater investment of private capital to create more wealth for poor people.

PRINCIPLES FOR NON-GOVERNMENTAL ORGANIZATIONS (NGOS)

Persuaded by experience that a persons moral sense contributes to success in business endeavors, in 1994 the Caux Round Table published its Principles for Business as a world standard against which business behavior could be measured. The CRT Principles do not only reflect a concern with the ways business is done, but also with its objectives. Although the prime responsibility for creating a just society does not lie with corporations, it is the firm belief of the Caux Round Table that corporations can and should make a contribution to this objective, reflecting their role and position in society. In our world it is governments that primarily have a duty to create the fundamental conditions for establishing a better world in terms of the requisite laws, (national) security, health, safety, equity, education, communication, technology, transportation, et cetera. To support governments in this respect and to help them focus on the core elements to do their jobs well the Caux Round Table advocates certain ethical Principles for Government.

PRINCIPLES FOR RESPONSIBLE GLOBALIZATION

Persuaded by experience that a persons moral sense contributes to success in business endeavors, in 1994 the Caux Round Table published certain Principles for Business as a world standard against which business behavior could be measured. After a decade of remarkable economic growth in many parts of the global economy, the Caux Round Table notes that sufficient investment capital has been accumulated that, should it be invested wisely in poor and developing countries, a dramatic reduction in levels of poverty could be achieved for most of humanity. In the stock markets of the world some thirty trillion US dollars are available for equity investment. Trillions more of US dollars are available in short term money markets, in currency markets, and in possible debt financing. There is more liquid capital available to the owners of private business than poor countries could presently absorb into their economies.

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It is the work of others, not primarily that of business, to create the fundamental conditions under which capital can be invested. Bluntly, it is in the first place the task of responsible government to provide for sustained wealth-creation. Business can be called upon to invest responsibly within the framework of the Caux Round Tables Principles for Business once governments erect and sustain the requisite infrastructure of laws, regulations, and physical improvements to transportation and communication. Bad government is a short cut to endemic poverty. Poverty ends when governments and businesses both act responsibly to stimulate wealth creation and the fair distribution of such wealth, each playing their proper part in the development process. As the creators of wealth for society, business, however, has great influence with government. That influence can be used to promote or to subvert principles of responsible globalization.

PRINCIPLES FOR OWNERSHIP OF WEALTH

The Caux Round Table Proposed Principles for The Ownership of Wealth Wealth comes from earning a return on capital human, financial, physical, reputational, social. Current wealth generates future wealth. A necessary use of wealth, therefore, is to ensure the creation of more wealth. Wealth is a form of capital, constituting in particular the flexible ability to use and deploy finance capital. Both individual initiative and social institutions interact to produce all forms of capital, giving to capital a mixed character subject to the authorship claims of both individuals and society. Capital therefore arises out of kyosei, a process of living and working together for a common good.

Further, the highest and best use of any form of capital is to generate additional capital. Capital should not be used to hinder societys ability to create more capital for the benefit of others. Consumption is not the most responsible use of capital.

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