403 - ACGC - The Future of Corporate Responsibility in a Volatile World

Democracy That Delivers

Episode Description

On this week's episode, Alison Taylor, Clinical Associate Professor at NYU's Stern School of Business, joins CIPE’s Regional Director for Asia and the Pacific, John Morrell, to discuss her new book, Higher Ground: How Business Can Do the Right Thing in a Turbulent World. Professor Taylor, who also serves as the Executive Director of Ethical Systems, draws from her professional experience and academic research to explain why modern businesses care about anti-corruption practices, how she's seen ethical compliance change over time, and what the next era of corporate governance should look like.

Our contemporary business environment displays stark differences from those of the past decades. Ethical conduct is now increasingly seen as more than a legal risk around bribery and fraud, as a risk which can be resolved through compliance processes alone. Urgent ecological concerns, unpredictable politics, and heightened employee activism all present business leaders with fresh challenges. Professor Taylor explains that we must now move past entrenched legalistic approaches and into broader conversations about human behavior in organizations and how companies should best exist in their social contexts.

These new approaches follow the same collective action and sustainability models so often practiced by CIPE and our local partners. In her view, business interests have much to learn from anticorruption and development organizations on how to best operate in a world where transparency can be more important than profit. Listen as John and Alison exchange insights for our evolving world.

Professor Taylor