Caux Round Table for Moral Capitalism
Who We Are The Caux Round Table for Moral Capitalism (CRT) is an international network of principled business leaders and professionals working to promote a moral capitalism. The CRT advocates implementation of its Principles for Business through which principled capitalism can flourish and sustainable and socially responsible prosperity can become the foundation for a fair, free, and transparent global society. The CRT seeks to be ahead of the learning curve as how to optimize the manifold benefits of capitalism for the well-being of humanity. The stakeholder ethic articulated in the 1994 CRT Principles for Business in 2019 were affirmed by the World Economic Forum and the US Business Roundtable. The CRT’s Principles for Business are explained in the book Moral Capitalism. The CRT asserts that Moral Capitalism is more than public reporting of downstream externalities and impacts of firm business models, more than concern for the environment and global warming, and more than providing public goods via private market transactions. Moral Capitalism is management of responsible wealth creation. Moral Capitalism makes explicit the role of the Moral Sense in business decision-making. It is “self-interest considered upon the whole”, a systems approach to sustainable firm prosperity in sustainable societies. The CRT has designed a more comprehensive theory of the firm which incorporates the application of social and human capitals in addition to financial capitals. When returns are paid by the firm for use of these new, intangible, forms of capital, the firm places enterprise value on stakeholders. Dialogues with religious leaders and academics has confirmed that the CRT Principles for Business are compatible with all of humanity’s major wisdom traditions. Understanding that modern civilization is an interdependent partnership among the three sectors of business, government, and civil society, the CRT formulated ethical principles for government and civil society institutions to provide for social and political environments which would permit a Moral Capitalism to flourish. At the company level, the CRT advocates implementation of its Principles for Business as the cornerstone of principled business leadership. The CRT Principles apply fundamental ethical norms to business decision-making. A specially designed process for incorporating the Principles into the culture of a corporation is available for companies to use. This assessment tool permits assessment of future returns and risks permitting more reliable valuations of present company worth. Ethical training for corporate boards of directors and new ethics curriculum for business schools have been designed and implemented. Recently, the CRT has proposed a re-conceptualization of “capital” to include intangible assets such as social and human capitals. The CRT has in tandem proposed a modernization of valuation methodology to incorporate consideration of social, human and natural capitals in financial analysis, planning and reporting. The principal methodology employed by the CRT is a unique open-ended, round table facilitation of discernment, an invitation to honest conversations created by Initiatives for Change (formerly Moral Re-Armament) at Mountain House, Caux, Switzerland. Brief History The CRT was founded in 1986 by Frederick Phillips, former President of Philips Electronics and Olivier Giscard d’Estaing, former Vice-Chairman of INSEAD, as a means of reducing escalating trade tensions. At the urging of Ryuzaburo Kaku, then Chairman of Canon, Inc., the CRT began focusing attention on the importance of global corporate responsibility in reducing social and economic threats to world peace and stability. The CRT Principles for Business were formally launched in 1994 and presented at the U.N.’s World Summit on Social Development in 1995. The CRT Principles for Business articulate a comprehensive set of ethical norms for businesses operating internationally and across multiple cultures. The CRT Principles for Business emerged from a series of dialogues during the late 1980s and early 1990s. They are the product of collaboration among executives from the U.S., Europe and Japan 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 and utilized in business school curricula worldwide. The Principles are recognized by many as the most comprehensive statement of responsible business practice ever formulated by business leaders, for business leaders. Subsequently, the CRT through its round tables published ethical principles for Moral Government, ethical principles for the ownership of wealth, ethical principles for civil society institutions, a personal commitment for business leaders to promote the Sustainable Development Goals, a statement on the moral vision of the Abrahamic religions, a joint statement on Qur’anic support for Catholic social thought, a statement on the ethics of immigration and resettlement, a report on the covenants of the Prophet Muhammad to respect and protect Christian communities. The CRT publishes a monthly newsletter, Pegasus. Chairs of the Caux Round Table have been Winston Wallin, Chairman and CEO of Medtronic; George Vojta, Vice-Chairman of Banker’s Trust, Lord Daniel Brennan, QC; Noel Purcell of Westpac Bank, Sydney, Robert MacGregor. The current Chair is Brad Anderson, former CEO and Vice Chairman of Best Buy, Inc.

Purpose

The Caux Round Table for Moral Capitalism is an international network of experienced business leaders who work with business and political leaders to design the intellectual strategies, management tools, and practices to strengthen private enterprise and public governance to improve our global community. We make the case for Moral Capitalism.

Stephen Young

Global Executive Director, Caux Round Table for Moral Capitalism

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