Drifting through the magazine rack at a local retailer a couple of days
ago, I saw, in Atlantic Monthly (with Mark Twain on the cover), a full
double page ad for a company called "ABB", with which I am wholly
unfamiliar. The ad informs me, however, that the company is a global
corporation with billions of bucks and thousands of employees (though
I am no clearer as to what they do). The subject of the ad seems of
interest to this forum. It was a discussion of corporate ethics and
globalization, and whether sincere or a cynical propaganda excercise,
it had some interesting things to say. It proclaimed this corporation
a signatory to a UN resolution on global corporate citizenship, and
the ad text contained this approximate quote (from memory): "Putting
bottom line profits ahead of the welfare of society is not just cynical,
it is dangerous". I guess there is some speculation in the board rooms
that there is benefit in gaining an image as a global corporate good guy.
Pete Vincent
