Booz Allen: Ethics is Good for the Bottom Line

When Business Ethics magazine shows that socially responsible investments perform better, the world might say, well, of course *you* would say that!

But now, a study from well-rated mainstream consulting firm Booz Allen Hamilton, in partnership with the Aspen Institute:

"Among financial leaders - public companies that outperform their industry averages - 98% include ethical behavior/integrity in their values statements, compared with 88% for other public companies. Far more of these financial leaders include commitment to employees (88% vs. 68%), honesty/openness (85% vs. 47%) and drive to succeed (68% vs. 29%). Forty-two percent of the financial leaders emphasize adaptability in their values statements, compared with a mere 9% for other public companies."

I love this, because it gives hard numbers from the core of the business community that validate my claim in Principled Profit: Marketing That Puts People First that businesses with high ethical standards can be more profitable. this is not a fringe phenomenon, in other words, but a core principle of business success. Thanks, folks!

The study press release is at http://www.csrwire.com/print.cgi?sfArticleId=3511 and contains several more passages of interest.

I also followed a link from the press release to the Aspen Institute and was delighted to discover the many streams of fascinating work they're involved in. Too few of these brilliant initiatives make the news.