Archive

Archive for December, 2011

Dec
31

As we begin a new year, we are pleased to announce our Thought Leaders Series on Trust Across America radio on the Voice America radio network.

Each month we will introduce a new theme, and the first Wednesday (from noon-1PM EST) will feature a one-hour interview with a leading expert on that month’s subject.

We are honored to be presenting this exceptional group to our listeners.

 

 

JANUARY “Values Based Leadership”

January 4

Dov Seidman

For almost two decades, Dov Seidman’s pioneering organization, LRN, has helped some of the world’s most respected companies build “do it right,” winning cultures and inspire principled performance throughout their organizations. Seidman’s distinct vision of the world, business, and human endeavor has helped enable more than 15 million people doing business in more than 120 countries to out behave the competition. Dov Seidman shares his unique approach with you in the now updated and expanded HOW. It includes a new Foreword from President Bill Clinton and a new Preface from Dov Seidman on why how we behave, lead, govern, operate, consume, engender trust in our relationships, and relate to others matters more than ever and in ways it never has before.

 

FEBRUARY  “The Character of Business”

February 1

Michael Josephson

One of the nation’s most sought-after and quoted ethicists. Founder and president of Josephson Institute and its Character Counts! project, Josephson has conducted programs for more than 100,000 leaders in government, business, education, sports, law enforcement, journalism, law, and the military.

 

MARCH  “Researching Trust in Business”

March 7

Dean Krehmeyer

Executive Director Business Roundtable Institute for Corporate Ethics, Krehmeyer’s contribution bridges the corporate and academic worlds, ensuring that leading research about trust gets translated into practice—and that leading practice becomes ingrained into academic research. He is the co-author of “Breaking the Short-Term Cycle: Discussion and Recommendations on How Corporate Leaders, Asset Managers, Investors, and Analysts Can Refocus on Long-Term Value.”

 

APRIL  “Growing Healthy Companies”

April 4

Patrick Lencioni

A New York Times bestselling author, speaker and consultant with over two decades of experience working with CEOs and their executive teams. Lencioni is founder and president of The Table Group, a consulting firm dedicated to building healthy organizations. He is the author of many bestselling books including The Five Dysfunctions of a Team, which continues to be a weekly fixture on national bestseller lists; his books have sold over two and a half million copies. His latest book, released in March, is The Advantage: Why Organizational Health Trumps Everything Else In Business.

 

MAY To be announced

May 2 

 

JUNE “The Ethics of Business”

June 6

Chris Macdonald

Writer, speaker and consultant on ethics, Macdonald teaches business ethics at Saint Mary’s University in Halifax, Canada, and is a Nonresident Senior Fellow at Duke University’s Kenan Institute for Ethics. He is currently a Visiting Scholar at the Rotman School of Management.

 

JULY “Radical Management”

July 4 Holiday

July 11

Stephen Denning

Denning consults with organizations in the United States, Europe, Asia, and Australia on topics of leadership, management, innovation and business narrative. Born in Sydney, Australia, Denning studied law and psychology at Sydney University. After doing a post-graduate law degree at Oxford University, he joined the World Bank where he worked for several decades in various management capacities, including Program Director of Knowledge Management from 1996-2000. He is the author of eight books, including The Leader’s Guide to Radical Management:

His most recent book is The Leader’s Guide to Radical Management: Reinventing the Workplace for the 21st Century.

 

AUGUST  “Corporate Reinventors”

August 1

Jason Jennings

The bestselling author of four highly acclaimed leadership and management books—Hit the Ground Running; Think Big, Act Small; Less Is More; and It’s Not the Big That Eat the Small . . . It’s the Fast That Eat the Slow. USA Today named him one of the three most in-demand business speakers, alongside Jim Collins and Tom Peters. His latest book is Reinventors: How Extraordinary Companies Pursue Radical Continuous Change (August 2012.)

 

SEPTEMBER “The Ethics of Leadership”

September 5

Paul Root Wolpe, PhD

The Asa Griggs Candler Professor of Bioethics, the Raymond F. Schinazi Distinguished Research Chair in Jewish Bioethics, a Professor in the Departments of Medicine, Pediatrics, Psychiatry, and Sociology, and the Director of the Center for Ethics at Emory University.  Dr. Wolpe also serves as the first Senior Bioethicist for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), where he is responsible for formulating policy on bioethical issues and safeguarding research subjects.

He has won the World Technology Network Award in Ethics, has been featured in a TED talk, and was profiled in the November, 2011 Atlantic Magazine as a “Brave Thinker of 2011.” Dr. Wolpe is a frequent contributor and commentator in both the broadcast and print media, recently featured on 60 Minutes and with a personal profile in the Science Times of the New York Times.

 

OCTOBER To be announced

October 3

 

NOVEMBER To be announced

November 7

 

DECEMBER  “Implementing Corporate Trust”

December 5

Stephen M.R. Covey

Cofounder and CEO of CoveyLink Worldwide. Covey is a sought-after and compelling keynote speaker, author, and advisor on trust, leadership, ethics, and high performance, who speaks to audiences around the world. A Harvard MBA, he is the former CEO of Covey Leadership Center, which under his stewardship became the largest leadership development company in the world.

His latest book is Smart Trust: Creating Prosperity, Energy, and Joy in a Low-Trust World.

 

For more information, please visit our website at www.trustacrossamerica.com

or email barbara@trustacrossamerica.com

Dec
20

 Trust Across America™, a think tank dedicated to unraveling the complexities of trustworthy business behavior, today announced the results of its second annual study of almost 2500 public companies, naming Smithfield Foods as the Most Trustworthy Public Company for 2011. Barbara Kimmel, Executive Director states: “Smithfield Foods looks to be somewhat of a “reinvention” as its score rocketed from 2010.” According to the company website, its motto is “Good Food Responsibly®. We remain 100 percent committed to environmental leadership, community involvement, employee safety, animal care and high-quality food.”

 The Trust Across America study independently analyzes over 200 data points with respect to five key corporate indicators of trustworthy business behavior: Financial stability and strength, Accounting conservativeness, Corporate integrity, Transparency, and Sustainability, aptly called FACTS™. Companies do not participate in the analysis. The framework, initially conceived and developed in 2008 with a group of academics, corporate leaders and consultants, is “the most holistic and comprehensive trust “health” checkup for public companies,” according to its founders. Kimmel points out that “There is lots of work to be done for those companies choosing to make trust a high priority. No company is perfect, nor did any receive a score of “100.” In fact, even the top ranked companies did not break 90. But we were pleased to see the average score rise this year from 2010.”

The following is a ranked list of the Top 10 Most Trustworthy Companies in America 2011

#1 Smithfield Foods (SFD), a global food company (www.smithfieldfoods.com)

#2 Xcel Energy (XEL), a regional supplier of electric power and natural gas (www.xcelenergy.com)

 #3 Nike, Inc. (NKE), a global marketer of athletic footwear, apparel and equipment (www.nikeinc.com)

 #4 Dole Food Company (DOLE), the world’s largest producer of high quality fruits and vegetables (www.dole.com)

#5 Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), a semiconductor design innovator (www.amd.com)

#6 Allergan (AGN), a global technology-driven multi-specialty healthcare company (www.allergan.com)

#7 Temple-Inland (TIN), a low-cost corrugated packaging and building products company (www.templeinland.com)

#8 Herman Miller (MLHR), a designer and manufacturer of furniture (www.hermanmiller.com)

#9 Texas Instruments (TXN), a developer of analog, digital signal processing, and semiconductor technologies (www.ti.com)

#10 Lexmark International (LXK), a provider of printing and imaging products and software solutions (www.lexmark.com)

 “We are pleased to see two companies, Texas Instruments and Lexmark International on our “Top 10” for two years in a row,” stated Kimmel. “It’s all about corporate culture. While most CEO’s aspire to run trustworthy companies, most don’t know where to start.” Trust Across America™ provides key analytical tools to begin the journey.” Frank Sonnenberg, author of the newly released book Managing with a Conscience (2nd ed.) agrees. “If businesses are to thrive in the global marketplace, they must be able to outshine the competition in critical areas such as trust. In fact, trust must be more than something that is talked about; it must be at the core of everything that is done. Trust is not an abstract, theoretical, idealistic goal forever beyond our reach. Trustworthy business behavior MUST become a priority.”

Trust Across America (TAA) is a program of Next Decade, Inc., an award-winning firm that has been unraveling and simplifying complex subjects for over 20 years. TAA provides a framework for public companies to improve trustworthy business practices through detailed individual company reports, industry and sector analyses, and an index of its data.TAA also provides a variety of media opportunities to highlight companies and leaders exhibiting high levels of trust and integrity.

For more information on this topic, or to schedule an interview with Barbara Kimmel, please call (908) 879-6625 or email barbara@trustacrossamerica.com