APEsphere is seeking interns

APEsphere.com is seeking media interns. Opportunity to learn about corporate responsibility and green ethical living. #journchat #csr

APEsphere.com has launched

Angela and I are proud to announce that following a year and a half of gestation APEsphere.com launched last week.

You might think the launch date, 20th January 2009, was a touch optimistic, everyone’s attention being drawn to a somewhat larger event in Washington. But we chose the 20th precisely because it was the inauguration day of a US president elected on a platform of Change, and APEsphere is a news and networking organization devoted to bringing about change in the place of business in society.

Capitalism is evolving; profits can no longer come before people or planet. The culture of capitalism is also evolving; people are searching for lives, no longer satisfied with consuming lifestyles.

How we conduct business, who we choose to work for, invest in or buy from - these are choices we should make with full awareness of business impacts and our influence over them.

We believe that news reporting on the role and performance of business should be rebalanced. It isn't enough to report business news from the perspective solely of investors. Business activity also has impacts on customers, employees, families, communities, the natural environment, supply chains and even people who are affected by how others use products they have bought - something we call the "use chain".

APEsphere helps catalyse this change through original reporting (by professional and by you, the citizen journalists), by the sharing of news reported elsewhere, as well as opinion, expert analysis, and dialogue. And on APEsphere you are part of a community, because without community, there can be no collaboration, no concerted action, no change.

APEsphere is not a free-for-all. While there are other sites built on news sharing, none is as focused on the role played by business in our communities and across the world. We promise to moderate the conversation to preserve our focus, and we encourage you to help by keeping to the APEsphere Code.

The CSR Report will shortly be resurrected at its new home on APEsphere.com.

We look forward to your feedback onn the new site, as well as your participation. Just APEmail me once registered.

Welcome to APEsphere, and the path to a new capitalism.

Best wishes

Andrew Newton and Angela Peterson Newton
Co-Founders
APEsphere.com

Mother necessity drags carmakers into our world

#csr:

After years of treating greener cars as a niche market, automakers are indicating that green tech will lead their innovation efforts.

Image courtesy Netsirk3 via Flickr

A new global survey of auto industry executives by consultancy KPMG found that green technologies occupied the top three slots in answers to the question: what are the most important areas for innovation over the next 5 years.

The survey also found that investment in innovation is expected to remain steady during the recession.

Will the US government act as a responsible owner?

#csr:

What kind of owner will the US government be having ploughed $200 billion into private financial institutions?

Image courtesy mashget via Flickr

Against the background of growing interest in responsible investment, the launch of the UN Principles for Responsible Investment, and an increasingly activist institutional shareholder base, we now have a giant walking onto the stage: the US government.

The San Francisco Chronicle article linked here credits the government with having overcome Citigroup's resistance to breaking up its business and asks whether Bank of America may be next in their sights.

This could get even more interesting though. Private financial institutions have been coming under pressure to address their indirect social and environmental impacts, and to varying degrees have heeded that pressure by the publication of appropriate lending policies.

With a progressive government in Washington being forced to take large stakes in major financial institutions, surely there is an opportunity to bring greater balance (read responsibility) to the lending and underwriting decisions of their portfolio companies?

Let's hope that opportunity does not get missed.

Where Satyam breaks from being India's Enron

#csr:

Information Week's Rob Preston interviewed both Enron and Satyam's CEOs a short period of time before their respective falls from grace.

Image courtesy mashget via Flickr

He describes many reasons to distinguish the two cases, but it seems possible to distil it down to this: Enron was led by an arrogant man who built a business consisting of hot air; Satyam was run by a flawed but genuine business builder who leaves behind a still substantial business.

The jury has already returned a verdict in support of the Enron summary. But what will emerge over time regarding Satyam's Ramalinga Raju?

Microsoft: too big to breathe

#csr

Microsoft has lost a complaint brought against it to the European Commission over the company's bundling of Internet Explorer with Windows.

Image courtesy ericandalice via Flickr

Europe has stricter competition law than the US, and the bundling has been held to constitute an abuse of Microsoft's market dominant position in the operating systems market.

Microsoft has been told it has 8 weeks to respond to the decision, after which it must comply with an order to distribute Internat Explorer browser separately from its operating system Windows.

The company previously lost an EU case against its bundling of Windows Media Player with Internet Explorer.

Personally, I find Internet Explorer too slow for my purposes and have converted over completely to using Firefox. Firefox's market share hit 20% last December for the first time. Makes you wonder what it could achieve if the 90% of people who use Windows OS were confronted with an informed choice of browser on Day 1.

Satyam embarrasses corporate governanance award giver

#csr

You might call it the "In Search of Excellence" problem, after one of the first business books to set about the risky task of identifying businesses that stand out above their peers, only to watch them fall to the bottom.

Image courtesy rust.bucket via Flickr

The World Council for Corporate Governance has rescinded the Golden Peacock award for corporate governance it awarded to Indian outsourcers Satyam.

This article asks what can be learned about good governance from the fraud revelations that have engulfed the company.