Including a few shots from the NC CEO Forum:
Steve Reinemund, the dean of the Wake Forest University Schools of Business (left), moderates a panel discussion on the Triple Bottom Line, including Vern Davenport from Allscripts, Cynthia Marshall from AT&T North Carolina and Rick McNeel from LORD Corp.
"In today’s world, every employee carries the corporate checkbook everywhere they go," Davenport said during the discussion. "It only takes one person to destroy a company's image." Marshall added: “I tell our employees that we don’t just work here, we live here. People expect us to act like we live here.”
Ben Cohen, a co-founder of Ben & Jerry’s Homemade Inc., uses Oreo cookies to show just how much money the United States invests in military spending, compared to how much is dedicated to causes ranging from education to world hunger.
Cohen would explain that it would only take a relatively small amount of money – or just a few cookies – from the U.S. miliary budget to address many other issues plaguing the country and the world.
This is a photo of my moment in the spotlight, asking the first question after the Ben & Jerry keynote:
“The global need for triple bottom line investment is so extensive. How does a company such as Ben & Jerry's gauge, prioritize and ultimately select where to allocate its time and financial resources? How does the company communicate the need for such allocations to employees and investors?”
Ben and Jerry on stage answering my question. They discussed how employees and investors all have a voice in the company’s selection of causes, whether that includes work on Fair Trade or support for groups such as the Children’s Defense Fund.
A picture with Cree Chairman and CEO Chuck Swoboda, who was perhaps the most-energizing speaker at the event. Yes, my eyes are closed … perhaps the camera was equipped with an LED flash!
“One day you will see incandescent bulbs on a shelf in a museum,” Swoboda said during his keynote, perhaps being replaced by the more-efficient LED lighting being developed and sold by Durham-based Cree. “We listen to what our competitors say we can’t do and basically we just go do that,” he added. On corporate culture: “We look for people who are unafraid of failure but unwilling to fail.”
~ A big thanks to colleague Shonna Brackett for snapping shots throughout the event!
Good coverage!
ReplyDeleteI like 2 of the 3 quotes by Chuck Swoboda.
Talking about incandescent bulbs, I see what he means, but they are already on the shelves of many museums, even in Washington DC nearby.