In this Issue
Business Week featured Costco CEO Jim Sinegal among its six “good CEOs” in a cover story last fall (September 23, 2002). We certainly found him to be one of the good guys when we studied his company and interviewed him for our conversation in this issue (pp. 6 ff.). Sinegal waves off such compliments and insists that most companies and CEOs operate in ways much like Costco. He also insists that keeping prices low and quality and service high for customers and paying out industry leading wages for employees is smart business—not just altruistic ethics. It is hard to argue with Costco’s performance—especially when compared with the general doldrums of the economy.
Business author and consultant, Harold “Bud” Boughton brings us a challenging essay on “Ethical Salespeople: A Key to Economic Recovery” in this issue of Ethix (p. 12). Al’s review of Who Says Elephants Can’t Dance? suggests that we can learn a lot from IBM CEO Lou Gerstner’s experiences. By contrast, Peter Morton’s review of Pastwatch and Gerard Beenen’s review of the film Minority Report take us from the business trenches to the flights of fancy of a couple creative futurists. A staple of the Ethix diet since our inception has been diversity and variety. Sometimes cacophony, sometimes harmony: it is in giving a hearing to multiple voices that we believe wisdom and helpful insight will most likely be found.
Speaking of inception: the Institute for Business, Technology, and Ethics will be five years old on April 13. The magazine was born soon after: Ethix will complete its fifth year of bimonthly publication with the July-August edition (Issue 30) this summer. In recent magazine history, five years of continuous publication is no mean accomplishment. We are very proud of what the magazine has become in terms both of its quality content and its reach and impact.
We are honored to have The TmeTrics Group (www.tmetricsgroup.com) join us as asmall business sponsor this month. The TmeTrics mission is to “combine scientific insights with results-driven strategic thinking to drive quantum improvements in top management team performance.”
Al Erisman
Executive Co-Editor
David W. Gill
Executive Co-Editor