Business Ethics Week explores how to balance profit, principles

From Nov. 2 to 5, San Francisco State University's College of Business will celebrate its 10th annual Business Ethics Week by featuring speakers from top local companies to discuss the challenging ethical dilemmas organizations face today.

Business Ethics Week focuses on ethical business practices, such as legal compliance, sustainability, equality and the treatment of women in business settings. Its lectures and activities -- by representatives from companies including Clorox, Lyft and Clif Bar -- are free and open to the campus and greater San Francisco community. Events will take place at the J. Paul Leonard Library, room 121, on SF State's main campus and at the Downtown Campus, room 597.

Associate Professor of Management Denise Kleinrichert, who leads the Business Ethics Week planning committee, believes the speaker series enriches students' understanding of the multi-dimensional business environment.

"We want students to take away the fact that business is not just for profit, that it's about its integrity toward stakeholders too," she said. "Businesses must respect not only their employees but also customers, the general community and the natural environment."

Business Ethics Week speakers from several organizations will address the natural environment. Such lectures as "Clif Bar's Supply Chain and Sustainability," "Sustainability and the Future of Transportation" and "Where Does Your Trash Go? A Sustainability Discussion with Recology" will examine the interactions between enterprise and the environment.

The College of Business faculty recruits speakers by making use of its professional connections throughout the Bay Area business community. The ease with which faculty members are able to recruit presenters speaks to the wealth of influencers who call San Francisco home. Students regularly take advantage of their proximity to Silicon Valley and area tech-industry giants through internships and networking events, and Business Ethics Week offers yet another point of access to the area's world-class business community.

"Being in San Francisco, we have a different sense of innovation, social justice and equality," Kleinrichert said. "Through Business Ethics Week, we have the opportunity to see how those principles interact with business practices from small mom-and-pop shops to large corporations."

For more information, visit the Business Ethics Week website at http://cob6.sfsu.edu/sustainable-center/business-ethics/2015.