Transparency starts at the top: a panel of executives discusses what their companies are doing to address the intense focus on corporate ethics.

• Position: Ethics

What are leading companies doing to try to re-formulate and re-emphasize standards of ethical conduct, and make sure that they are enforced from top to bottom? Marc Holland, CEO of Sky Radio Network, recently asked a panel of four corporate executives--uests on Sky Radio--about just what steps they've taken along these lines.

The panel members were: Thomas Nies, founder and CEO of Cincom Systems Inc., a Cincinnati-based software provider; Andrea Bonime-Blanc, Senior Vice President and Chief Ethics and Compliance Officer at Bertelsmann Inc.; Gloria Santona, Executive Vice President, General Counsel and Corporate Secretary for McDonald's Corp.; and George Herrmann, Vice President and Chief Financial Officer at Jefferson Wells International.

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Many of you have a history of developing relationships and trust through programs that reach and influence your stakeholders. Let's start with a sort of history and then move into what you are doing today to build and nurture trust.

Bonime-Blanc: Historically, Bertelsmann has been known as a company that values good governance practices and corporate social responsibility. Reinhard Mohn, who built Bertelsmann into a global media company in the post-war period, is well known for his dedication to the cause of corporate social responsibility. The Bertelsmann Foundation, founded in 1977, is one of the leading foundations in Europe, with a broad array of economic, social, political, educational and health-oriented programs. In 2002, for example, the Foundation awarded the annual Carl Bertelsmann Prize to Transparency International for its outstanding anti-corruption work around the world.

In mid-2001, before Enron and the other scandals hit the headlines, and despite the fact it is not a publicly traded company, Bertelsmann adopted a U.S. Code of Business Conduct for all of its U.S.-based businesses. In conjunction with the launch of this code, the company created a new office--that of chief ethics and compliance officer--which I filled in early 2002. Since then, we have also launched a Canadian Code of Business Conduct and are developing additional international initiatives.

The Ethics and Compliance Department has launched a number of initiatives, including task force hotlines, in cooperation with Bertelsmann's U.S. businesses, which include Random House, BMG Music, G+G USA Publishing, FremantleMedia BeMusic, Bookspan and a number of printing and CD manufacturing businesses.

Nies: Even though Cincom is a private company, we recognize that we have a variety of constituencies or "stakeholders." We ground stakeholder relationships upon three key principles: competence, character and commitment. These constitute Cincom's corporate values and guide our approach to corporate governance and managing the diversity of interests among various constituencies. You'll see these three Cs on our doors, as we constantly...