I’ve been in Berlin this week, visiting with Transparency International, SAP’s CSR team including James Farrar, Redmonk’s James Governor and SAP solutions architect Thomas Otter. ‘Our’ side of the team presented on the value that using Web 2.0 technologies might bring this NGO. Since I know they have a stronger focus on government than business, I was keen to emphasize the role Richard Murphy has played in shaping opinion around the non-dom tax issue and how that has changed since he started blogging (as an example.) I also spoke about the question of relevance in the wider conversations around topics of importance and especially the ethical debate which I believe is a central issue for the profession. James Governor did an admirable job explaining the value of ‘going open’ with content.
To give you a flavour of what this means, James Farrar recently reported on a meeting he had at the House of Lords and which he entitled Corruption in the UK not UK and WIKILEAKS:
I see corruption as the sharp end of the sustainability debate and a huge, clear and present governance risk for business under current law mostly oriented around the US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act and nation states ratifying the 1997 OECD Convention. Actually, if the corruption problem can be understood and fixed from both demand and supply perspectives a lot of other good things start to fall into place.
Powerful stuff. Cobus de Swardt, TI’s managing director attended. That was a welcome surprise for me because I take it as an indication of how important TI sees new technology in the context of communicating its message and maintaining its influence in the world.
I also met Jermyn Brooks, TI’s director of private sector programmes and who in a past life was with PwC. Jermyn and I had an interesting discussion about one of my pet issues: the Big Four’s litany of failure to exercise their proclaimed public duty as auditors. Jermyn questioned whether the current levels of Big Four partner income are commensurate with the value they deliver. As you might imagine – those were lively conversations.
While I am not entirely aligned with TI’s position on corruption, (I don’t see them as taking as tough a position on business as I’d like) the people I met are first class thinkers making powerful arguments. These topics are intellectually challenging but have the potential to make a huge impact on business and civil society in general. Regardless of our differences, there is no way I was going to pass up the opportunity to share my opinions. TI was gracious in listening and I found the discussions both useful and stimulating.
SAP’s involvement? There are no standard business processes for managing issues around corruption. Working alongside NGOs like TI provides SAP with the necessary insights to do something about that and deliver to some of the world’s most important companies. Regardless of the commercial considerations, that has the potential to be win-win-win for everyone.
TI will now consider what we said. I hope they will choose to act upon the ideas we presented because the issues we skated over are some of the most difficult yet important the profession has to face. Bringing those debates to a wider audience yet being brave enough to risk the inevitable exposure will not be an easy decision.
Technorati Tags: big four, ethics, tax justice, tax research
