Philip Zimbardo Quotes

Being good is good business

Corporate executives and business owners need to realize that there can be no compromise when it comes to ethics, and there are no easy shortcuts to success. Ethics need to be carefully sown into the fabric of their companies.

It is truly enough said that a corporation has no conscience, but a corporation of conscientious men is a corporation with a conscience.

I have always believed that business should be a force for good.

If a business is not ethical, it will fail, perhaps not right away but eventually.

There is very little evidence that we give a hoot about profit.

Doing good business - being ethical, being transparent, being caring, implementing values in your business - makes a difference, and you make money at the same time.

When you are led by values, it doesn't cost your business, it helps your business.

Businesspeople get a little bit of bad press sometimes. There are a lot of normal and ethical people.

A great business has to have a conscience. You have to know who you are and who you are not.

So much business is based on the belief that we should do whatever we can within legal limits to make as much money as we can. Ben & Jerry's was based on values, and we try to operate a business that not just sells ice cream but partners with all our stakeholders - whether that's suppliers or customers - to bring about a more sustainable world.

Whole Foods Market tries to embody all of the principles of conscious capitalism all the time, but like any person or company, we sometimes fall short.

I think it's important for industry to do well. But I want them to do well and do good at the same time.

Now I know that Wal-Mart's policies do not reflect the best way of doing business and the values that I think are important in America.

American business needs more conscience, not less, whether from religious motivation like Hobby Lobby or from secular intentions.

At Patagonia, making a profit is not the goal because the Zen master would say profits happen 'when you do everything else right'.

We believe responsible business can be profitable business

...it's always been difficult for us to lead an examined life as a corporation. I've always felt like a company has the responsibility to not wait for the government to tell it what to do, or to wait for the consumer to tell it what to do, but as soon as it finds out it's doing something wrong, stop doing it.

Imagine how differently American business would function were our faith in the power of goodness to replace our faith in the power of money. Huge industries would no longer make billions of dollars on activities that diminish the well-being and safety of our children, our health, and our environment, on the pretext that it's "just business." To put money before goodness is idolatry, and the laws of the universe ensure that in the end all idols will fall.

Being a good human being is good business.

Starbucks trying to build a different kind of company around the balance of profitably and benevolence. A social conscience. And that isn't a program it has to be a way of life.

I believe our philosophy of conscious capitalism will eventually be widely adopted primarily because it is a better way to do business, and it creates more total value in the world for all of its stakeholders.

We need to be clear when we venerate entrepreneurs what we are venerating. They are not moral leaders. If they were moral leaders, they wouldn't be great businessmen.

You can't have a healthy society unless you have healthy companies that are making a profit, that are employing people and that are growing.

I think good companies can navigate being public and doing the right things for their customers.