Yvon Chouinard Quotes

I'm less concerned about whether being a good corporate citizen burnishes a company's reputation. That's just an added benefit. I believe it's a responsibility, and there is no negotiating on responsibilities.

Companies and leaders are role models - not just with the business community - but in the broader world.

The history of business has shown that companies usually only regulate themselves if they're forced to by legislation, or out of self-interest - often in the shape of a marketable message that will help sell more products.

Being good is good business

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.

Understanding how your business affects human rights and using that knowledge to shape appropriate policies and practices is crucial to achieving what should be the goal of all corporations - sustainable growth.

There isn't one thing the federal government does that anybody in Big Business would emulate, at least not in the profit sector.

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

Interest in business ethics courses has surged, and student activities at leading business schools are more focused than ever before on making business serve long-term social values.

I pretty much believe, as everyone in the B Team does, that business must succeed beyond the bottom line. More important than profits is how you get to them. Measuring financial earnings and losses only is definitely not enough and has led us astray from creating a better world for all.

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

It is important to remember that all business has an impact on the lives of real people.

Sustainability includes how you run your business, and my bottom line includes how you treat your people. Sustainability starts with your staff.

The question is, do corporate executives, provided they stay within the law, have responsibilities in their business activities other than to make as much money for their stockholders as possible? And my answer to that is, no they do not.

It should be as much the aim of those who seek social betterment to rid the business world of crimes of cunning as to rid the entire body politic of crimes of violence.

We demand that big business give the people a square deal; in return we must insist that when anyone engaged in big business honestly endeavors to do right he shall himself be given a square deal.

Business rests squarely on the law of service. It has for its main reliance truth and faith and justice …. It is one of the greatest contributing forces to the moral and spiritual enhancement of the race.

Leaders must be reminded that Businesses exist for the service of men.

All businesses that create wealth, pay their taxes and comply with the law are, by definition, good companies.

As business leaders, we should not choose between profit or good; rather, we must choose to profit from good. And that requires connecting what we do with a purpose beyond profit - a reason to exist that meets our shared sense of 'doing good.'

We don't have to reinvent the wheel, just go back to what it was in terms of how corporations acted in terms of their collective responsibility just 20 years ago.

Speeches by businessmen on social responsibility...may gain them kudos in the short run. But it helps to strengthen the already too prevalent view that the pursuit of profits is wicked.... There is one and only one social responsibility of business-to...engage in open and free competition without deception or fraud.

I think most corporate executives are good honorable honest men and women who do good work.

Corporate executives need to re-frame their responsibilities to include the interests of all the stakeholders in society at large; not just shareholders, but also employees, the citizens of our communities, and those who care about the environment.

I wear two hats. The one is business and increasing my shareholders' value; the other is social responsibility.