Business and Professional Ethics Journal

Volume 33, Issue 2/3, Summer 2014

Steve Williams
Pages 177-190

Do Corporations Go to Heaven When they Die?
Remarks from the Vincentian Business Ethics Conference, Corporate Plenary Session November 2013

This paper consists of the text of a key-note address to the Vincentian Business Ethics Conference in Chicago in 2013. The content is substantially as delivered; some few ad hoc comments have been removed to preserve consistency of meaning in a printed text. The speech is presented by a senior executive of a number of FTSE listed firms. It offers his insights into the 2007 / 8 financial crisis and some retrospective interpretations of both ‘what’ happened and ‘how’ this changed things. These insights, and some clear criticisms, are complemented with his suggestions for a way to reconstruct business in society less unsustainably.