Globalization that markets have undergone in recent years has transformed and accelerated business, making way for opportunities far beyond what local or cross-border environments could offer before. Access to affordable labor, streamlined communication, ease of travel or ever-widening pool of consumers, among other advantages, have significantly improved business potential and provided organizations with fuel necessary for further growth. And while business people were quick to capitalize on chances created in an increasingly interconnected and interdependent world, they were reluctant, according to some critics, to acknowledge the negative impact globalization has had.  They were also reluctant to actively seek appropriate actions to lessen the burden that this powerful process places on the planet and its inhabitants.  In a bid to blaze the trail for corporations in recognizing and addressing the downsides of globalization, the United Nations came up with the Global Compact initiative that promotes a set of critical values which this all-embracing process keeps putting strains on and which require responsible corporations to stand up for.  Naturally, this raises a politically incorrect question whether adoption of the Compact can be beneficial for business and whether its principles could be incorporated as meaningful part of executive leadership training.  Here is some basic information that can help answer it.

Based on ten key assumptions, the UN Global Compact manages to draw attention to a host of high-profile issues that tend to drift away in day-to-day activity not only from business spotlight, but from public awareness. For instance, the first two principles relate to human rights, compelling organizations to honor international standards in this respect and steer clear of condoning any manifestations of human rights abuse in their practices.  These problems are pressing and inherently global, although all to easy to overlook in Western societies that have moved on in their quest for civil liberties and equality to completely different areas and take a number of more basic laws for granted.  The next set of principles aims at promoting just employment that acknowledges freedom of association, works towards elimination of child labor and compulsory labor and disapproves of all discrimination at the workplace. The last two areas where the UN wishes to see greater involvement of business as a force for good in a global world are environment and a struggle with corruption.   Organizations are urged to, first, apply care and responsibility in their choices that affect the natural world and seek technologies that do less or no harm and to, second, avoid and condemn corruption as a means for achieving economic goals.

It seems corporations, and indirectly executive leadership training, have a role to play here in setting standards for themselves and others to follow in a world deeply affected by globalization and hungry for strategic solutions.