The Caux Round Table is an international organization of senior business executives aiming to promote ethical business practices. It was founded in 1986 by

Frits Philips Frederik Jacques "Frits" Philips (16 April 1905 – 5 December 2005) was the fourth chairman of the board of directors of the Dutch electronics company Philips, which his uncle and father founded. For his actions in saving 382 Jews during the Naz ...

, president of

Philips Koninklijke Philips N.V. (), commonly shortened to Philips, is a Dutch multinational conglomerate corporation that was founded in Eindhoven in 1891. Since 1997, it has been mostly headquartered in Amsterdam, though the Benelux headquarters i ...

, and Olivier Giscard d'Estaing, along with Ryuzaburo Kaku, president of

Canon Canon or Canons may refer to: Arts and entertainment * Canon (fiction), the conceptual material accepted as official in a fictional universe by its fan base * Literary canon, an accepted body of works considered as high culture ** Western ca ...

. Frits Philips had been alarmed to hear from reliable sources that the Japanese were dumping their products on the Western market and he feared a growing trade war. He saw the need for trust-building between international executives and for Corporate Social Responsibility practices. The CRT’s Principles for Business were published in 1994, incorporating Western concepts (human dignity...) and Japanese ones (kyosei, interpreted as “living and working together for the common good”). An international code of good practices authored by senior industrialists from diverse backgrounds is considered noteworthy in the present context. It was presented at the UN Social Summit in Copenhagen in 1994. It has since become a standard work, translated into 12 languages, and has been used as the basis for internal ethical assessments by international companies such as Nissan. The CRT primarily engages in an annual meeting and the publication of guides for various types of organizations. Every three years, the annual meeting is held at

Caux, Switzerland Caux (Montreux) is a small village in the Canton of Vaud, Switzerland which is part of the Montreux municipality. It looks out over Lake Geneva from an altitude of 1000 meters. Overlooked by the Rochers de Naye summit (2000 meters), the Caux ar ...

, where the original initiative took place in 1986.http://hrlibrary.umn.edu/instree/cauxrndtbl.htm Caux Round Table Principles for Business Its chief executive is Stephen B. Young, it has set up chapters in many regions of the world. Stephen. B. Young is the Global Executive Director of the Caux Round Table, an international network comprising experienced business leaders who promote a principled approach to global capitalism. He has published Moral Capitalism, a book written as a guide to the use of the Caux Round Table ethical and socially responsible Principles for Business. In 2008, Prof. Sandra Waddock of the Carroll School of Management of Boston College listed Young among the 23 persons who created the corporate social responsibility movement in her book The Difference Makers. For the Caux Round Table, Young has partnered with scholars at the International Islamic University of Malaysia to formulate interpretations of guidance from the

Qur'an The Quran (, ; Standard Arabic: , Quranic Arabic: , , 'the recitation'), also romanized Qur'an or Koran, is the central religious text of Islam, believed by Muslims to be a revelation from God. It is organized in 114 chapters (pl.: , s ...

for governance highlights the alignment between Qur'anic teachings and the global standards advocated by the Caux Round Table.

References

{{Authority control International business organizations