Palm | Kelapa Sawit

"Prakash is one of those slightly hidden gems in corporate responsibility," wrote Toby Webb, the founding editor of Ethical Corporation magazine, on his blog last week, referring to Prakash Sethi.

Prakash is president of non-profit think-tank Sethi International Center for Corporate Accountability, Inc. and University Distinguished Professor at Zicklin School of Business, Baruch College/CUNY, New York. He is also advisor to a large number of international organisations and companies.

Toby says he recently spent almost a day with Prakash discussing corporate responsibility, taped a podcast on 'the business case for NGO accountability' and asked him to talk to the class he teaches.

A couple of months ago I had the opportunity to speak with Prakash over the phone for my feature on ethics of takeovers for Ethical Corporation. It was a lengthy conversation, mostly listening to his beautifully articulated and passionate views on the ethical issues involved in takeovers (Kraft's takeover bid for Cadbury was the trigger).

But the conversation left me frustrated. I had a limit of 2,000 words for the feature. I was tempted to include every word Prakash said in response to my questions- what he said was so powerful. But couldn't. If I did, I would have ended up writing a mini-book on takeovers. So I had to reluctantly settle to using only some of his quotes, something that space-constrained mag writers often are forced to do. I haven't apologized to him yet. What a pity!

So, don't miss this podcast with Prakash Sethi. He is a rare thought leader on responsible business.