{"id":8014,"date":"2015-04-10T04:00:00","date_gmt":"2015-04-10T04:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/business.cornell.edu\/centers\/2015\/04\/10\/tales-of-a-corporate-idealist\/"},"modified":"2026-07-27T21:21:45","modified_gmt":"2026-07-28T01:21:45","slug":"tales-of-a-corporate-idealist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/business.cornell.edu\/centers\/2015\/04\/10\/tales-of-a-corporate-idealist\/","title":{"rendered":"Tales of a Corporate Idealist"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Christine Bader, author of\u00a0The Evolution of a Corporate Idealist: When Girl Meets Oil<\/em>, delivers 2015 Day Family Ethics Lecture at Johnson<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Christine<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

by Jay Wrolstad<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Corporations can and will do the right thing, says Christine Bader, but that requires executives willing to weigh both profits and principles \u2014 especially when things go wrong \u2014 and patience on the part of those demanding greater social responsibility among the world\u2019s biggest firms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bader, in delivering the 2015 Day Family Ethics Lecture at Johnson on April 7, focused on the findings in her book The Evolution of a Corporate Idealist: When Girl Meets Oil<\/em>. It\u2019s a story about forging an impactful career while recognizing that business must be a part of global solutions, she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That career started in the public sector, including stints in AmeriCorps and the New York City Mayor\u2019s Office, followed by an MBA from Yale and nearly a decade with oil giant BP. More recently, Bader served as an adviser to the United Nations, developing standards that delineate business\u2019 responsibility for human rights.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When she joined BP as an analyst examining the social impacts of the company\u2019s projects in the developing world, Bader said, \u201cI was pleasantly surprised by an internal debate on the responsibilities of the company in the communities where it operates.\u201d With support from BP executives, she brought corporate responsibility to the forefront with positive outcomes at energy development projects in Indonesia and China that involved environmental protection, population relocations, and workers\u2019 rights.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis was my first job out of business school and I thought, \u2018I love Big Oil. These are good people,\u2019\u201d she said. Bader took that upbeat attitude to the United Nations as an adviser to the Secretary General\u2019s Special Representative for business and human rights.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then, in 2010, came the massive Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico and widespread outrage aimed at BP, which was excoriated for its incompetence and indifference in the face of a massive ecological disaster. \u201cMy reaction was, \u2018That\u2019s not my BP \u2026 or maybe it is.\u2019 Was I more marginalized than I realized while at the company?\u201d Bader says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The incident prompted Bader to contact the people charged with monitoring social responsibility in other companies where problems involving sweatshop factories, environmental exploitation, and violations of privacy (among other issues) had drawn adverse public scrutiny.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAfter bad incidents, there is a call for more regulation of \u2018greedy, evil people.\u2019 I rephrased the conversation to focus on \u2018Why do we fail as corporations?\u2019 and \u2018What do we need to succeed?\u2019\u201d Bader said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some common themes emerged in her conversations: no one gets rewarded when corporate disasters are prevented, only after the response; companies lose sight of their impacts on the entire length of the supply chain, including factories overseas where workers are exploited and abused; and external scrutiny is critical, including oversight by stockholders, customers, and governments.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In her research, Bader also found that incrementalism is acceptable; no one changes overnight, but progress can be measured over time. \u201cI felt I made a difference for households in Indonesia and China by pointing out the importance of BP respecting human rights in those countries. Don\u2019t get disillusioned if change does not happen as quickly as you\u2019d like,\u201d she told her audience.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bader, a visiting scholar and lecturer at Columbia University, offered additional advice for MBA programs and students, suggesting that future business leaders aren\u2019t learning all the skills they need to succeed. Business schools should establish ties with MSW programs, for example, that teach personal needs assessment, policy, and the importance of human services in the communities where corporations reside, she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI believe that corporations must have a positive influence in the world. We need the best and brightest to be corporate idealists. I am no longer the girl who fell in love with big oil, but I am an idealist,\u201d she concluded.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Christine Bader, author of\u00a0The Evolution of a Corporate Idealist: When Girl Meets Oil, delivers 2015 Day Family Ethics Lecture at Johnson by Jay Wrolstad Corporations can and will do the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":8015,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[191],"tags":[195],"ppma_author":[11],"class_list":["post-8014","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news-announcements","tag-emi-at-work","organizational_unit-canizares-center-for-emerging-markets","organizational_unit-centers-institutes","author-rc827"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nTales of a Corporate Idealist - Cornell Business Centers & Institutes<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Christine Bader, author of\u00a0The Evolution of a Corporate Idealist: When Girl Meets Oil, delivers 2015 Day Family Ethics Lecture at Johnson by Jay Wrolstad\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/business.cornell.edu\/centers\/2015\/04\/10\/tales-of-a-corporate-idealist\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Tales of a Corporate Idealist - 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