This excerpt comes from an essay written after several students had an evening discussion on corporate responsibility.

“We are not claiming to be experts or professionals that have the answer, and to be honest, we are not even that well informed. Who we are is irrelevant as our thoughts and opinions could come from any one of our peers- common, average graduate students. That lack of uniqueness is where the true hope for our generation lies. Because if we… have spent time thinking about the moral implications of profit seeking strategies, and the responsibilities companies have for their communities, then any one of our peers could have and probably has spent time thinking the same thoughts.
In order to conclude our round table discussion that evening, we developed four power statements that summarize our thoughts regarding ethical business practices. While they were developed by six students representing countries such as China, America, Switzerland, and the Philippines, they can be shared by every student in school today who is about to embark on their professional career. These statements, as listed and elaborated below, can represent the desires for change of an entire generation of students around the world.

1. Money should be a means to sustainable value creation and not an end in itself.
2. Change must come from within the system, and it must be sustainable.
3. The current formula for evaluating cost is outdated and incomplete.
4. We can be agents of change wherever we are. “