For the 5th year in a row Microsoft has been named as one of the World’s Most Ethical Companies by the Ethisphere Institute. The honor put Microsoft in very elite company, with only 132 companies globally represented in the list. If you are not familiar with the award, Ethisphere Institute outlines those honored as companies “that truly go beyond making statements about doing business “ethically” and translate those words into action. Honorees not only promote ethical business standards and practices internally, they exceed legal compliance minimums and shape future industry standards by introducing best practices today.” It is a powerful testimony to the efforts Microsoft has made in being a transparent and ethical company to be named to this list at all. To do so for 5 years is nothing short of impressive and gives a clear indication of how important ethical business is to the company. In reviewing the list, there are some interesting names to be found on it – and some that are missing.
Within the Computer Hardware selections you will find Dell, Hitachi Data Systems and TE Connectivity while in Computer Services you will find Google. In Computer Software along with Microsoft is Adobe, Symantec and Teradata.
Interestingly, Apple is not on the list in any category.
While Microsoft has endured a bit of a public image challenges with their products, it is clear that ethically little can be pinned on the company. It speaks well of them as they have struggled against the likes of Apple and Google that they have maintained their integrity as a company is working to get back it’s mojo.
