Why We All Must Lead

A letter to global thought leaders from Fisk Johnson, SC Johnson Chairman and CEO.

Dear Friend:

As a business leader, a scientist and a father, I watched in dismay in recent months as headline after headline highlighted dangerous or recalled products.

I believe strongly that the business community has a responsibility to ensure that the ingredients in our products and the processes that make them are safe, whether we make them ourselves or import them for the consumers that we serve. And, if there is an issue we, need to address it rapidly and completely.

That’s why I was pleased this past December to have an opportunity to discuss corporate responsibility at a United States Council for International Business (USCIB) event.

I want to share with you some of what I said to USCIB, not simply because it highlights an issue that must be addressed, but because I believe the solutions must be led by the business community. As I said to USCIB: We must be responsible – and acting on that responsibility begins with dialogue.

I hope this Dialogue on Sustainability helps foster that important conversation. And I welcome your thoughts and reactions.

We All Have a Responsibility to Lead

There have been many news reports in recent months about recalled products from China – toys, toothpaste and other products that have been tainted with dangerous chemicals.

My daughter, for example, used to play with a toy called Aqua Dots, which was recalled. When she played with them, it never crossed my mind that swallowing some of these tiny beads could put a child in a coma.

I suspect that, until recently, many consumers thought little about the safety of the products made in China. Not so much because they had faith in Chinese manufacturing but because they had faith in the companies that imported those products and also in the government agencies that regulate them.

Blaming the Chinese is not the answer. It is not just up to the Chinese. It is up to the companies that import products.

It goes without saying that we have a business responsibility; it puts our relationship with our customers and our corporate reputation in jeopardy. But even more importantly we have a moral responsibility.

Not long ago, I visited a mosquito coil factory in China that SC Johnson was considering buying. The safety and health conditions in the factory were appalling. After the coils were sprayed with insecticide the workers picked them off the line with their bare hands. From the tips of their fingers to their elbows, they were soaked with chemicals. They were exposed like this 12 hours a day.

The factory also had a big hydraulic press – about 15 feet high, 20 feet long – that stamped printing on cardboard boxes. In order to put a sheet of paper in the press, a man stuck his arms into the machine, which opened and closed every few seconds. I stood there wondering how many people had lost their arms in that machine.

To heat the factory, they burned low-grade, high-mercury, high-sulfur coal. This facility alone would’ve increased SC Johnson’s global carbon content by 25%.

I don’t even want to think how this factory disposed of chemicals.

Although we did not buy the factory, we had plans to quickly bring the factory up to our safety and environment standards. It was our moral responsibility to do so. We owed it to our consumers worldwide, to the Chinese and to the culture of our company.

As a responsible multinational company, we must help improve conditions in China or wherever we do business or source products.  We must help the companies and suppliers we work with, in all countries, reach high standards.

We have a responsibility to ensure that the ingredients in our products and the processes that make them are safe. That’s not too much for our consumers to expect. We must be able to evaluate ingredients before they go into our products, and have in place the audit systems to verify their safety.

I am proud that SC Johnson has a long history of doing what’s right.  And, I encourage all of us to play our part.  As a business leader, as a scientist, as a citizen and as a father, I genuinely believe we need more rigorous health and safety standards, and more monitoring. But the question is: Who is to do it?

We are the ones who must take the lead. We can’t leave it to the Chinese or NGOs or the federal regulators. The government can’t test everything and it can’t write regulations for everything. And we should not want or expect it to.

We must be responsible. We must set the pace. We must set the standards. We must lead.

These remarks were made at the United States Council for International Business’s gala dinner on December 3, 2007, when SC Johnson Chairman and CEO Fisk Johnson accepted the International Leadership Award.