Corporate Social Responsibility

Fredrik Carlstrom's advice: at least try to be ethical.

Question: Is there an obligation to give back?
Fredrik Carlstrom: Yeah, I mean I think-- I think that corporate responsibility is-- and again, it's such a-- it's like-- all of a sudden, everybody's eco, you know, environmentally friendly? You know, everybody's trying to be a certain thing. I think like why do you do it? And how do you do it, and is it part of-- again, it's like a person. I think-- I'm not a very spiritual person. I'm not a very sort of religious person. I try to be ethical, and I think people, as well as companies, should be ethical. I think that, I mean, I think it was, what's his name? The economist. Milton Freedman who said, "The business of business is business." You know, and I think that on one level, I think companies should be in the business that they're in. But I think also that you can't plunder and steal. You have to give back. But I think that there are good ways of doing it, and there's bad ways of doing it. And I think we try to give back in that. I mean, the people who work for us get a lot of vacation and sick days. And stuff like that, I think on that level. And then also the stuff that we do, we try to put things out in the world that we'd want to see.
 
Recorded on: 6/12/08