[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 82 (Thursday, June 6, 1996)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1021-E1022]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




              CORPORATE RESPONSIBILITY AT HOME AND ABROAD

                                 ______


                            HON. BART GORDON

                              of tennessee

                    in the house of representatives

                         Thursday, June 6, 1996

  Mr. GORDON. Mr. Speaker, today one of my constituents from Northern 
Telecom [Nortel] participated in a congressional panel discussion on 
corporate responsibility at home and abroad convened by my colleague 
from Illinois, Representative Lane Evans. Megan Barry, who is Nortel's 
senior ethics advisor and is based in the company's Nashville facility, 
participated on this panel. I would like to commend Megan and Nortel 
for the fine standard they have set in pushing for ethics in business 
practices and I commend to you and all of my colleagues, her remarks:

              Corporate Responsibility at Home and Abroad

                            (By Megan Barry)

       Good morning. My name is Megan Barry and I'm here today 
     representing Northern Telecom, Nortel. Nortel is an $11 
     billion global corporation with 63,000 employees around the 
     world. We build, design, and integrate digital networks for 
     information, entertainment, education and business. In the 
     U.S. we have over 22,000 employees at major facilities such 
     as Raleigh, NC, Dallas, TX, Atlanta, GA, Santa Clara, CA, 
     Nashville, TN, Sunrise, FL, McLean, VA. Nortel is very 
     honored to be included in these discussions today.
       All of the companies that are represented here today are 
     being recognized for something ``exceptional''--for example, 
     Pfizer is here because they provide low income individuals 
     access to prescriptions.
       So why is Nortel here? I'm actually here today to talk 
     about what some might consider to be the ``unexceptional.'' 
     I'm here to talk about the day-to-day ins and outs of just 
     being an ethical company.
       Unlike a lot of multinationals, we, at Nortel, have an 
     established Business Ethics function. Our function is set up 
     to deal with everyday ethical issues that confront our 
     employees, our suppliers and our customers.
       We do this in several ways, but the key piece that has made 
     our function so successful has been the adoption and 
     distribution of our International Code of Business Conduct. 
     We call our Code, ``Acting with Integrity.''
       Before 1995, Nortel had a Code of Conduct--but guess who 
     wrote it? Lawyers. The old Code tended to be more rule-based 
     and had a lot of ``thou shalt not'' phrases. We felt that it 
     was very important to move towards a more value-based 
     approach. We wanted to provide a ``working document''--one 
     that gave our employees help and guidance. So we did 
     something pretty radical--we asked our employees what they 
     wanted to see in a new Code. With the help of the 
     International Business Ethics Institute, we conducted over 35 
     focus groups in the U.S., Canada, Caribbean and Latin 
     America, Europe and Asia Pacific. We also invited all 63,000 
     of our employees to read the draft versions of our Code and 
     give us input and ideas. The overall response was amazing. 
     This gave our employees a voice in the process and a true 
     sense of ownership of the completed Code.
       This approach also helped us write a document using 
     international language that crosses all of our locations. For 
     example, we use Questions and Answers throughout the Code to 
     make it more readable. One of our focus groups from Europe 
     pointed out a true ``North Americanism'' for us.
       In one question, we ask, ``Do people really get dismissed 
     for violating Nortel's ethical standards?'' In one of our 
     original drafts, we had asked, ``Do people really get 
     terminated for violating Nortel's ethical standards?'' The 
     Europeans were horrified. As one focus group member said, 
     ``When you say we terminate them--do you mean we kill them?''
       Of course the answer is no, you don't get killed for 
     violating Nortel's Code, but yes, you can be dismissed for 
     violating our Code.
       It took us a year and many drafts before we had the Code as 
     you see it today. It is something all of us at Nortel are 
     proud of. It addresses a wide range of important ethical 
     issues. For instance, the Code makes it clear that Nortel 
     does not and will not condone the use of enforced labor or 
     child labor. It strictly forbids the reproduction, 
     distribution or alteration of copyrighted materials without 
     the permission of the copyright owner or authorized agent.
       But does having a final Code mean its over? Of course not. 
     As I said earlier, we want our Code to be a ``working 
     document.'' Nothing in our business stands still for long and 
     our Code can't either. From the calls our office receives 
     daily, there are already new and emerging issues that we need 
     to address. For example, the Internet raises a whole

[[Page E1022]]

     host of ethical questions for all of us. And although we are 
     learning along with everyone else, we were one of the first 
     companies to actually put our Code on the Internet (http://
www.nortel.com/english/ethics/). We want everyone--our 
     shareholders, our customers, our employees, our suppliers and 
     the communities where we are located--to know what we stand 
     for.
       At Nortel, we believe that as a multinational, we have a 
     responsibility to act honestly and responsibly wherever we 
     operate in the world. Putting together a Code that speaks to 
     all our employees globally is helping us to create a Nortel 
     culture where we are upholding high ethical standards and 
     acting with integrity in all our operations.

                          ____________________