    [Public Papers of the Presidents of the United States: William J. Clinton (1994, Book II)]
    [December 6, 1994]
    [Pages 2150-2151]
    [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office www.gpo.gov]

    Teleconference Remarks on the Business Enterprise Trust Awards
    December 6, 1994

        Thank you, Diane. I'm sorry I can't be with you in New York today,
    and I'm glad at least we have a one-way superhighway. Maybe by the time
    the Vice President leaves today, he will explain how it can be a two-way
    superhighway by next year.
        Before the presentations of this year's awards, I want to say a few
    words about the importance of the work you're doing. I wanted just to be
    able to come in this way to you, even though the Vice President was good
    enough to come up there and express our full thoughts about this. But I
    wanted to say a few things, because I think it's very important that
    people be recognized who understand that there is no necessary conflict
    between doing well and doing good and between what is in one's short-
    term personal interest and what is in the long-term best interest of a
    company or a community or a country.
        I want to thank Jim Burke, the chairman of the Business Enterprise
    Trust, and my longtime friend Norman Lear for leading this vital
    initiative. I hope that this idea that is behind the awards that are
    going out will somehow find its way into the mind and into the heart of
    decisionmakers all across America.
        I also want to congratulate the five honorees today: Mario Antoci,
    the chairman and CEO of Savings Bank of California; Barbara Roberts,
    president of FPG International; Howard Schultz, the CEO of Starbuck's
    Coffee; the Fel-Pro Corporation; and the Xerox Corporation. This gath-

    [[Page 2151]]

    ering represents a remarkable groundswell of leadership within the
    American business community, people who are leading this country into
    the 21st century with integrity and with vision. The private sector
    always has been the engine of wealth creation and job creation in our
    country. But now it must also help us to lead the way and share in the
    partnership of getting all of us to take responsibility for ourselves,
    our families, our communities, and our countries.
        As companies regain their prosperity in this growing economy,
    business leaders with the future in mind know we have to share the
    fruits of the recovery with the employees, the workers, the backbone of
    our success. Ultimately, the stability of our work force and our society
    depends upon the faith of people that if they work hard, they'll get
    ahead, and they'll be treated fairly. That's what's really at issue
    here. You may have your differing interpretations about the results of
    the elections in 1994 or even those in 1992. But one thing is abundantly
    clear: The most alienated people in our society are people who are
    working harder than they were 10 years ago for lower wages, who feel
    insecure, who feel that they're just a cog in a machine--that if they
    lose their job, no one will really care; if they lose their health
    benefits and their children can't go to the doctor, no one will really
    care; if they can never send their children to college, no one will
    really care.
        All of you know that investing in your workers is the most important
    investment you can make. You're being honored today because you've
    treated people not like cost centers to be cut but wealth centers to be
    strengthened because they, too--your workers--face the competitive
    pressures of the global economy. That's a job that you and I must share
    and a job we have to get all other Americans to share. We have got to
    restore the faith of hardworking people that they can be in and be
    successful in the middle class. We've got to be able to send a shining
    signal to poor Americans that if they work hard, they can work their way
    into the middle class. We've got to give people a sense that all of us
    know we're all in this together. And we have to do it together. I commit
    myself to doing that with you in the years to come.
        Joe Wilson, the pioneering founder of Xerox, recognized the need for
    this kind of visionary leadership when he said, ``Our society needs
    business people who can articulate lofty goals and demonstrate high
    dedication to those goals while they profit from the services they
    offer.'' Those words are very fitting today. The companies being honored
    have proven that you can have strong values and a strong bottom line.
    I've had personal experience with some of them, and I thank them.
        This is a time for all Americans and all leaders to be bold. We can
    be confident, we can have the kind of enthusiasm and vision you exhibit
    every day because of the successes that we are seeing in the American
    economy. But we have got to keep working until all Americans feel that
    they are a part of this success.
        I applaud you for your efforts in that regard. And I am grateful,
    very grateful, to the Business Enterprise Trust for leading this
    profoundly significant effort.
        Thank you very much.

    Note: The President spoke at 12:57 p.m. by satellite from Room 459 of
    the Old Executive Office Building to the Business Enterprise Trust
    meeting in New York City. In his remarks, he referred to journalist
    Diane Sawyer and television producer Norman Lear.