[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.