Timothy Fort

Ford's human rights policy builds on a notion of establishing trusted partners among suppliers, employees and regulators. That's a good strategy, because trust is essential for businesses that want to succeed in today's environment. (It's also much more efficient than trying to police those within your supply chain.)

I believe there are three types of trust for businesses that are aiming to be socially responsible: hard trust, real trust and good trust. "Hard trust" is essentially obeying the law; people will trust that a company is in compliance with human rights codes because there are third parties that will punish them – through fines or prosecutions – if they do not. Unfortunately, that's about as far as many companies ever go.

"Real trust" companies actively engage with the stakeholders that are affected by their business operations. They're not forced to do this; they do it because they believe in doing good and they want to ensure they and their employees are living to the highest standards of ethical behavior. "Good trust" goes one step further. Companies that practice good trust have an almost spiritual or aspirational aspect to their work. They want to move far beyond basic codes of conduct to look at how they can help solve problems and create a better world.

I think you need to have all three elements of trust in order to have a rich company culture on issues of human rights. Only a very small percentage of companies are actually incorporating elements of good trust into their business, but the numbers are growing.

Over the last 20 years or so, more and more companies have moved beyond mere compliance with the law, recognizing that employees are more motivated and suppliers more loyal if you treat them well. And plenty of academic studies show a correlation between corporate social behavior and corporate financial behavior.

Ford is one of those companies that is trying to achieve much more than just "staying out of trouble." I think people see Ford – and rightly so – as a company that is focusing on substantial larger social issues, like human rights and environmental sustainability, that are critical for our planet. One good example of this is Ford's efforts on HIV prevention and education among its employees in South Africa. Ford's receptiveness to programs that have an impact on their employees' well being is an indication of its corporate culture.

More consumers are aware today of where their products are coming from, and if they were ethically sourced. But whether they are willing to pay more for ethical products is decidedly mixed.

Companies will always find new ethical demands and challenges. Looking ahead, for example, companies may find themselves working to create more peaceful societies. There might even be a role for businesses to help mediate religious conflict among people who live in the areas in which they operate. Companies may be better suited to do this than governments because of their experience taking a pragmatic approach to religious differences in the workplace.