John Dalla Costa

Business is too potent a cultural asset not to be part of the solution for humanity and society's most pressing problems. Raising Integrity and nurturing Trust enhances both social responsibilities and corporate business performance. In today's environment, Trust has become the defining competence. Although the present financial crisis has contributed to public and employee suspicion, the fraying of organizational credibility has been occurring for over a generation. Too often leaders and managers set out to restore broken Trust without taking the root causes of suspicion seriously.

John Dalla Costa has studied the nature of public Trust and published several white papers focussing on the systematic dimensions of performance and experience by which highly reputable organizations achieve their good standing. Most recently John was invited by the World Economic Forum to provide expert input for restoring Trust in the financial sector on a global basis. John has composed several models for comprehensive Trust Management that have been adopted by Boards and management teams in numerous industries and across various sectors. In addition to keynote presentations, John has worked with various clients to prepare half-day/full day and multi-day Ethics and Trust Workshops.

John is the founding director of The Centre for Ethical Orientation and has written five books and numerous articles for the business press and The Reader's Digest. His book The Ethical Imperative, is currently used in business course instruction at Harvard and The Center of Business Ethics at Bentley College U.S.A. He completed the Owner/President advanced management program at the Harvard Business School (1990) and is near completing a PHD from Regis College, Toronto. He is the ethics instructor in the Directors College, the joint venture between McMaster Business School and the Conference Board of Canada advancing board governance and strategic social responsibility. He also teaches Corporate Social Responsibility in the MBA programme at York University.

• 3. Seventh Sigma: Integrity from Purpose

  For Boards and Ethics Officers, Organizational Leaders, Teams and Team Leaders
  
  ·How to embed ethical excellence as a total quality initiative ·Planning for consequences as well as outcomes ·Aligning beliefs, principles, values and ethics ·Integrating ethics with strategy ·Measuring trust and integrity as critical performance variables ·Inspiring innovation from moral investigation ·Continuous ethical improvement
  

• 1. Trust Matters: Managing Integrity in a Time of Suspicion

  For Public and Private Sector Organizations, Leadership, Strategic Planners, HR Managers
  
  ·Understanding why the public trust is really frayed and declining ·Identifying which behaviours and assumptions exacerbate suspicion ·Measuring costs and impacts on a balance sheet of suspicion and trust ·Deploying "thick strategies" to raise and sustain integrity ·How to recover trust and leverage the assets from credibility ·Seven steps for responsible decision-making
  

• 2. The Ethical Imperative

  For Boards, Managers, Associations, Executive Teams, Brand Marketers
  
  ·How to recognize the demanding moral horizon for business performance ·Going beyond codes to cultural transformation ·Integrating Vision and Values with Strategy and Tactics ·Defining the terms and measures for operational integrity ·Exercising dialogue as an early warning system for ethical learning ·How to develop the business opportunity from the ethical quandary
  

• • Outstanding
  • Knowledgeable and passionate about the topic, multidimensional perspective.
  • Very knowledgeable and a good communicator
  • Excellent, great speaker such depth of knowledge and passion for the topic.
  • Very well presented.
  • Very knowledgeable, very interesting.
  • Excellent speaker, provided great insights.
  • High quality presentation.
  • Lots to think about
  The Conference Board of Canada

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  October 2008

  In Trust: Ethics in Advertising

  Recognized around the world as an authoritative and practical tool for developing corporate reputation, marketing and branding approaches, IN TRUST offers a new way of seeing what is possible from an ethics perspective, not as a constraint but as a catalyst to strategy. Teaching with exercises and modules, the book enables individuals and companies to find practical ways to perform ethically to meet the expectations of customers, clients and stakeholders.

  
  
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  October 2007

  Being Generous: The Art of Right Living

  Lucinda and John are a married couple who have committed-they say "humbly and imperfectly"-to making generosity a central practice in their daily lives. What they refer to as their art of right living, within family, work and community, is both a mode of being and a value that infiltrates all others. Generosity inspires and guides them, and continually tests and teaches them. This book is filled with true stories they've collected about generosity in action. Being Generous is their gift to readers, written to enable and encourage us to follow the generous way.

  
  
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  October 2005

  Magnificence at Work: Living Faith in Business

  John Dalla Costa presents a case not for mere excellence, but 'magnificence.' He argues that we must look at work through the eyes of integrity and grace and be open to wisdom and compassion.  He directly links managers, marketers, executives, bankers, brokers, researchers and directors with a group of first century Galilean fishing industry entrepreneurs whose lives were changed when they were asked to follow.

  
  
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  January 1998

  Ethical Imperative

  Drawing from theological and behavioural teachings, Dalla Costa looks at why companies act immorally. 

  
  
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  January 1995

  Working Wisdom: The Ultimate Value in the New Economy

  John Dalla Costa draws on wisdom from ancient and current thinkers to show how wisdom applies to anyone whose work and life are connected with a sense of purpose.