True leaders-"the kind who put public need above corporate or personal interest"-have been absent from American business for some time, says former Securities and Exchange Commission chairman Arthur Levitt. "Lots of good, honorable people head U.S. corporations. Few are recognized as good public citizens. I can't think of a time when corporate leaders received so little respect," he told oil and gas executives in Washington recently. "Try to find five business leaders today who are known for their public probity, responsibility and integrity. You can't do it, because they don't exist." Levitt made his remarks at the annual American Petroleum Institute meeting. He added that it's time for oil-industry executives to look beyond their own industry and become corporate and public policy-reform activists. "Now is when we need your leadership. Now, as the storm clouds of war gather over the world's petroleum supplies, we need your input, not just as energy executives, but also as business leaders," Levitt said. Some audience members said conspicuous corporate involvement in public issues would be met with heavy skepticism in the current atmosphere. There was heavy criticism of the Bush administration's getting oil-industry input as it formulated its national energy strategy 18 months ago. "I can see the need to do what [Levitt] recommends," said one executive. "But I'm afraid it's going to get worse before it gets better." Incoming API chairman David J. O'Reilly, chairman and chief executive officer of ChevronTexaco Corp., responded, "It's difficult. The public distrusts several institutions now-even churches." Levitt said, "The only way we'll get the right kind of reform is if business leaders lend their voices to strengthen and restructure corporate governance. This particularly applies to corporate compensation, where boards have been stacked with buddies and cronies who looked the other way or winked when outrageous packages were approved. We must reestablish the value of a good reputation, a culture of accountability and an ethic of service in American business." The business culture of the 1990s was "muscular, with executives who could buy companies with a telephone call, fire employees without a thought and appear on a magazine cover a few days later," he says, adding: "That's history." Business leaders should seek positions, not for social contacts or networking, but for real public benefits, he said. "Business leaders have to lift their sights and spend time on important community projects and become involved in important public debates. This will do more to restore public confidence in the corporate sector than any regulation government might write. It's business, working in the public sector, that offers the best hope, not only for itself, but for society as a whole."
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