Caux Principles

The Caux Principles for Business were first presented to the business community in 1994. The authors of the Principles are members of the Caux Round Table (CRT), which was organized in 1986 by 28 senior business executives from Japan, Europe, and the United States. The group meets in various nations but often in Caux, Switzerland, hence their name.

To have efficient and fair markets, CRT executives recognized the need for worldwide ethical principles. Some members also belonged to the MinneapolisSt. Paul Minnesota Center for Corporate Responsibility, now called Center for Ethical Business Cultures, which had already forged global ethical principles. CRT discussed those principles and decided to adopt them with a few changes. CRT added two basic principles to their Principles for Business. The first, from the Eastern tradition, is the Japanese principle of kyosei, which means living and working together for the common good, enabling cooperation and mutual prosperity to coexist with healthy and fair competition. The second principle, from the Western tradition, is human dignity, which refers to the sacredness or value of each person as an end, not simply as a means to the fulfillment of other's purposes. The Principles include a preamble, seven general principles, and six more specific sets of stakeholder principles, covering customers, employees, owners/investors, suppliers, competitors, and communities.