Ferreting out the worst companies

Corporate Responsibility Magazine plans to publish a list of the worst corporations in terms of transparency in its April-May issue, writes Stephanie Clifford of the New York Times.

Clifford writes, “‘The notion of transparency as the first, best, primary value allows other players, players with a variety of values — be they journalistic, NGOs, competitors, collaborators — to weigh in according to their competing interests,’ said Dirk Olin, editor in chief of the magazine.

“To compile both its ‘best’ and its ‘worst’ list, the magazine scored companies from the Russell 1000 index of large-capitalization stocks on 349 data points in categories like financial, governance and human rights.

“‘We decided to ask ourselves what the bottom of that list would look like, never dreaming for a minute that we would uncover a full 30 corporations where no relevant data at all could be turned up,’ he said.

“The list includes well-known companies like Abercrombie & Fitch, Lorillard, Scripps Networks Interactive and Weight Watchers, along with more obscure ones like Central European Media Enterprises, which owns television stations like Pop TV of Slovenia.”

Read more here.