Hewlett-Packard has been judged best performer in an analysis of how multinational IT companies tackle ethical challenges.
Geneva-based
consultancy Covalence placed the US company top of 29 global
businesses. Intel came second and Cisco Systems third, with Nortel
Networks and Texas Instruments among those at the bottom.
Covalence
said the most noticeable trend in the sector during 2005 was much
greater interest in the development of products and services likely to
benefit some of the poorest populations in the world, such as
technology that connects farmers to real-time market information.
Plant closures leading to job losses were posing the biggest reputational challenges within the sector, it said.
The
assessment was based on 45 criteria, including companies’ humanitarian
policies, the social value of their products, their waste management
record and their approach to redundancy. Researchers drew on publicly
available data to reach their conclusions.
