Third Annual Torch Awards for Marketplace Ethics For Companies from Montana, Idaho and Washington Companies. Does your company have what it takes to compete next year?

Once a year, the BBB gets to step out of the dispute resolution and information business to celebrate a most refreshing topic: ethics in business. This year, we are conducting our Third Annual Torch Awards for Marketplace Ethics process, and are calling for nominations from both member and nonmember businesses in all three states we serve.

Over the past two years, we have worked quietly in partnership with the Gonzaga University Ethics Institute, through specific undergrad and graduate business ethics classes to have students seek out the companies to nominate and then work with them to complete the application process. This process becomes a big part of their grade.

This year, however, we have stepped out to ask the public for nominations in an official 2008 call for entries.

This year, to make the process more diverse, we were contacted by Washington State University and the graduate level business ethics students in Pullman, who have expressed interest in working on the project the way GU is, too. We hope to continue expanding those partnerships in the future into Montana and North Idaho, as well as other Eastern Washington schools.

So, if you know a company that lives and breathes ethics, please make that nomination. The nomination deadline is Sept. 28. The process is a simple two-page form.

Some details:

To nominate a company, go to the main page of our Web site at: http://www.thelocalbbb.com and click on the eagle landing icon to get to the detail page where the nomination form is located.

University students are assisting a fraction of entrants, so place your nomination early.
Any company in our service area is eligible, as long as it has a satisfactory record with the BBB.
BBB members and nonmembers are strongly encouraged to apply.
The BBB, Gonzaga University and WSU are not judging the award submissions. That is a separate level of the process handled by a group of independent judges from all three states we serve.

Companies compete with like-sized businesses.
Past winners are not eligible to enter. Past winners are:

2007: Auntie’s Books, Huckleberry’s Natural Market, Kim HOTSTART Manufacturing Co., Layne D. Hinckley, DDS, and Sterling Savings Bank. Honorable Mentions were: Davenport Hotel & Tower, David’s Pizza and Soulful Soups.

2006: Chicken-N-More, Wheatland Bank, HollisterStier Laboratories and Yoke’s Washington Foods Inc.

An interesting ethics anecdote that came out of the past application process was shared by Mike Stebbins, dean of the Ethics Institute at GU. One of his student teams put together an application on a company, which can be a daunting process. They had several meetings with the business, and even included well-produced printed materials in the company’s application binder, but the words accompanying the application somehow rang hollow.

When the team turned the book in, they were honest and frankly confessed to their professor that the company they chose was all talk, and their actions exhibited were not ethical. They said the more time they spent with the company, the clearer that became.

This is a perfect example of why it is so important that we include students in this process. What an education an awards process can reveal.

After the judges select the 2008 Torch Award winners, I will interview them in their places of business and that video becomes the centerpiece of the award event in February. I will never forget an interview with the owner of Chicken-N-More, Bob Hemphill, about why ethics and fairness matter in the barbecue business. What a story he had to tell and what an example he sets.

This year, to turn the quality and competition up a notch, Wheatland Bank is sponsoring a $500 scholarship for the student team that turns in the best video.

Come March, you will get to read one more column from me about what is good in the marketplace. I hope you will find the company you nominated, work for, or own among the winners. Best of luck to all entrants.

http://spokane.bbb.org/WWWRoot/SitePage.aspx?site=70&id=f05cd5ab-3163-40f7-8695-bea10cd685d0