ReputationInstitute

Dr. Geert Hofstede is Professor Emeritus of Organizational Anthropology and International Management at Maastricht University and a Fellow at the Center for Economic Research at the University of Tilburg. Hofstede is a pioneer of comparative intercultural research--his ideas and models are used worldwide to explain and account for culture in nations and organizations in both academia and practice.

Geert Hofstede founded and managed the Personnel Research Department of IBM Europe and was Co-founder and first Director, IRIC (Institute for Research on Intercultural Cooperation), the Netherlands. Dr. Hofstede is largely known for his landmark study of cultural differences across 70 nations and his model of five independent dimensions of national cultural differences: (1) Power distance, (2) Individualism, (3) Masculinity versus femininity, (4) Uncertainty, and (5) Long-term versus short-term orientation. Key publications include Culture's Consequences (1980, 2001), Cultures and Organizations: Software for the Mind (1996), Masculinity and Femininity: The Taboo Dimension of National Cultures (1998), among numerous other books and often cited articles.

• http://www.geerthofstede.nl >
• http://www.geert-hofstede.com/ >

S. Prakash Sethi is University Distinguished Professor, Academic Director of Executive Programs, and Professor of Management at the Zicklin School of Business, Baruch College, The City University of New York and is President and Founder of the International Center for Corporate Accountability.

Dr. Sethi is an internationally renowned expert on international corporate codes of conduct and has been instrumental in advocating new approaches with regard to their formulation, implementation and performance evaluation. Dr. Sethi has had extensive front-line experience in the field of business ethics. Dr. Sethi has published 24 books and over 135 articles in professional and scholarly journals. He has extensively addressed, in his writings and in speeches around the globe, such topics as political advertising, corporate social responsibility, free markets and business ethics, dynamics of competition, corporate crimes, corporations and politics, corporate governance, economic development, international business and multinational corporations. He is the author, most recently, of Setting Global Standards: Guidelines for Creating Codes of Conduct in Multinational Corporations (New York: John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2003). Dr. Sethi regularly advises and consults with multinational corporations, national governments and regulatory agencies, international and multilateral financial institutions on the issues of codes of conducts, their implementation, monitoring and verification. He serves on the boards of directors/advisors for a number of NGOs. He is also a member of editorial boards of various academic and professional journals.

• International Center for Corporate Accountability >
• Baruch College Zicklin School of Business >
• "A Toy Maker's Conscience", The New York Times, 23 December 2007 >
• "Buying Responsibly from Chinese Supply Chains" Ethical Corporation, December 2007 >

CK Prahalad is a professor, researcher, speaker, author and prominent consultant. Business Week has called him "a brilliant teacher at the University of Michigan" and also described him as "maybe the most influential thinker on business strategy today."

In addition to serving as the Harvey C. Freuhauf Professor of Business Administration at the University Of Michigan Business School, Prahalad specializes in corporate strategy and the role of top management in large, diversified, multinational corporations.

A prominent world-class guru, Professor Prahalad has consulted with the world's foremost companies, such as Ahlstrom, AT&T, Cargill, Citicorp, Eastman Chemical, Kodak, Oracle, Philips, Quantum, Revlon, Steelcase, and Unilever. In addition, he serves on the Board of Directors of NCR Corporation, Hindustan Lever Limited and the World Resources Institute and services on the Board of Directors of NCR Corporation, Hindustan Lever Limited and the World Resources Institute.

• http://www.ckprahalad.com
• Members view video of C.K. Prahalad's acceptance speech at Reputation Institute's 11th Annual Conference >
• "Business Prophet: How strategy guru C.K. Prahalad is changing the way CEOs think" BusinessWeek, 23 January 2006 >
• "Can C.K. Prahalad Pass the Test?" Fast Company, July 2001 >

Wally Olins is a co-founder of Wolff Olins and was Chairman of the company until 1997. He is Chairman of Saffron Brand Consultants. He was awarded a CBE in 1999. He was nominated for the Prince Philip Designers Prize in 1999 and received the Royal Society of Arts' Bicentenary Medal for his contribution to design and marketing. Wally Olins has written several books including the seminal work Corporate Identity', first published in 1989 and reprinted many times, in many languages. "Trading Identities - how countries and companies are taking on each others' roles" was published by The Foreign Policy Centre, the UK Foreign Office think tank. His new book "Wally Olins On Brand" has just been published. He has advised many of the world's leading organisations on identity, branding, communication and related matters; these include 3i, Akzo-Nobel, Repsol, Q8, Tata, The Portuguese Tourist Board, BT, Prudential, Renault and Volkswagen. He has also worked with a number of countries on branding issues. He has acted as advisor to major strategic consultancies.

• http://www.wallyolins.com
• Members view video of Wally Olins’ acceptance speech at Reputation Institute’s 10th Annual Conference >
• "Brands: Who's wearing the trousers?" The Economist, 8 September 2001 >
• "Business Profile: The big name in the names game still has designs" Daily Telegraph, 30 June 2001 >