No, I am not referring to the standard measures of procurement effectiveness or fiduciary responsibility, like overhead competitiveness, spends effectiveness, quality, delivery, audit worthiness or any of those traditional definitions of procurement success. Those are things (and more) that we absolutely must deliver or face the wrath of auditors, shareholders and executive management. What I mean is, do you practice good "corporate social responsibility" in the execution of your daily decisions? Does it affect your sourcing decisions? Do you require suppliers to be good citizens of the world, providing safe work environments, environmental stewardship, progressive personnel practices, etc? Or do you just push on cost, quality and availability?

Today much of the world's manufacturing is done in regions that offer, first and foremost, low-cost labor. In many cases, these emerging countries have less stringent regulations and little enforcement of those regulations that do exist. Unfortunately, these companies and their workers are not driven by societal norms or regulations that come close to the standards we enjoy in the West. Some are just differences in cultural or societal expectations. Others are disparities that are egregious and affect the health and welfare of workers. To be responsible demands that we take action. Most frequently, auditors simply do not have the training to detect workplace issues.

This disparity has driven multiple activist organizations to unite and pressure corporations through the use of inexpensive but effective campaigns, such as proxy proposals at shareholder meetings, "postcard-protest" campaigns or boycotts. Also, multiple investment funds that focus on investing only in "responsible" firms are gaining favor and can affect your company's market capitalization.

We in electronics would prefer to do the right thing, so we have formed the EICC (Electronic Industry Code of Conduct). The code sets forth a harmonized approach for monitoring suppliers' performance across several areas, including labor and employment practices, health and safety, ethics and protection of the environment. This will require all the partners in the supply chain to adopt common approaches to supplier surveys, reporting methods, auditing tools, risk assessments and programs to enhance supplier capabilities. You can find out more at www.eicc.info.

We, as a profession, must expand the measure of our success from the normal pillars of success (price, quality, availability and technology) to include insuring our supply chain is also a globally responsible member of the world community. Anything less is just irresponsible.