“We must accept our responsibility.”

Former CEO of Novo Nordisk, Mads Øvlisen, is deeply committed to ensuring that human respect is valued worldwide. He is now a member of the Board of the Global Compact, but his wife was the original driving force behind his commitment to human rights. Novozymes asked Mads Øvlisen to talk about his commitment and his views on corporate responsibility. 

What is the background for your involvement in human rights?
Human rights have always interested our family. We believe that the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, especially the first article, is at least as important as the Bible. It all started when my wife Lise was a very active member of the board of our children's school. They began discussing what rights children had in relation to the world around them. The parents soon realized that no one actually knew what the human rights were. Lise thought that was dreadful, and became interested in human rights. That was back in the 80s. 

You are a member of the board of the Global Compact. What do you do there?
I’m one of ten business executives from around the world who work in a group of 20 people. We report directly to and regularly meet the Secretary General. We are currently investigating how to make it easier for small and medium-sized companies to address human rights issues in countries with what are termed ‘weak governments’.
We also work to make sure that companies who undertake to promote the Global Compact meet their obligations. While doing this, I have tried to see what can be done to get local networks to help each other to improve reporting procedures. That’s enormously important because many companies adopt the Global Compact but then don’t live up to the accompanying reporting obligations. It’s not necessarily that they don’t want to – some small companies simply haven’t got the resources. We’ve just deleted about 800 from the list for not meeting their obligations. It’s great that so many companies are joining up but it’s a problem that so many are deleted again.

Aren’t you afraid that the Global Compact is flown as a flag of convenience?
We can’t have people seeing it that way. Of course, if its strength gets watered down, that would be unacceptable both for the companies and for the Global Compact. To avoid this, all we can do is check that the companies are reporting as required. If not, ultimately they face being deleted from the list. 

Do companies do enough?
Both yes and no. In many companies, top managements’ enthusiasm has faded. They leave it to other levels of the company. But some managers have to roll up their sleeves and show both the company’s board and the outside world that the problems are far from being solved. 

Companies must get involved because they have a unique opportunity to help solve some of the major global problems resulting from the fundamental inequalities evident today. In other words: those who have and those who don’t have. It is a matter of access to education, healthcare, peace, gender equality and so on.  

But there must be an active mandate and demand from top management that covers the whole organization before they take the initiative needed to take the next step. 

So it’s because companies are used to being active in other areas that they must also translate human rights into practice?
Yes it is! We don’t need a national democratic majority before we take action. This raises a question of legitimacy. What gives companies the right to ‘muscle in’? They must be seen to significantly improve conditions for lots of people. We can do this through the local ties we often have with the people who work where the problems exist, and because our decision-making processes differ from political mechanisms – they don’t include lengthy lobbying. 

Some years ago, the UN’s former Secretary General Kofi Annan said: ‘Governments only get the courage and resources to do the right things when businesses have taken the lead’. 

And that’s not because we are saints. It’s because the problems you hear about affect our employees, colleagues and their families. So we must accept our responsibility.