Case study analysis and findings

John F. Killian was the interviewee. John F. Killian is the president of Verizon Business and an important decision maker in the company. He has had an important experience with the company, serving previously as senior vice president - Customer Operations for Verizon's National Operations Group, as senior vice president and controller for Verizon, responsible for corporate-wide accounting, public finance reporting and budget analysis and as vice president and chief financial officer for Verizon's Domestic Telecom group. He was interviewed on October 8, 2007 and the bulk of the questions revolved around the idea of ethics and ethical responsibility at Verizon Business, the means by which the company understands to act as a socially responsible player and how much of a good "corporate citizen" Verizon Business is in practice.

According to Mr. Killian, who has pointed us to the Verizon Business Code of Conduct for any completions of things he mentioned about ethics and conduct in the company, the company has two fundamental goals, both ethically oriented. First of all, its entire activity is focused on the company's consumers and decisions are made so as to produce a positive effect for them. Second, the company aims to be a responsible member of the communities in which it is part, for the general benefit of all shareholders involved with the company.

The president emphasized the four core values that the company has in mind in its business exploits: integrity, respect, performance excellence and accountability. As he pointed out, the first core value he mentioned and the first one that was mentioned in the code of conduct, was integrity. According to him, everything that the company does is aimed to be honest and ethical, so that the relationship with customers and shareholders should have a solid basis.

On the other hand, the company aims to respect its shareholders and, in this sense, to continue providing the highest standard of excellence that the clients have grown accustomed to. The company also aims to be responsible for the actions its team members commit to and continue to support each other in this.

Mr. Killian added that this ethical vision and ethical behavior has supported the company's success throughout the years. Indeed, its ethical perspective has permitted it to always concentrate its activity on the customer and to perform to the best of its ability for its shareholders. This message was not only passed around Verizon Business, it is a standard applicable at Verizon - level. Indeed, the message of CEO and Chairman Ivan Seidenberg, pointed out that the company aimed to be a leader "as an ethical corporate citizen" and that it adhered "to high ethical standards and contributes to the well-being of the communities we serve."

Mr. Killian proceeded to show that the organization's corporate culture was in fact based on a culture of integrity. This includes, he mentioned, "a culture of transparency and a culture of proper interrelationship with our partners," in the sense that the Code of Conduct, for example, was made public in governmental records and on the company's website.

Besides the actual existence of the Code of Conduct and its proliferation with the employees and shareholders, the company uses several other instruments to enforce a culture of ethics in the workplace. One of the means by which it does this is the Verizon Business Ethics Line, where every employee can call and report an internal act that breeched the Code of Conduct or the ethical regulations within the company.

We asked Mr. Killian what the organization does that might be considered philanthropic and he gave us a relevant example in this sense. Verizon Business has donated "nearly 100,000 100-minute prepaid calling cards to the USO, military hospitals and National Guard Units." Additionally, in some areas, Verizon Business employees and company members have assisted with creating care packages for some of the troops abroad.