Student Project Nominating Companies for BBB Marketplace Ethics Award

Students are placed in teams and told they are to go into the local community or regional area covered by the area BBB and find a company that exemplifies the criteria for good Marketplace Ethics provided by the BBB (7 criteria noted below).  Many times local BBB Presidents are willing to come and speak to the class and talk about the role of the BBB in managing business ethics and provide materials which are useful in class: advertising code of ethics, online privacy, online certification, etc.  Students complete notebooks with materials supporting the 7 evaluative criteria for the Award.  At the front of the notebook there is a summary of why this company is deserving of such recognition of it ethical business practices.  Nominations occur in 4 size categories (1-10 employees, 11-100 employees, 101-999 employees and companies with over 1,000 employees).   The BBB uses a panel of judges annually to evaluate the nominees and students learn whether their companies are “winners”.  Students who nominate winning companies are often invited to attend the award dinner and meet with the companies they have nominated.  I have used this project successfully in class over the past 4-5 years and have had enormous support from the Mountain States BBB, business community and the University of Wyoming and previously at the University of Northern Colorado.  O.C. has his Marketing Ethics class nominate companies and this has been rewarding for his students and Colorado State University as well.

If you have questions, please contact: Linda Ferrell, University of Wyoming (LFerrell@uwyo.edu). 

For more information from the Mountain States BBB please visit: http://www.mountainstates.bbb.org/business/index.asp?page=torch_awards

Award Guidelines and Entry Preparation
Entries for this award are open to any person or organization wishing to place a nomination. Companies do not need to have a full-scale ethics program in operation in order to compete; they simply need to demonstrate that they meet all of the award guidelines. The award is open to all businesses. An individual may nominate the company he or she works for, owns or is affiliated with, or any company that the nominator feels meets the award guidelines. A company can be nominated by any organization (i.e. Chambers of Commerce, academic institutions, ethics organizations, or business and professional associations). This award is open to all for-profit businesses that serve retail or wholesale markets. Non-profit organizations or businesses whose primary markets are local, state or federal governments are not eligible for this award.

Candidates for the Better Business Bureau Torch Award for Marketplace Ethics will be evaluated by an independent panel of judges from the business and academic community using the following criteria:

• High ethical standards of behavior toward customers, suppliers, users, shareholders, employees, and communities in which they do business
• Demonstrated ethical practices surrounding their buyer/seller relationships
• Longstanding history and reputation of ethical practices in the marketplace
• Marketing, advertising, communications, and sales practices which reflect a true representation of what they are offering in the marketplace
• Acknowledgment of ethical marketplace practices by industry peers in the communities where they do     business
• Ethics policies and training programs that are effectively communicated to employees
• Ethics policies that are designed to give long-term value to shareholders and customers

Following acceptance of the nomination, the company may be contacted to provide additional information. Judges will then consider the overall entry and review the supporting information, taking into account all areas listed under the section in the entry form entitled "Award Guidelines". Additional information may be requested from the company by the judges to aid them in selecting the award winners. Such additional information may include quality control procedures used with customers, magazine/newspaper article reprints, training materials utilized by the company and/or results of procedures followed by the company which will assist the judges in measuring its marketplace ethics practices.