EVERY week you’ll see a company committing to a new environmental or ethical policy or one being held to account for failing in its obligations.

It’s newsworthy because, as citizens, we care about how the rest of society and our environment are treated.

It’s easy to think the high-profile companies involved operate in a totally different world to the one in which you do business. Not so.

At the recent York St John Business School Enterprise Day, which featured presentations by several of the region’s most successful start-up businesses, one question kept coming up – what’s your view on corporate social responsibility? You may feel it’s a phrase which has been overused or that it doesn’t matter or mean a great deal. But business ethics thought-leader Professor Roger Steare, who features regularly at our seminars, offers a refreshing perspective intended to make us think differently about our society.

As part of his work advising organisations on improving their business ethics by doing the “right thing”, Roger refers to a short film called The Miniature Earth (available on YouTube).

This looks at the world as if it’s a village with just 100 people, illustrating how many of us would face the issues that much of the real world’s population deals with every day.

Using UN and PRB (Population Reference Bureau) data among others, it identifies that, of the 100 people in our village, 14 would be malnourished or hungry, 12 wouldn’t be able to read, only 12 would have a computer and 21 would live on below US$1.25 per day.

At the same time, our village would be spending US$1.24 trillion on military expenditure, but only US$100 billion on development aid.

This puts global inequalities into perspective – but importantly for entrepreneurs and managers, it highlights why we cannot lose sight of the bigger picture.

There is growing evidence to show that by treating your suppliers, employees, the community and the environment in the right way based on sound ethical judgement, you could make an important difference and ultimately improve long-term profitability.