Rethink the Fundamental Purpose of Your Business: To take the first step toward becoming a responsible business, you must align your company's practices with a larger purpose. Consider Pepsi. Instead of focusing only on the byproducts of its business activities, such as water consumption and packaging waste, Pepsi is re-imagining its entire business model. Old Pepsi was all about selling sugary soda and salty snacks, which contribute to obesity and tooth decay. New Pepsi is about selling healthier, "better-for-you" food. Pepsi, which is in the early stages of becoming a purpose-driven company, didn't start by asking, "What should we do?" It first asked, "Who should we be?"

Make it Transparent: A responsible company humbly strips away the layers of secrecy surrounding its impacts on society and the environment. After all, Web-empowered customers and stakeholders are gaining more and more insight into your company's activities—whether you like it or not. By revealing your organization's flaws as well as its successes, you start to turn potential adversaries into partners who can help crack your most vexing challenges. Patagonia, the outdoor-apparel maker, has launched an interactive Web site that offers an unflinching look at the good and the bad of manufacturing and transporting its wares. Click on the "Wool 2 Crew" shirt, for example, and you learn that the wool travels more than 16,000 miles from ranch to store. The company's unflattering verdict on its own performance: "This is not sustainable." Patagonia understands that it's paradoxical, but true: fewer secrets generate greater trust.

originally written for Target Marketing magazine