Leadership Spotlight

"I played a lot of sandlot football, basketball and baseball as a youngster. We never required referees to call fouls, foul balls or out of bounds. We knew. We didn't need rulebooks to regulate play or official scorers to determine who won. We knew. We stopped play when somebody went down or got hurt because taking advantage of an injured player was poor sportsmanship."

"We knew better than to cheat or be poor sports back then, he insists, just as we know better today. We were taught not to cheat, not to be rude, not to double-cross people, not to be stingy." "There is no such thing as a moral agnostic," Huntsman argues. "An amoral individual is nothing more than a moral person who, for one reason or another, temporarily and quite often creatively disconnects his or her actions from the moral compass. People running on all mental cylinders know right from wrong. Period."

In his book, Huntsman lays much of the blame for the marketplace's current moral vacuum on corporate lawyers, investment bankers, Wall Street investors and morally complacent CEOs, people he does not believe are inherently evil but rather trained to place professional standards and short-term gain above personal ethics. To-wit:

• "One's word being one's bond has been replaced with one's word being subject to legal review."
• "What is considered standard rules of play on Wall Street is a Class A misdemeanor in Peoria."
• "Whether they realize it or not, executives in leadership roles solely for the four Ps—pay, perks, power and prestige—essentially are on their way out."

Huntsman is unapologetic about his relatively harsh words. CEOs, lawyers, lenders and major Wall Street players, he argues, must be held to a higher standard because their actions have such tremendous ramifications. He does admit his recent experience taking the company public provided him with many exceptions to his rule. "I dealth with some genuinely decent, committed people," he says.

Huntsman makes clear his book is not a sermon just for others. He sees it as a personal booster shot, as well. "Because of the pressures we face daily, each of us requires periodic reminders to check for the proper, decent, courageous and generous course."

Huntsman took his business public primarily to reduce the crushing debt incurred in pulling his company out of the perfect economic storm that began in earnest in 2001 and raged for another three years. There was a compelling secondary reason, as well: It would give wife Karen and him the opportunity to sell stock over the coming years and place the proceeds into the Jon and Karen Huntsman Foundation for continued philanthropic work. In the last 20 years—the family only began keeping track in the mid-1980s—the Huntsmans have given away more than a half a billion dollars to schools, cancer research, charities, libraries, scholarships and the arts. (A little known fact is that Huntsman, an active Mormon, is one of the largest donors to Catholic social services in the Diocese of Salt Lake City.)

Even when the company was bleeding red ink in the most recent downturn, the elder Huntsman secured personal loans to meet his philanthropic obligations. "It's easy to say, sorry, I can't meet my pledge payments this year," he says. "But one has to keep one's word even when it's painful."

Huntsman attended the Wharton School on a chance scholarship, one of those breaks in life that people like Huntsman view as a reason why they must give back once they have it made. That opportunity gave him the training and contacts to launch and nurture a career that took him to the pinnacle of success. He did not forget his alma mater. He provided a $40-million lead gift to build Jon M. Huntsman Hall. In addition, Huntsman, chairman of Wharton's Board of Overseers, provided an additional $10 million for the Huntsman International Program.