It was an ethical bombshell that would change American business forever and send shockwaves back to Omaha. The Enron scandal of 2001—the mega-corporation had recently moved its headquarters from Omaha to Houston when news broke of the company’s super-fraud—rocked Omaha’s business leaders and sparked necessary, uncomfortable conversations. Those soul-baring discussions propelled a Creighton University faculty member and Omaha’s business titans to lay the groundwork for launching an organization, Business Ethics Alliance, that 15 years later is still leading brave discussions about sticky ethical issues.
“Business leaders here were stunned when Enron happened,” said AnnMarie Marlier, Ph.D., Executive Director of Business Ethics Alliance. “They said, ‘Man, we golfed with Enron’s executive team. Our families went to school with each other. But that’s not who we are. That’s not how we do business.’ They started talking about this happening in our backyard and how we should address this as a community, saying, ‘We need to stand up and do something to show this is who we really are.’”
Beverly Kracher, Ph.D., the Robert B. Daugherty Endowed Chair in Business Ethics and Society at Creighton University at the time, conferred with guiding lights of Omaha business such as Creighton Heider College of Business Dean Anthony Hendrickson, Ph.D., Better Business Bureau of the Midwest Plains Chief Executive Officer Jim Hegarty, and former Omaha Chamber of Commerce President and Chief Executive Officer David Brown.
They discovered that many companies had compliance policies in place, and state and federal regulations provided guardrails for ethical behavior; Missing was a community-wide vehicle for ethics education where business leaders could learn better practices from each other and challenge each other to take the high road. “That’s what the Alliance was formed to address,” said Marlier, noting that all of Omaha’s heavy hitters signed on—Kiewit Corporation, Union Pacific, Tenaska, First National Bank of Omaha, and others. “How do we form an ethical community for our businesses that will have positive implications for the rest of the community using positive, practical business ethics education?”
The Alliance began with workshops and signature events with special guest speakers and even an occasional road show with Kracher leading more informal after-hours discussions about ethics. The organization continues to evolve by helping organizations of all sizes, across all industries, and with leaders at all levels to navigate complex topics or potentially controversial current events—topics that make even Alliance leaders nervous at times.
“That’s what we’re charged with,” said Jessica Schaaf, Business Ethics Alliance Director of Community Relationships. “How can we make topics that are scary or maybe have been given a bad rap more approachable for everyone to conversate and collaborate on? We’re very clear in saying we don’t have all the answers, that the topics are ever-evolving. But now the conversation is out in the open. Here’s a way to set the tone to have respectful conversations about these issues with your peers and your colleagues. It might be a scary one if it’s a hot-button topic, but there are ways to make tough conversations inclusive for everyone without harming your organization or being divisive.”
The Alliance educates, tees up discussions, and tries to stay in front of ethical trends on tough topics such as artificial intelligence; diversity, equity, and inclusion; digital ethics; the rapidly-expanding post-COVID remote workforce; bioethics; social media; transportation ethics; and ethics of the future. Many of the group’s events in 2024 centered on “authenticity” as an ethical conversation point: Can you bring your whole, authentic self to work or not? In a panel discussion in June, all the participants recounted a time in their work history when they wanted to express themselves through a t-shirt, hairstyle, or picture, but they weren’t allowed that part of them to show.
“Sometimes when an organization clamps down too tightly on that conformity piece, what’s lost are the individual talents and individual perspectives and individual ways of engaging,” said Marlier, a higher education leader for more than 24 years before joining the Alliance. “Those contribute to creative thinking, innovation, efficiencies, and effectiveness. That’s when true relationships develop. That’s when trust happens. Without authenticity, it’s hard to build trust, and trust is critical when it comes to ethics.”
As one of the few ethics organizations in the country that are non-profit and non-affiliated with a college or university, the Business Ethics Alliance is supported and funded through “mission driver” organizations that provide foundational financial support; “trustee partner” individuals who attend and promote programs, volunteer, or provide in-kind services; media sponsors; and event sponsors.
Over the years, the Alliance has expanded beyond corporate business relationships to collaborate and partner with a broader set of community and non-profit organizations. Individuals and organizations interested in helping build a more ethical community can check the Alliance’s website (www.businessethicsalliance.org), follow the organization on social media, or attend an event such as the EthicSpace conference in March 2025 with more than 300 expected attendees. “Every type of organization needs to think about the ethical implications of how we conduct business internally and externally, and there are amazing organizations doing amazing things in Omaha,” Marlier added.
Fueled by the Business Ethics Alliance’s community collaboration and current core values of “Brave, Engaged, and Authentic,” it’s the kind of ethical community development envisioned by founders and by business leaders who initiated those “this is not who we are” discussions two decades ago. “From the days of ancient Greece and before, ethics have always been an issue,” Marlier said. “Aristotle, the Egyptians, [philosophers like] Sir Thomas More…this isn’t a problem or a challenge we are one day going to solve and say, ‘We’re good. It’s all good.’ The opportunity to continue educating others about what’s new, what’s around the corner, what do we need to think about, what’s coming back again—there’s lots of work still to be done. We’re focused and we’re authentic to our mission of providing positive, practical business ethics education. We’re honest with those we’re engaging with, we know who we are, and we know what we need to do. We’re excited by the opportunity.”
