Keeping Colgate’s conscience clean is aim of Ron Martin ’70

By Sherri Kimmel

If you’re lucky enough to bunk at the Waldorf-Astoria for the night, just stroll across Park Avenue, and you’ll be at Colgate-Palmolive headquarters. Ron Martin ’70 occupies a corner office in the corporation’s skyscraper. His many windowsills are crowned with jade and carved wooden figures acquired during his frequent travels as a top officer for the multinational personal-hygiene-products behemoth.

Against one wall, samples of these products—from toothpaste to soap—are arrayed on a bookcase. “It’s not a sexy industry but one that people appreciate,” he says with a smile. “You could buy a cheaper generic, but you give up something. Do you want a deodorant that wears off in three hours instead of eight?”

His personal favorite among the packages arrayed is Softsoap Aromatherapy Body Wash. “Like any consumer I get skeptical at times [about advertising claims], but if you take a shower with this you will feel relaxed and get a good night’s sleep,” he notes, leaning back in his chair and looking very well rested.

Sharing shelf space with the deodorants and tooth whiteners are several tomes with “corporate responsibility” and “business ethics” printed on their spines. His own job title also reflects those words: vice president of global business practices and public affairs. After heading up human resources for a dozen years, he assumed his current title two years ago—before Enron and the other corporate scandals surfaced.

Colgate-Palmolive, he will proudly tell you, is a company with a long-standing good reputation, where whistleblowers are encouraged. In a corporation with 40,000 employees, all but about 8,500 of whom live outside the United States in 80 foreign countries, it’s no small task to keep an eye on ethical behavior. A hotline that employees use to report problems helps.

Twenty workers serve as claims investigators for the calls that come into the hotline. Researching an issue—usually a claim of discrimination or harassment—may take months to investigate or resolve. “Most are human-resources issues—not what occurred, but how it occurred,” Martin explains. Fewer than 10 percent end in termination or disciplinary action, he says.

He cites an example of a claim: An employee feels his supervisor has put a hex on him. “He may really believe it. Our investigator may find that no hex was put on him but may recommend counseling. Unfortunately, those that have no legitimacy take just as long to investigate as ones that do have a case.”

If an infraction occurs in a country that doesn’t legally prohibit bad behavior, such as sexual harassment, then the company’s Code of Conduct, created in 1987, will dictate how the case will be handled. Martin revised the code in 1994 and will be doing so again this summer—a year ahead of time.

Because of the Sarbanes-Oxley bill that Congress passed last summer after a series of corporate scandals, Colgate officers said, “ ‘Let’s take a look at doing it now,’ ” Martin relates. “We want a more defined piece on [conduct] of the board of directors and on spam use and misuse and use of the Internet and e-mail.”

Besides minding the ethics of his company, Martin also keeps his eye on its socially responsible behavior, making sure Colgate-Palmolive strives for sustainable development and ecological stewardship. He hasn’t always been Mr. Ethics, however.

Before arriving at Colgate-Palmolive 14 years ago he worked for Bristol-Myers, Gulf Oil, Chevron and CIGNA, heading up human-resources or affirmative-action departments. But his first taskmaster out of college was Uncle Sam. A sociology major and ROTC cadet at Dickinson, Martin stayed in the army for seven years, until in 1977, “I decided I wanted to do something based on my abilities” instead of just rising in due time through the ranks in military fashion.

However, he says, “I wouldn’t change my [military] experience for the world. The military taught me how to be responsible and how to organize and plan and make decisions and to ride them out. It taught me how to network and build relationships.” Those skills transferred well to the corporate world. He adds, “Most companies operate as teams, and you need to know how to network in and out of the company.”

While it was at Dickinson that Martin got his start in the military, it’s also where he encountered an environment foreign to the one he grew up in. Until his senior year in high school Martin, from McLean, Va., had attended all-black schools. He accepted Dickinson’s admissions offer for two reasons:

“ One it was a good school, and two, the chaplain had written to me asking me to come there.” Martin was disappointed when the chaplain soon left the college, “because he couldn’t find housing as an African American. The town’s African-American population was 2 percent, and there was only one barber who could cut my hair. And he was not a good barber,” Martin says with a slight smile.

“ Dickinson was a learning experience, an adjustment.” It was one that Martin, but not all of his fellow black students, could make. “Four out of the 10 of us graduated. The rest went elsewhere.”

Despite his difficulty fitting in, Martin appreciated “some great professors who could have been comfortable but chose to challenge. I was out of school five or six years before I realized what I had learned. Dickinson prepared me for the real world without telling me how [what I’d learned] applied. I had to find out for myself.

“ My foundation started with Dickinson,” he continues. “It made me self-sufficient and clearly put me in a situation where I learned I could operate in a world I was not used to. That—and the military— helped me to be successful. There are 14 officers in this corporation, and I’m one of them.”

He’s also one who has no plans to jump ship. “When I came here my philosophy at the time was, ‘Five years is enough for any place.’ I’ve had offers to go elsewhere for more money, but I like the philosophy and the pride the company puts in things. When I get home at night I feel good about what I’ve accomplished.” •