Standing out as a bright spot of corporate morality, the team formed at KeySpan Corp. of CEO Robert Catell and Corporate Ombudsman Kenny Moore show how a company can be successful by operating the right way. The story of the unlikely duo, which pairs a large company CEO with a former monk, is told in a new book: “The CEO & The Monk, One Company’s Journey to Profit and Purpose.”

As corporate ombudsman, Moore roams the company freely, listening to the concerns of both employees and executives while “engaging the soul of the company.” In his positions as KeySpan’s human resources director and corporate ombudsman — the latter of which was created especially for Moore by Catell — Moore provides a confidential resource for employees regarding the corporate common good, and connecting their passion to bottom-line business results. The company noted that he is primarily responsible for “awakening joy, meaning and commitment” in the workplace.

The book, to be published by John Wiley & Sons in January 2004, details how after joining Catell at Brooklyn Union Gas in 1984, Moore found that skills he had learned while living as a monk for 15 years were also relevant in the business world, including the practices of listening, healing, improving trust and asking forgiveness. Brooklyn Union Gas’s parent company — KeySpan Energy Corp. — merged with certain businesses of the Long Island Lighting Co. to form KeySpan Corp. in 1998.

Moore, who reports directly to Catell, said he does not see answering to Catell as intimidating. “When you’re used to dealing with God, answering to the CEO is no big deal,” Moore said.

For his part, Catell said he thought Moore could act as a good conduit between himself and KeySpan’s 12,000 employees. “It seemed to me that he brought a different perspective, a human touch that warmed the cold business relationships for employees,” said Catell. “He had no personal agenda that interfered with his ability to make a real connection with me, or with whomever he was talking. There was something there, I thought, and if we could grow that inside a company, it would be a good thing.”

As the energy segment over the past few years has weathered uneven deregulation, the ongoing Enron scandal and the emotional and economic impact of 9/11, KeySpan Corp. — under the guidance of Catell and the advising of Moore — has found that it must not only reach people on a professional level, but on an emotional and personal level as well.

“Without fanfare, KeySpan has embraced a management philosophy that somehow balances bottom line demands with a sense of caring and family. There is the palpable belief in the proposition that what is good for the soul is also good for business,” according to the book description.

“The company is committed to doing the right thing,” whether it be turning over important conservation land to the state rather than opting for development; using social workers to help low income customers sift through their financial burdens, or the combined efforts of employees and management in collecting and handing out overcoats on a cold winter day in New York’s Bowry district.

The book describes KeySpan’s “thank you culture,” a culture where the edges are sandpapered away so that the mean-spiritedness of corporate politics is mostly absent, and ideas, even bad ones, are given a hearing and shown respect.

“The ingredients that make up the KeySpan culture — honoring diversity, integrity and trust, promoting volunteerism and community service, respecting employees at every level of the company, integrating customer satisfaction as a measure of performance, making philanthropy a business-level commitment — are integral pieces of the company mix.”

With headquarters in Brooklyn, Boston and Long Island, KeySpan is the largest distributor of natural gas in the Northeast with 2.5 million customers, and also the largest investor-owned electric generator in New York State, providing power to 1.1 million Long Island Power Authority customers and 25% of New York City’s capacity needs.

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