Jonathan Dee’s article, “A Toy Maker’s Conscience“, which appeared in the New York Times Magazine at the end of December is a must read.

First, it’s a generous yet clear-eyed portrait of Baruch College professor Prakash Sethi, a defining force in the movement for corporate accountability for more than 35 years.

His story is one of the great ones in our business, but it has gone, largely, unheralded. And Jonathan Dee has gotten both the story and Prof. Sethi’s voice right.

Second, the article describes as well as any I’ve read the difficulties in learning what happens at the supplier level in China and elsewhere.

Third, it captures the difficulties in effecting change at the company and industry level. Few articles get across the intra-company pressures, inter-company competition and the trade group problems as succinctly and concretely as this one.

Finally, it is full of telling observations, among them Berkeley professor David Vogel’s on the good will CSR-efforts fail to yield when companies, such as Mattel, run into problems.

And, there’s a lot more in this exceptionally thoughtful, well-written article.