The stories of the recipients were terrific—real businesses like scrap dealers and food distributors who have been recognized by the community for doing the right thing. This is bad news for speakers like me who are supposed to provide the inspiration and instead must follow these great role models. But this is great news for San Antonio, and particularly for the students from University of Texas-San Antonio involved in the process.

I got to meet with a handful of juniors and seniors who researched the nominees, and asked them if they were interested in working for an ethical company when they graduated. What a softball question. Of course they all said yes. But what I was (and am) really curious about is how they will know whether their prospective employer is ethical.

Several said they would see if they were on lists of “great companies to work for,” “ethical companies,” and so on. But when I pointed out that usually only a few big companies make these lists, they pressed further. Several students said they would talk to current employees to find out if the company was ethical, and a good place to work. Several more said they would look to see how the company contributed to the community in making their judgment.

Those of us consulting and practicing in the fields of compliance, ethics and corporate responsibility spend a lot of time drawing distinctions about what it is we do. Our present and future employees do no such thing. They want to know if we do the right thing for employees, customers, shareholders and the community. If we really want to leverage our investments in compliance, this is a message we will take to heart.