Virtue is supposed to be its own reward, but according to an emerging line of thought, it's profitable too. Example: Pfizer offered some of its name-brand drugs to unemployed people at discount rates. It's the kind of object lesson that permeates the gospel of Dov Seidman, a Los Angeles-based management guru who has become the hottest adviser on corporate virtue to Fortune 500 companies.

Seidman has built a highly successful business on the theory that in today's wired and transparent global economy, companies that "outbehave" their competitors ethically will also tend to outperform them financially.

More than 400 companies, including Wal-Mart and Procter & Gamble, have hired Seidman's firm, LRN, to analyze their corporate cultures, rewrite their codes of conduct, and give ethical-compliance training to their employees.

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