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The Economist: Just Good Business
Al Gore's busy throwing his internet tough-guy weight around on the Rich Rodriguez thread, failing miserably at keeping up his end of the Nobel Prize bargain, so I'll go ahead and post this "thought-piece" in his place...
So, does this heating up of CSR-related activities by the private sector show that individuals can move markets, or is simply the private sector / market's response to people starting to put their money where their mouth is (now that shopping at wal-mart has left them green with extra cash...
)?
And what does competitive strategy guru Michael Porter think about all this? They quote him as saying that despite a surge of interest in CSR, in most cases it remains ?too unfocused, too shotgun, too many supporting someone's pet project with no real connection to the business?. hmm...
read the thing... it'll do us some good, imho, to give it some thought.
Al Gore's busy throwing his internet tough-guy weight around on the Rich Rodriguez thread, failing miserably at keeping up his end of the Nobel Prize bargain, so I'll go ahead and post this "thought-piece" in his place...
So, does this heating up of CSR-related activities by the private sector show that individuals can move markets, or is simply the private sector / market's response to people starting to put their money where their mouth is (now that shopping at wal-mart has left them green with extra cash...
)?And what does competitive strategy guru Michael Porter think about all this? They quote him as saying that despite a surge of interest in CSR, in most cases it remains ?too unfocused, too shotgun, too many supporting someone's pet project with no real connection to the business?. hmm...
read the thing... it'll do us some good, imho, to give it some thought.
Just good business
[SIZE=-2][FONT=verdana,geneva,arial,sans serif]Jan 17th 2008 [/FONT][/SIZE]
[SIZE=-2][FONT=verdana,geneva,arial,sans serif]From The Economist print edition[/FONT][/SIZE]
[FONT=verdana,geneva,arial,sans serif][SIZE=-1]Corporate social responsibility, once a do-gooding sideshow, is now seen as mainstream. But as yet too few companies are doing it well, says Daniel Franklin (interviewed here)[/SIZE][/FONT]
[FONT=verdana,geneva,arial,sans serif][SIZE=-1]IN THE lobby at the London headquarters of Marks & Spencer, one of Britain's leading retailers, the words scroll relentlessly across a giant electronic ticker. They describe progress against ?Plan [SIZE=-1]A[/SIZE]?, a set of 100 worthy targets over five years. The company will help to give 15,000 children in Uganda a better education; it is saving 55,000 tonnes of [SIZE=-1]CO[/SIZE]2 in a year; it has recycled 48m clothes hangers; it is tripling sales of organic food; it aims to convert over 20m garments to Fairtrade cotton; every store has a dedicated ?Plan [SIZE=-1]A[/SIZE]? champion. [/SIZE][/FONT]
[FONT=verdana,geneva,arial,sans serif][SIZE=-1]The [SIZE=-1]M&S [/SIZE]ticker says a lot about the current state of what is commonly known as corporate social responsibility ([SIZE=-1]CSR[/SIZE]). First, nobody much likes the [SIZE=-1]CSR[/SIZE] label. A year ago [SIZE=-1]M&S [/SIZE]launched not a [SIZE=-1]CSR[/SIZE] plan but Plan [SIZE=-1]A[/SIZE] (?because there is no Plan [SIZE=-1]B[/SIZE]?). The chief executive's committee that monitors this plan is called the ?How We Do Business Committee?. Other companies prefer to describe this kind of thing as ?corporate responsibility? (dropping the ?social? as too narrow), or ?corporate citizenship?, or ?building a sustainable business?. One Nordic executive glories in the job title of director, accountability and triple-bottom-line leadership. All this is convoluted code for something simple: companies meaning (or seeming) to be good.[/SIZE][/FONT]
[FONT=verdana,geneva,arial,sans serif][SIZE=-1]Second, the scrolling list shows what a vast range of activities now comes under the doing-good umbrella. It spans everything from volunteering in the local community to looking after employees properly, from helping the poor to saving the planet. With such a fuzzy, wide-ranging subject, many companies find it hard to know what to focus on.[/SIZE][/FONT]
[FONT=verdana,geneva,arial,sans serif][SIZE=-1]Third, the [SIZE=-1]M&S [/SIZE]ticker demonstrates that [SIZE=-1]CSR[/SIZE] is booming. Whether through electronic screens, posters or glossy reports, big companies want to tell the world about their good citizenship. They are pushing out the message on their websites and in advertising campaigns. Their chief executives queue up to speak at conferences to explain their passion for the community or their new-found commitment to making their company carbon-neutral. A survey carried out for this report by the Economist Intelligence Unit, a sister company of The Economist, shows corporate responsibility rising sharply in global executives' priorities (see chart below).[/SIZE][/FONT]
[FONT=verdana,geneva,arial,sans serif][SIZE=-1]None of this means that [SIZE=-1]CSR[/SIZE] has suddenly become a great idea. This newspaper has argued that it is often misguided, or worse. But in practice few big companies can now afford to ignore it.[/SIZE][/FONT]
[FONT=verdana,geneva,arial,sans serif][SIZE=-1]Beyond the corporate world, [SIZE=-1]CSR[/SIZE] is providing fertile ground for think-tanks and consultancies. Governments are taking an ever keener interest: in Britain, for example, the 2006 Companies Act introduced a requirement for public companies to report on social and environmental matters. And the United Nations promotes corporate responsibility around the world through a New York-based group called the Global Compact. [/SIZE][/FONT]
[FONT=verdana,geneva,arial,sans serif][SIZE=-1]Business schools, for their part, are adding courses and specialised departments to keep their [SIZE=-1]MBA[/SIZE] students happy. ?Demand for [SIZE=-1]CSR[/SIZE] activities has just soared in the past three years,? says Thomas Cooley, the dean of New York University's Stern Business School. Bookshelves groan with titles such as ?Corporation Be Good?, ?Beyond Good Company? and ?The [SIZE=-1]A[/SIZE] to [SIZE=-1]Z[/SIZE] of Corporate Responsibility?.[/SIZE][/FONT]
cont'd...
