i) Communities and Civil Society

Professor of Medicine and Management at McMaster University and Principal of the Directors College, opines that “In some ways, in order to think about a corporation’s long-term sustainability, one needs to think about a broader range of stakeholders, it’s no longer around shareholder primacy.”

It is the view of some Survey Participants that a business that looks to do good for society will be rewarded by its stakeholders. The types of rewards vary: garnishing support of civil society; making it easier to obtain social licenses; improving employee recruitment, retention, and productivity; attracting more customers and enhancing customer loyalty; and more. Moreover, many of the Survey Participants believe the inverse to be true; a business that does not look to do good for society will be penalized by its stakeholders.

Almost all Survey Participants agree that there is more pressure from stakeholders on businesses today than in the past. “Society is expecting more from business,” states Chuck Magro. The Right Honourable David Johnston goes even further submitting, “there’s more pressure on business today than there had been in many other times in history.” Scott Banda believes, “there’s pressure on business to step up. I believe it’s coming from civil society, from communities. I definitely believe there is pressure.”

The pressure being put on businesses includes increased expectations that they will contribute more to societal projects and in particular, the fight against climate change, the efforts to dramatically reduce systemic inequalities and inequities in society, and the battle against the COVID-19 pandemic only to name a few. Brianna Brown explains how almost all stakeholders are applying this pressure on businesses, “Employees are demanding action on the societal challenges we face. Each stakeholder group is asking for change in their own ways.”

There is no question that a large number of stakeholders are voicing their willingness to inflict consequences or grant rewards based on how effectively and genuinely they judge businesses to be reacting to their new and heightened expectations. We examine the perceived influence of different stakeholder groups in the following pages.

i) Communities and Civil Society

“We would not be able to do the work that we do and scale the impact that we have without the relationships that we have with our community partners.” – Kevin Sitka, President & CEO of Assiniboine Credit Union

Many Survey Participants note the importance of a business contributing to the communities in which it operates. Jean La Rose is of the view that it is pivotal for a business to do what it can to better its communities and declares, “There is nothing wrong with a business wanting to make money in order to survive, as long as it is done in a way that it also reflects and works well with the community.”

Vicki Wallace-Godbout affirms, “You have to mix profit and the good of the community together. If a business isn’t listening to the community, it will hurt the business. If we don’t have the support of the community, we won’t go far.” Likewise, Cathy Glover believes it is a must for a business to share the value it creates with its community, “Your business will not succeed unless your community succeeds.”

Jean La Rose goes even further and opines that businesses need to be involved with their communities and advocates that a business should not simply financially support good causes, they should also be a part of them. Goldy Hyder is of the same view, “It’s not sufficient to write a cheque to something anymore, people want to see you committed to the cause.”