BANGKOK
BUSINESS BRIEF
Vol. No. 2, Issue No. 1
SPECIAL HOLIDAY ISSUE
Mid-December 2012/Mid-January 2013
Read new business briefs everyday at www.BBBrief.com
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Social responsibility for the individual By Dean Outerson
CSR is everywhere these days. Over the past 20 years, corporate social responsibility (CSR), has become a standard component of corporate strategy and corporate budgets, and it’s become the
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‘feel-good’ section of every annual report. CSR activities receive inordinate amounts of PR attention because every company executive wants maximum publicity for the good that they think they’re doing for their community, the environment, and the world. But ask any CSR consultant how they feel about the state of corporate social responsibility, and you’re liable to get a mixed response. Yes, it’s great that most companies are doing some form of CSR activity, but at the same, many companies are adding CSR projects because they think they must do something, and in many cases, the projects have nothing to do with the company’s
core business. Essentially, the CSR projects are just add-on activities that satisfy legal requirements, and as such, they lack any real social or community impact. At worst, they are just companies throwing money at the closest charity. As the concept of CSR evolves, some companies are starting to understand that in order for their CSR work to be effective, it must be sustainable, organic, and involve all of the stakeholders in the organization. But CSR professionals are also realizing that corporate social responsibility can’t just be an institution-driven initiative. CSR has to be broken down to its most basic part: the individual.
Social responsibility must be engaging to the people who are part of it, and must be driven by these same people, whether they’re employees, customers, suppliers, or shareholders of the corporation. In recent years, the concept of ISR, or individual social responsibility, has begun to gain some traction (PSR, or personal social responsibility, is also used), as the question “How can our company help?” is changing to “How can I help?”. So what exactly is ISR? According to a number of websites and blogs, ISR is commonly defined as “being responsible for our actions that affect communities outside our imStory continues on Page 12