Woodseer Management Consulting www.woodseer.com Jean-Michel Piedagnel - Principal consultant
Success in CSR I tend to agree with those who think that CSR is maintaining the status quo in business practices. We are far away from the existence of a new social movement in business as advocated by (welcomed) optimists. It is mainly a marketing exercise and it’s too late to change that aspect of CSR. In Malaysia, everything is labeled CSR. A bunch of people from the same company that decide to go and collect old plastic bags in the forest, it’s CSR. Those three letters have become the “uber-tweet” replacement for charity, development, philanthropy, peace in the world and all other frustrated agenda. We cannot blame the public or the media for this confusion. A quick look at the headlines of most CSR newsletters and bulletins is self-explanatory. It is a summary of all the “good” things that happen in the world in the last week. CSR is too much about doing good, which in essence is a relative concept. What’s good for me is not necessarily good for you. Before we even thing of assessing the success of CSR, there is a need to narrow down expectations on businesses. I am happy to think that CSR is driven by an emerging political awareness that we need to transform the world and the economy. This need is mainly driven by the environmental agenda. This is where the general consensus is. As to whether CSR is about making the world fair, we might find no such agreement that would translate into implementing changes in businesses. We cannot expect companies, at least the majority of them, to be at the forefront of that battle. It’s essentially a political battle. Companies are conservative by nature, their biggest strategic struggle is often to adapt to changes and keep innovative and creative. Success in CSR can only be looked at from narrower prisms than what we do at the moment. The environmental impact is a key, and immediate, one. There is now clarity on how businesses can deliver on that topic. Best practices for human resources are a vastly under-estimated area of improvement. I often wonder why it is not higher on our CSR agenda. What better impact can a company have on society than providing a working environment where individuals can strive, develop and be professionally fulfilled? Sustainability is also starting to be a busy agenda where we might struggle to identify clear successes. Everything is sustainability. However, it is a key aspect of CSR for businesses. This area needs more thoughts. This article is in reaction to a post What will success look like for the CSR Movement? on Jem Bendell’s journal. 1
Friday, August 14, 2009