Josh Gilder said it best when he wrote “the primary flaw in most thinking about corporate responsibility is that it assumes that all profit-making corporations are rapacious predators.”
That’s certainly the perspective American Public Media’s Marketplace holds toward American business. A recent report looked at the effect the BP oil spill has had on socially responsible investing.
At the heart of the conversation was the notion that oil and gas companies are inherently bad and therefore any direct – or indirect – investment in them is inherently irresponsible. Read
Dolly Parton may have had it right when she recorded that song in 1980, but the days of juggling it all in a 9am-5pm world are numbered.
Newsweek has a great article about how the down economy is actually helping change the culture of corporate America, by encouraging more flexible workdays:
Now, one in five Americans works mostly nonstandard hours—nights, weekends, or rotating shifts. Experts believe that statistic will balloon in coming years as the Great Recession accelerates a cultural shift in the corporate world, allowing more employees to tailor their work schedules to preference, position, and personal life. Read
Thursday is Earth Day – it also marks the 40th anniversary of the environmental movement. And while being green is very much in vogue today, it appears to be a trend on its way out.
It’s hard to avoid the green message – it permeates television, movies, online social networking sites, corporate messaging and the fashion industry. And businesses regularly seek out ways to balance the environment with their bottom line. But the question is: With all this eco-focused media and entertainment, are Americans still giddy for green? Read
A recent article in the McKinsey Quarterly gets it right: authors Tracey Keys et al talk about CSR as a “creative opportunity to fundamentally strengthen [one’s] businesses while contributing to society at the same time.” The usual approaches – i.e. “pet projects” that reflect “the personal interests of individual senior executives or “propaganda” designed to build a company’s reputation – both fail the test of sound CSR, which they define as “the opportunity for significant shared value creation.” Definitely worth a read.
Try googling the phrase, “businesses should put something back into society.” Philip Booth, writing in the latest issue of the Journal of the Institute of Economic Affairs got 21.7 million hits. I tried it, and got over 30 million. So the idea must be growing in popularity by the minute.
As Booth points out, “giving back to society” is the fundamental idea behind most discussions of corporate responsibility. But it’s fair to ask, don’t businesses by their very nature give to society? Certainly, every profitable business, by definition is giving something to society that people want – indeed, something they want so much they’re willing to pay for it. They might even be willing to work for the money to pay for it, thereby doubly benefiting society.
The primary flaw in most thinking about corporate responsibility is that it assumes that all profit-making corporations are rapacious predators (on the environment, natural resources, the disadvantaged – you fill in the blank). CR thus becomes, effectively, a way of paying reparations for their otherwise nasty behavior.
It’s pretty certain, however, that the people who invented and are continually refining the computer chip (to give one example) have done more for human well-being and happiness, as well as the environment, the husbanding of natural resources and the disadvantaged (you fill in the blank) than all the CR campaigns since the beginning of the world put together — and they all did it to make a profit.
As companies are increasingly making room at the table for corporate responsibility officers, business schools are responding to this newest component of corporate America.
According to an article in this week’s WSJ, schools like Boston College’s Carroll School of Management and California Berkeley’s Haas School of Business have become valuable resources for companies seeking advice on managing effective CR campaigns.
The Carroll School recently created an “invite-only” online networking site for businesses interested in exchanging ideas with peers. Others, like MIT’s Sloan School of Management, offer companies custom-designed courses to fit their CR needs.
In a time of economic uncertainty creativity is a must. And B-schools have learned corporate social responsibility is not only big in business; it’s good business for them, too.