With the holiday party season in full swing, bankers across America are faced with a dilemma: Do I tell people what I do for a living?
Bankers today fall just below lawyers and persnickety salespeople in the public’s esteem. Even President Obama pulled out the old pejorative “fat cats” to describe Wall Street types – and remind the public that these portly felines were at the root of the financial crisis we’ve endured.
Bankers aren’t used to this kind of scrutiny. No longer answerable only to shareholders or directors, bank leaders now have to consider how their institutions are being viewed in Washington and in communities across America.
So how can bankers burnish their image at a time like this? Here are three ideas: 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.
When communicating with people in The Netherlands, one of the easiest ways to get in dutch is to refer to their country as Holland. North and South Holland are just two of the 12 provinces in The Netherlands. Calling the whole country Holland is like referring to the United Kingdom (or Great Britain) as England. (For that matter, it’s like referring to the United States as America when you are speaking to Canadians.)
These are just a couple of small examples of the kind of idiomatic and cultural knowledge it is increasingly important to have, whether writing a speech, an article, a report or any other communications tool aimed at reaching a foreign audience. Read
As pressure on Discretionary Federal spending – the largest chunk of which resides in the Defense budget – mounts under the impact of recession-related deficits, wartime spending, and the Obama Administration’s ambitious social spending agendas, DoD planners are looking for ways to get more combat capability out of the military services’ existing weapons inventories. One answer, likely to come in for enhanced DoD spending even in a challenging budget environment, is the entire field of C4ISR. Read
Net neutrality is a big issue brewing before the Federal Communications Commission. Should we keep the Internet free from government interference or let the government regulate it (net neutrality)? That’s the question on the US News and World Report online survey. A “no” vote indicates less government interference. Take a minute and vote.
Should the FCC Mandate “Net Neutrality” and Regulate Internet Fair Play?
This is a story I heard in Brussels. A globally prominent CEO was having troubles with the EU’s competition commission. He announced he was coming to town. He arrived with a fleet of black cars. He insisted on a reserved elevator to take him to his meeting.
The result: His company’s troubles with the commission continued for years.
Remember two things in dealing with Brussels.
First, the commission staff is made up of genuine experts in their fields. If you talk to them knowledgeably and with clarity, they will listen and they will hear.
Second, treat the staff with respect. Don’t sweep in like the king of the world. Show some humility. The staff knows you have your job to do. Show that you know they have theirs.
In every lawsuit or Supreme Court appeal we have worked on, the heart of our approach is to start early.
We don’t wait until the week before the trial or the oral arguments to brief key reporters. We go to them months before and walk them through the issues in the case. We get them fully up to speed — early.
Then we keep in touch.
This way, when the action heats up, they will already know our side of the story and our chances of favorable or at least balanced coverage go way, way up.
Even reporters inclined to dislike our corporate clients appreciate being treated with professional respect and, in most cases, respond accordingly.
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.
Trade negotiators for the EU and Latin American countries may soon be able to say ‘yes, we have no bananas’ crowding their trade agenda. According to a report from the Financial Times, an end to the world’s longest-running trade dispute — involving preferential EU tariffs on bananas — may soon be in sight. The newspaper suggests that a resolution of the 16-year-old conflict may give a boost to the World Trade Organization’s floundering Doha Round negotiations, especially if it leads the way to a resolution of tariffs on dozen of tropical products. Read