CSR Archive - AMAIDI

World saviour wanted

Tanja Siebert — Sun, 31 Mar 2019 16:19:23 +0000

Corporate Social Responsibility

In the past, it used to be called civic engagement or simply neighbourhood help, but today people prefer to fall back on less outdated terms such as “corporate social responsibility” or “corporate citizenship” when companies are active in the environmental and social fields. The increasing discussion about corporate social responsibility is also increasing their involvement in social projects, which are often portrayed as altruistic in Sunday speeches.

In contrast to the 1990s, when shareholder value was the top priority, most companies today include all interest groups in their corporate objectives and pursue a more holistic stakeholder dialogue. This is because many sectors of the economy have recognized that they can shape and influence their direct environment through CSR programs – without expensive advertising campaigns. However, an interference of the legislator for the purpose of uniform standards in this mostly altruistically praised commitment is not desired, because every company wants to determine the degree of responsibility for itself.

Internal company initiative often leads to public commitment
In “social volunteering”, companies assign their employees to work for a non-profit cooperation partner for one or more days. For example, management consultants swap their suits for painters’ coats and renovate a kindergarten or create a wetland biotope in a primary school. Volunteer agencies act as intermediaries between companies and institutions in need of help. These agencies then find a suitable cooperation partner in the respective region for the requests and offers of a company.

Monika Nitsche, head of the Munich agency “Tatendrang”, observes that it is mainly companies from the consulting and communication sectors that ask for “Social Days”. The initiative for a social commitment usually comes from a special working group of the workforce or directly from the marketing department of a company.

Sustainable bonds and long-term commitment
The Munich-based volunteer agency itself benefits from the principle of “corporate volunteering”, because as a pro bono client of an advertising agency, its own level of awareness could be increased enormously through a new web presence. Under the slogan “Donate time instead of money”, Tatendrang organizes, for example, the bookmark campaign, supports a resettlement program of the city of Munich and organizes the annual “Marketplace of Good Business Munich”, according to its own presentation, a “speed dating” for non-profit organizations with companies. At this event the local economy offers time donations for good causes.

This often results in a long-term cooperation that goes beyond a one-time assignment of a company and is also continued in the private sphere of the employees. These ties are especially important to Monika Nitsche: “We do not support zapping in the social sector, but always want to show the perspective of a long-term partnership. The interests of the non-profit sector are paramount, which is why there is no room for events in our company”.

Self-interest and common good
When asked whether, in times of economic crisis, many a company that has acquired a bad image during the crisis wants to polish up its own reputation in the public eye through social commitment, Monika Nitsche admits: “Of course we question the motivation of companies. At the same time, it is clear to us that the companies see a concrete benefit in their CSR strategy”. But ultimately, the non-profit cooperation partners are free to choose whether or not they want to work with an investment bank or a telecommunications company.

At the end of the day, the only thing that matters is the number of hours of the service provided. And unlike in the real economy, this cannot be converted into money. Because all work has the same value and represents a sustainable commitment to society.

Author: Manuel Boecker https://www.jobware.de/Karriere/Corporate-Social-Responsibility.html

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Creating Shared Value

Tanja Siebert — Fri, 18 Feb 2011 14:45:18 +0000

The capitalist system is under siege. In recent years business has been criticized as a major cause of social, environmental, and economic problems. Companies are widely thought to be prospering at the expense of their communities. Trust in business has fallen to new lows, leading government officials to set policies that undermine competitiveness and sap economic growth. Business is caught in a vicious circle.

A big part of the problem lies with companies themselves, which remain trapped in an outdated, narrow approach to value creation. Focused on optimizing short-term financial performance, they overlook the greatest unmet needs in the market as well as broader influences on their long-term success. Why else would companies ignore the well-being of their customers, the depletion of natural resources vital to their businesses, the viability of suppliers, and the economic distress of the communities in which they produce and sell?

It doesn’t have to be this way, say Porter, of Harvard Business School, and Kramer, the managing director of the social impact advisory firm FSG. Companies could bring business and society back together if they redefined their purpose as creating “shared value”—generating economic value in a way that
also produces value for society by addressing its challenges. A shared value approach reconnects company success with social progress.

Firms can do this in three distinct ways: by reconceiving products and markets, redefining productivity in the value chain, and building supportive industry clusters at the company’s locations. A number of companies known for their hard-nosed approach to business—including GE, Wal-Mart, Nestlé, Johnson & Johnson, and Unilever—have already embarked on important initiatives in these areas. Nestlé, for example, redesigned its coffee procurement processes, working intensively with small farmers in impoverished areas who were trapped in a cycle of low productivity, poor quality, and environmental degradation. Nestlé provided advice on farming practices; helped growers secure plant stock, fertilizers, and pesticides; and began directly paying them a premium for better beans. Higher yields and quality increased the growers’ incomes, the environmental impact of farms shrank, and Nestlé’s reliable supply of good coffee grew significantly. Shared value was created.

Shared value could reshape capitalism and its relationship to society. It could also drive the next wave of innovation and productivity growth in the global economy as it opens managers’ eyes to immense human needs that must be met, large new markets to be served, and the internal costs of social deficits—as well as the competitive advantages available from addressing them. But our understanding of shared value is still in its genesis. Attaining it will require managers to develop new skills and knowledge and governments to learn how to regulate in ways that enable shared value, rather than work against it.

Source: hrb.org

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The Link Between Competitive Advantage and Corporate Social Responsibility

Tanja Siebert — Mon, 18 Dec 2006 14:38:56 +0000

Governments, activists, and the media have become adept at holding companies to account for the social consequences of their actions. In response, corporate social responsibility has emerged as an inescapable priority for business leaders in every country.

Frequently, though, CSR efforts are counterproductive, for two reasons. First, they pit business against society, when in reality the two are interdependent. Second, they pressure companies to think of corporate social responsibility in generic ways instead of in the way most appropriate to their individual strategies.

The fact is, the prevailing approaches to CSR are so disconnected from strategy as to obscure many great opportunities for companies to benefit society. What a terrible waste. If corporations were to analyze their opportunities for social responsibility using the same frameworks that guide their core business choices, they would discover, as Whole Foods Market, Toyota, and Volvo have done, that CSR can be much more than a cost, a constraint, or a charitable deed—it can be a potent source of innovation and competitive advantage.

In this article, Michael Porter and Mark Kramer propose a fundamentally new way to look at the relationship between business and society that does not treat corporate growth and social welfare as a zero-sum game. They introduce a framework that individual companies can use to identify the social consequences of their actions; to discover opportunities to benefit society and themselves by strengthening the competitive context in which they operate; to determine which CSR initiatives they should address; and to find the most effective ways of doing so. Perceiving social responsibility as an opportunity rather than as damage control or a PR campaign requires dramatically different thinking—a mind-set, the authors warn, that will become increasingly important to competitive success.

Source: HRB.org

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