I happened to read two articles on Corporate Social Responsibility recently that got me thinking. The first was an opinion piece that hit the mark... sort of. You can read it here.
Modern CSR means going beyond the surface.
Unfortunately, the title “CSR has served its purpose. Now it’s all about advocacy” is hugely misleading. The author takes issue with organizations labeling their philanthropic efforts as Corporate Social Responsibility initiatives. But it’s about the choice of words as a descriptor, not the intention, that he takes issue with.
(Where have we heard that before?)
A glance at the title and main photo and you’d be left with the impression the world needs all of its corporations to become like Nike and find their version of Colin Kaepernick.
It’s not, and I’m not advocating for that either.
What I do agree with is addressing a cause in a way that involves more than cutting a cheque.
Which brings me to the second story I read (found here). The short version: a business owner found incremental success with stand-up comedy training, extended said training to staff, then began running stand-up nights with its staff for benefit of charities.
While I’m supportive of the act itself, I do take issue with portraying their program as a template for others. This is an approach that was tacked-on to the business’ operation, not integrated with it. It’s a result of the owner’s passion. Without that individual, what is the likelihood the program will endure when a new leader steps-in with a particular passion for… let’s say... hockey?
(If interested, I would be happy to relate my example of this challenge when I was an employee in a Public Relations department.)
The reality is there is an infinite number of options available to organizations to find a way to align their core business objectives with social good. This is a viewpoint that is gaining traction.
Much was written last year about the Harvard Business Review story (read here) recounting how senior leaders from 181 American corporations signed-on to a declaration that prioritizes business results that go beyond simply driving profits and shareholder value. I’m not going to debate that here.
What I do encourage is searching for a program that the whole company can get behind. The most effective path to that destination is for it to evolve from something small, preferably created in-house, and extrapolated to a larger commitment. But it doesn’t have to be that way. The critical component is that it needs to be integrated within the core business to have any hope of acceptance or longevity. And, when you get it right, your employees and customers might just thank you.
In my next post, I’m going to outline an idea I have for the auto industry in this vein. It’s specifically for the type of franchise-based, sales-and-marketing organizations we have in Canada.
Stay tuned...
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