#it also might be called a CSR or corporate social responsibility program

[rinri]

If you work at a company with a corporate giving program (i.e. using a SaaS like Benevity) ask the relevant dept if they can create a matching campaign (it's early enough in the year that they've reset - cuz I know many companies have "limits" - but the sooner the better!).

There's no politics here, it's fundamental women's health and human rights.

hey btw

$10 buys a (1 month) menstrual hygiene kit for sudanese women

$30 buys a (more comprehensive) menstrual & general hygiene kit for gazan women

please match my donation if you can & please share these links 🇸🇩🇵🇸

[tariniag]

Maximizing Corporate Social Responsibility Impact: 

Partnering with Marpu Foundation for Sustainable Development Goals.

Introduction:

While donations are extremely helpful, we have another valuable, useful tool in our arsenal, all of us. Our time. Our attention. Contributing our time to volunteering work, or paying attention and bringing attention to these issues increases the rate of change exponentially. Calling for action on the internet, on social media is one of the ways we can expose the issue to a lot of people. In our society, it's crucial to start at the beginning with strategies that should be implemented nation-wide, that would cover a lot of basic goals. Promotion of basic CSR which furthers our SDGs.

The corporate social responsibility or CSR represents the practices a business might undertake for the benefit of society and the environment. It is imperative to Sustainable Development Goals or SDGs, that an organization take note of how it’s actions impact the environment and the social order, through ethical and transparent methods that not only prevent the detriment of peoples’ lives but contribute to the opposite. In some good news, the reporting rate of CSR has increased exponentially in the last few decades, shooting up to 90%, from 1999 to 2017. Despite the fact that CRSs are still seen as a rope tying hands in some places, instead of the opportunity they are of innovation, we have come a long way. The employment rate currently is the highest it’s ever been, the space for women in men-dominated fields is the highest it’s ever been, and so on and so forth. While we still have a long way to go, it’s important to note how much ground we and many organizations have already covered and let it’s success inspire us.  

‘Marpu’ or Change:

Being quite a big fan of literature in general, I feel urged to point out not only that ‘these changes come not from pity, but love’ as Mother Teresa said. A love of people, a love of peace and a love of humanity. But also from hatred. From hatred of unnecessary suffering, of suffering that can be easily erased and of suffering that is unjust. This work that raises us and that ‘makes our life, not living’ as Winston Churchill pointed out, comes from empathy, kindness and a thought for others. This work is done when we think of not what we need, but what is needed from us and where. This is the work that ‘The Marpu Foundation’ does.

The Marpu Foundation:

The Marpu Foundation, rooted in the vision of the affectionately called, ‘Environment Man’, is doing the work that is needed. All over the country. While based in Telangana, they are spread across 20 different states and union territories, they have made a significant amount of difference, and they continue to do so. They have excellent staff and systems to allow regions to stay connected and keep track of the impact that they’ve made, especially with their plantation program. They were awarded the, ‘The Best NGO in India’ in 2020, along with the ‘NGO of the Year- Empowering Environment’ at the NGO Awards summit 2022, though, suffice to say, it isn’t recognition or awards that earned them the respect that they have, it is the vast and tangible impact that they’ve had.

Their work for the environment is particularly important and impressive to me. With their water management projects, they aim to do work that lasts and can stand the test of time. Restoring lakes and with it restoring the livelihood of all that depend on it, harvesting rainwater and bringing back ecological balance is a part of it. They are building towards a sustainable future with sun-powered cities and communities. Not to mention the sheer amounts of plants they’ve planted, across the country.   

They also, unsurprisingly, have made incredible headway in medicine and healthcare. Most notably, they’ve made mobile, portable hospitals to efficiently and properly provide disaster relief. What’s incredibly demonstrated here is a strong foundation of understanding of how emergency medicine works and where by the foundation. In terms of literature, Marpu would be the character we look up to and are inspired to be like, in it’s willingness to stand up for people. A hero and a savior during our times of uncertainty.

Their work for the environment is particularly important and impressive to me. With their water management projects, they aim to do work that lasts and can stand the test of time. Restoring lakes and with it restoring the livelihood of all that depend on it, harvesting rainwater and bringing back ecological balance is a part of it. They are building towards a sustainable future with sun-powered cities and communities. Not to mention the sheer amounts of plants they’ve planted, across the country.   

Another thing that is equally heartwarming is their constant collaboration with CSR and non-profit work. CSR by them reminds us of what the minimum should be, and at the same time forces us to strive for more. It sets the standard for what all should strive for. I would say that collaboration is at the heart of this foundation. The volunteers are heart and the implement for action. All are urged to checkout the foundation’s various social media profiles, as well as their website. We can make a difference. We are the difference. 

[kccitmblog]

Key Skills You Can Learn at a Management College in Greater Noida

Management education helps to create tomorrow's leaders equipped with the necessary skills to be successful in the business world. If you are thinking of pursuing your MBA in Greater Noida, you might wonder what skills you will develop in your process. This post will outline the key skills you can acquire as a student in a management college in Greater Noida, including how you will develop those skills for a future career.

1. Strategic Thinking and Decision Making

One of the most robust skills you will develop in MBA colleges is strategic thinking. Management programs will train students how to interpret market trends and anticipate challenges by developing business strategies. Through case studies, business simulation exercises, and real-life projects, you will learn how to use data to make decisions that drive the success of an organization.

2. Leadership and Team Management

Top MBA colleges in Greater Noida enhance leadership development. Students work together on group projects, co-leadership workshops, and mentoring programs that will reinforce their ability to lead teams.  You will have the opportunity to develop relevant decision-making, emotional intelligence, and conflict management.

3. Financial Acumen

Any manager needs to understand the principles of finance. Students who attend MBA colleges come away with an understanding of finance; they are financially literate and learn how to read financial statements, budget, and make effective investment decisions regarding their business. This knowledge can be helpful in both growth and stability in your business.

4. Marketing and Branding

Once again, a strong basis of marketing is also a critical skill being developed by students in MBA colleges. Students learn about market research, consumer behavior, digital marketing strategies, branding, and positioning marketing. Through industry experience and hands-on projects, future managers learn how to build and manage brands effectively.

5. Entrepreneurial Mindset

Once again, MBA programs foster an entrepreneurial mindset. The programs encourage students to look at life and business through a creative lens and take risks in a calculated manner. Many of the top MBA colleges in Greater Noida even provide incubation centers and start up mentorship programs to provide support for student entrepreneurs and their ventures.

6. Communication and Negotiation Skills

Communication is one of the most important skills in the field of management. At the top MBA colleges in Greater Noida, students are developing their verbal and written communication skills. Negotiating is also essential for any manager and is taught who students how to work through business deals, minimize conflict, and influence multiple stakeholder groups.

7. Problem-solving and Critical Thinking

Organizations tend to favor workers who are quick to solve problems as they arise. Because of this, MBA programs emphasize case study analysis, critical thinking exercises, and real-world business conditions and challenges to facilitate student development of something called "logical reasoning," or better, "innovative problem-solving."

8. Human Resource Management & Organizational Behavior

MBA students have a great opportunity to study human resource management, particularly the acquisition of talent, the appraisal of performance, and the engagement of employees. We also study a large amount of organizational behavior in future managers to support productive work environments and enhance team performance.

9. Business Ethics & Corporate Social Responsibility  

The best MBA colleges in greater Noida emphasize ethical practices in business and corporate social responsibility (CSR). Students look at sustainable business practices, ethical business leaders, social impact initiatives, and being aware of the impact of business practices on society.

10. Project Management & Operational Excellence

Time is valuable in the corporate world and so is project management. Every MBA college will teach students how to plan, execute, and oversee projects. The colleges also introduce some principles like Six Sigma, Lean Management, and Agile Methodology. This ensures that an MBA graduate can improve efficiency, operational excellence, or employee satisfaction in the organizations they work for.

11. Networking and Relationship Building

Establishing solid professional networks is crucial for career advancement. MBA colleges offer a variety of networking platforms, such as industry conferences, alumni gatherings, and corporate meetings that help students build relationships leading to job offers and business partnerships.

12. Global Business Perspective

In an increasingly connected global environment, understanding the nature of global business is important. Many of the best MBA colleges in Greater Noida offer students many opportunities to participate in exchanges, including international case studies, and experiences working with multinational corporations, to prepare them for operating in global and cross-cultural business contexts.

13. Technological Adaptability and Digital Transition

The pace of technological change means opportunities for businesses are changing and evolving constantly. Universities and MBA colleges are providing students with the latest digital platforms for work, as well as teaching technical issues to do with artificial intelligence, machine learning, data analytics, blockchain technology, and cybersecurity. Staying up to speed with developments in technology is critical to staying competitive in the 21st century.

14. Time Management and Productivity Skills

The ability to keep track of and manage multiple projects, assignments, and team tasks is an important skill of any business leader. MBA programs usually provide students with training in time management techniques, assignment prioritization techniques, and productivity hacks and tricks that can enhance their productivity while coping with stress and time pressures.

15. Crisis Management and Risk Management

Business environments can be volatile, and this means managers need to enter contexts of unpredictability and build ways to manage crises effectively. MBA program courses instruct students on risk assessment and management, business continuity plans, and crisis communication that build their confidence in successfully navigating challenging circumstances.

Also read :

Best Management Colleges in Delhi

Final Thoughts

Enrolling in an MBA program offers an unparalleled opportunity to gain the skills required to excel in the business world. Whether it’s strategic thinking, leadership, financial acumen, or digital expertise, the skills acquired at top MBA colleges in Greater Noida will set you apart from the competition.

If you aspire to become a successful business leader, choosing a reputable management college will be a transformative step toward achieving your career goals. The right MBA program will not only provide you with knowledge but also shape you into a confident, innovative, and future-ready professional.

[apacentrepreneur-blog]

CSR Importance in Building Competitive Business Structure

An organization, business, or company in any industry and sector can adopt particular self-disciplinary frameworks and implement certain programs whose vision and goals are to socially give back to society and the community. With the additional obligations of providing job opportunities and bringing in revenue, these organizations adopt a framework called Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), which contributes hugely towards social value as well as the growth of the company among many other benefits. A company undertaking the CSR program is not just to meet corporate governance but is the way to stand for something that makes a vast difference. Let us learn more about CSR in this article which follows the content of the need, importance, and benefits of CSR.

Why do we need CSR?

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), involves the programs and frameworks that are beneficial to society and comes with the social cause. This will help to build a good public image and in turn, help to secure more and maintain customers. Taking initiative in social causes will lead to better employees, high profits, and improved public image. If focused on the social problems it will help in the conversion of resistance to valuable resources and improve functionality of the organization to several folds.

Business long-term profits and benefits can be achieved through the performance of social welfare programs. A better society will support a better work culture and space which will maximize organizational growth. The intervention of the government in the company firm in terms of regulation will affect the decision-making. To avoid such intervention adopting the self-disciplinary framework by the organization would be beneficial.

Importance of CSR

The main aim of CSR is to maintain consumer protection. This might indulge all the privacy and security information of the customer. Environmental protection at both local and global levels either by involving with government programs or initiates by itself. Maintaining the standard and respect with the laborers or employees and their stakeholders or partners for the smooth and proper functioning of the organization. It also ensures in protection of human rights in the corporate society. The aim of CSR is the eradication and disagreement for the support to malfunctioning activities like corruption and bribery.

To Know more visit Apac Entrepreneur

Benefits of CSR

Some of the benefits of undertaking Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) are mentioned here. It profits in terms of financial results, and the business that considers the social cause will enjoy the benefits of positive growth in financial terms as it builds the public image and will improve recruitment of employees and retention of the trust by consumers and partners. The productivity of the company will increase with good environmental surroundings, as the employees’ participation and involvement in decision-making and other company-related activities will be enhanced.

The art of building brand reputation and public image with enhanced social activities or programs will create respect for the company along with which there will also be demand in the business community and more opportunities and openings for collaboration with the reputed patterns and stakeholders for the organization. This will help in creating a larger business organization and reaching your goals. The chance for access to capital will be increased when there is a strong involvement and initiative taken in the social programs under CSR.  

In recent years the alignment of Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) and Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) has gained the major focus. As the world has become aware of the damage caused to the environment and society by industries there is a necessity for the programs and activities to recover the impact. The inclusion of DEI in corporate culture proves to be very beneficial in the diverse workplace environment concerning – employee productivity and retention, motivation, collaboration, creativity, and innovation. These programs will not only meet the regulatory requirements but also help in the success and achieving the long-term goals of the organization.

Conclusion

In short, with modern business structures and operational schemes CSR is not just the ethical building practice, it also acts as the strategic approach to building the public image of the organization. Sustainable construction of a competitive business structure involves delivering quality products and services even the company must take responsibility of concerning societal and environmental well-being.

Visit More : https://apacentrepreneur.com/csr-importance-in-building-competitive-business-structure/

[doxampage]

Champion a Cause to Win Hearts, Loyalty, and New Print Customers

In 2019, Millennials (23-38 years old) will take over the earth as the largest living adult generation projected to number 73 million, according to the Pew Research Center.

Over 85% of Millennials correlate their purchasing decisions to RESPONSIBLE EFFORTS a company is making. (SquareSpace)

91% of Millennials would SWITCH BRANDS to one associated with a cause. (Cone Communications Millennial CSR Study)

There are a ton of facts and figures on this subject but most of us don’t need to look past the mirror to know that making a difference in some manner to something bigger than ourselves feels good… whether it’s dropping some change into a jar, dropping some clothes off at Goodwill, or dropping $20 for Girl Scout Cookies.

Finding a cause for your business to champion not only makes you feel good, but it also makes your customers feel good about working with you. Here are a few ways to start showing your support and growing yours.

Assess and Apply

Looking at your current customers, what common characteristics do the majority share? Geographical location? Industry segment? Age? Are they mostly men or women? Once you have the general persona defined, do a little research and choose a cause that will resonate with your base while holding true to the values you want to project for your business.

Seek and Ye Shall Attract

What customers do you want to be working with? The right cause can be an excellent door opening tool. This will entail some research into what the prospects of your dreams care about, the causes they are involved with personally and professionally, and causes their companies may champion. You don’t necessarily want to duplicate, but a tangent cause or one that overlaps to help support the main cause common denominator shows you are “one of us” from their perspective.

Authenticity Above All Else

I recorded a fantastic podcast with Vanecia Carr, Director of Customer & Brand Marketing at Domtar, about millennials and how the print industry can attract and maintain them throughout their career, or for at least 2-5 years since that is the average amount of time they stay in one place per Deloitte.

When the subject of causes came up, V, as she is known to all of us in the Printerverse, was quick to add that taking up a cause for the sake of having a cause is not sustainable or authentic. As a matter of fact, for Domtar sustainability is more than a cause, it’s the foundation of their business and a core company value to make the forests and towns that support their mills better for everyone. V adds that a cause is “a direct reflection of who a company is,” and the customers they attract through their community work, which goes way beyond sustainability, are already on board with supporting Domtar and their mission. That is some very powerful loyalty.

Avoid Landmines

Although there are exceptions, stay away from religious, social and political causes as your cause. An exception might be that your current customer base and prospects all share the same views across all the belief/support boxes, and you are willing to potentially alienate those who don’t fit into those boxes. If your business does fit into the exception, promote your cause/s in a self-contained environment… aka preach to the choir, directly. Once you share those beliefs out in the open, through ungated content or social media, you run the risk of commentary from opposing views and spending significant time monitoring those shares. You may gain some attention a few new supporters along the way, but you also may find this falls into the “was it worth it?” category more often, than not.

BeCAUSE it’s Still Marketing

There is always a fine line between doing something good, and self-serving promotion of it. When it comes to causes, however, telling your story is super important. Tell it through the people who have been helped, and keep the ‘you’ part to a minimum. Send an email announcement to your current customers letting them know that by working with you, they are helping the world. Send an announcement email to prospects about the cause your business is donating x% amount of profits to each year and how proud the company is to give back. Include a direct link to the cause for further information – NOT TO YOU! This is about attracting people who want to be involved with an authentic, giving company. Let them come to you, and make sure you have a page dedicated to this subject on your site that is easy to find, and navigate to from a mobile device.

Is Our Cause a Cause?

If you are looking for a cause to support, Print is a great one! There are a plethora of student scholarships that need support, the Graphic Communication programs in colleges need support, SkillsUSA and high-school vocational programs need support. Support Two Sides, a non-profit that fights corporate greenwashing on our behalf. There are more options, ask your industry org of choice for some suggestions.

If you have a cause to share with the Printerverse, please leave a comment with the info – even better – share the link to YOUR site where this info lives!

Support Long and Prosper!

Deborah Corn is the Intergalactic Ambassador to The Printerverse

at Print Media Centr, a Print Buyerologist

, industry speaker and blogger, host of Podcasts from The Printerverse, cultivator of Print Production Professionals the #1 print group on LinkedIn, Head Girl in Charge (H.G.I.C.) at GirlsWhoPrint, host of #PrintChat every Wednesday at 4PM ET on Twitter, the founder of International Print Day and the founder of #ProjectPeacock. She is the recipient of several industry honors including the 2016 Girls Who Print Girlie Award and sits on the boards of the Advertising Production Club of NYC and The Magazine Innovation Center at the University of Mississippi.

Deborah has 25+ years of experience working in advertising as a Print Producer. She currently provides printspiration and resources to print and marketing professionals through PMC, and works behind the scenes with printers, suppliers and industry organizations helping them create meaningful relationships with customers, and achieve success with their social media and content marketing endeavors.

Explore Podcasts From The Printerverse

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Connect with Deborah: Twitter / Facebook / LinkedIn / Instagram / YouTube / Pinterest / Print Production Professionals Group / deborah@printmediacentr.com

Please subscribe to PMC’s News from The Printerverse for PRINTSPIRATION delivered to your inbox 1x a month.

Calling all Girls Who Print!! The Women’s Print Mentoring Network is open, FREE, and ready to match mentors and mentees. Sign up today!

The post Champion a Cause to Win Hearts, Loyalty, and New Print Customers appeared first on Print Media Centr.

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[csrgood]

Pushing Beyond the Ordinary in Corporate Social Responsibility

Pushing Beyond The Ordinary In Corporate Social Responsibility

Corporate social responsibility—the practice of companies holding themselves accountable to serve a social purpose and make a positive impact—was not always the main focus of business leaders. Channel some profits into philanthropy, it was thought, and you’ve checked the CSR box.

Those days are long gone.

Clients now expect companies to be purpose-driven, and corporations know it: Between 2011 and 2018, the share of Fortune 500 companies publishing CSR reports grew from roughly 20 percent to more than 85 percent. During that period, CSR went from being a "nice-to-have" to a "must-have.

In fact, four of five people surveyed say corporations should prioritize purpose as much as profit, according to IBM’s recently published Global Purpose Study, conducted in November by Morning Consult. The study, which surveyed 7,020 people in 14 countries, also reflected that people have specific opinions, which vary based on country of residence and age, as to which kinds of CSR programs they most admire.

Still, there is widespread uncertainty about what makes CSR effective and how to get there.

We believe that over the next 10 years, effective CSR initiatives of purpose-driven companies will be characterized by three principles: business alignment, user-centricity and co-creation. No matter what kind of CSR framework you prioritize, these design principles can provide a strong foundation.

Business Alignment

In the “age of authenticity,” CSR should be woven into the fabric of an organization. If it's an afterthought, and fully dependent on the company's yearly profits, then CSR can become hard to scale and sustain. The goal for effective CSR is to make a real difference. If viewed as optional, it might never make a permanent impact.

If companies align their CSR efforts to the qualities that help make their business models great, they have a chance to do something extraordinary. So ask yourselves, “What makes our company special?” If you're a bank, don't limit yourself to staffing soup kitchens. Take the next step and help the unemployed with personal finance advice or job-seeking strategies.

If you are a tech company, and you know that there is a shortage of STEM-savvy students, and you recognize that there are severe educational disparities based on geography and ethnicity, then don't just donate computers or cash and hope for the best. Don't limit yourself to making the occasional visit to classrooms. Instead, reinvent the paradigm of education, and put your understanding of computer competencies to work. Build a skills pipeline for the private sector—one that will also move marginalized communities into well-paying careers.

That's what we did here at IBM, with the P-TECH education model we pioneered. P-TECH schools are innovative public high schools that enable students to graduate with a free associate’s degree in applied science, engineering, computer science or other competitive STEM disciplines. Industry partners such as IBM provide students with mentors and paid internships. To date, P-TECH schools have been announced in 24 countries, in collaboration with key education and industry partners.

User-Centricity

The most recent Nobel Prize in Economics was awarded to a trio of researchers who changed our understanding of world poverty, and how to alleviate it. Their innovation was in pinpointing the real faces of poverty, which turned out to be very different from the sweeping generalizations previously assumed by the Western world. That is what user-centricity is all about.

As technology evolves, the “age of the average” is drawing to a close. Instead of demanding access to goods and services designed for the “average consumer,” we now crave personalization in everything from entertainment to medicine.

User-centricity is at the core of most business models, and it should be driving social impact initiatives as well.

For example, if your company offers technical or vocational training to the community, don't just settle for generic workshops. Determine what skills are in demand, and analyze how local residents learn best. Then help them put their knowledge to use by helping them find a job.

We applied this user-centric approach to IBM’s new SkillsBuild online learning platform, which provides the unemployed, refugees, asylum seekers and military veterans with “career fit” assessments, training, personalized coaching and the experiential learning they need to succeed in today’s workforce. SkillsBuild draws on the best of IBM’s technology in open source, AI and beyond, and is designed to help equip underserved populations for the workforce of the future.

Our focus on the user was also at the heart of a digital tool, called the Cancer Guidelines Navigator. It is designed to help over-burdened, under-resourced oncologists across sub-Saharan Africa by providing treatment options in the NCCN Harmonized Guidelines ™ for sub-Saharan Africa for cancer patients. It had to be easy to learn and use, and it needed to take into account that oncologists and patients in sub-Saharan Africa don't have access to all of the same medications that Western countries have.

Co-Creation

What do P-TECH, SkillsBuild and the Cancer Guidelines Navigator have in common? They all benefit from co-creation—the involvement of multiple stakeholders at every stage of a product or project, from conception to design to implementation.

We couldn't have created the first P-TECH school without working directly with City University of New York and the New York City public school system. We couldn’t have expanded the P-TECH model, in which participating companies work with school districts to understand their unique curriculum needs, without engaging the business community—even competitors. Around the world, there are now more than 600 companies affiliated with the P-TECH model.

We couldn't have created SkillsBuild without working with the NGO partners that help enrollees find jobs. We couldn't have created the Cancer Guidelines Navigator without working with the American Cancer Society, Africa Cancer Coalition, Clinton Health Access Initiative and National Comprehensive Cancer Network.

Similarly, co-creation is at the heart of our work on the Traffik Analysis Hub, a first-of-its-kind international data sharing and analytics platform to disrupt the growing criminal industry of human trafficking. During its design and development, we partnered with financial institutions and NGOs to create a platform designed to capture information from multiple sources.

(For more detail on these guiding principles, you can view and download a full report, here.)

CSR can no longer be considered a branding exercise, to be developed in a vacuum with the goal of burnishing a company’s reputation. Creating purpose-driven CSR, of the caliber that clients worldwide are demanding, is not easy. But by prioritizing business alignment, user-centricity and co-creation, companies can consider themselves off to an excellent start.

source: https://www.csrwire.com/press_releases/43816-Pushing-Beyond-the-Ordinary-in-Corporate-Social-Responsibility?tracking_source=rss

[fiinovationopportunity]

The Truth About CSR

Most companies have long practiced some form of corporate social and environmental responsibility with the broad goal, simply, of contributing to the well-being of the communities and society they affect and on which they depend. But there is increasing pressure to dress up CSR as a business discipline and demand that every initiative deliver business results. That is asking too much of CSR and distracts from what must be its main goal: to align a company’s social and environmental activities with its business purpose and values. If in doing so CSR activities mitigate risks, enhance reputation, and contribute to business results, that is all to the good. But for many CSR programs, those outcomes should be a spillover, not their reason for being. This article explains why firms must refocus their CSR activities on this fundamental goal and provides a systematic process for bringing coherence and discipline to CSR strategies.

To understand how companies devise and execute CSR, over the past decade we conducted in-depth interviews with scores of managers, directors, and CEOs who are directly or indirectly responsible for their firms’ CSR strategies, and we have developed more than a dozen case studies on the topic. Most recently we surveyed 142 managers who attended Harvard Business School’s CSR executive education program during the past four years. Our findings were remarkably consistent.

About the Research

Despite the widely accepted ideal of pursuing “shared value”—creating economic value in ways that also create value for society—our research suggests that this is not the norm. Rather, most companies practice a multifaceted version of CSR that runs the gamut from pure philanthropy to environmental sustainability to the active pursuit of shared value. Moreover, well-managed companies seem less interested in totally integrating CSR with their business strategies and goals than in devising a cogent CSR program aligned with the company’s purpose and values.But although many companies embrace this broad vision of CSR, they are hampered by poor coordination and a lack of logic connecting their various programs. Although numerous surveys have touted the increased involvement of CEOs in CSR, we have found that CSR programs are often initiated and run in an uncoordinated way by a variety of internal managers, frequently without the active engagement of the CEO.To maximize their positive impact on the social and environmental systems in which they operate, companies must develop coherent CSR strategies. This should be an essential part of the job of every CEO and board. Aligning CSR programs must begin with an inventory and audit of existing initiatives. Our research and work with corporations across the geographic and business spectrum show that companies’ CSR activities are typically divided among three theaters of practice. Assigning CSR activities accordingly is a crucial first step.Theater one: focusing on philanthropy.Programs in this theater are not designed to produce profits or directly improve business performance. Examples include donations of money or equipment to civic organizations, engagement with community initiatives, and support for employee volunteering.Theater two: improving operational effectiveness.Programs in this theater function within existing business models to deliver social or environmental benefits in ways that support a company’s operations across the value chain, often improving efficiency and effectiveness. Thus they may—but don’t always—increase revenue, decrease costs, or both. Examples include sustainability initiatives that reduce resource use, waste, or emissions, which may in turn reduce costs; and investments in employee working conditions, health care, or education, which may enhance productivity, retention, and company reputation.Theater three: transforming the business model.Programs in this theater create new forms of business specifically to address social or environmental challenges. Improved business performance—a requirement of initiatives in this theater—is predicated on achieving social or environmental results. Hindustan Unilever’s Project Shakti (“empowerment”) in India provides a good example. Instead of using its customary wholesaler-to-retailer distribution model to reach remote villages, the company recruits village women, provides them with access to microfinance loans, and trains them in selling soaps, detergents, and other products door-to-door. More than 65,000 women entrepreneurs now participate, nearly doubling their household incomes, on average, while increasing rural access to hygiene products and thus contributing to public health. These social gains have been met by business gains for the company: As of 2012 Project Shakti had achieved more than $100 million in sales. Its success has led Unilever to roll out similar programs in other parts of the world.As Project Shakti demonstrates, theater three programs need not be comprehensive. Most are narrow initiatives undertaken with a focused market segment or product line in mind, but with significant potential to alter the company’s social or environmental impact and financial performance. Theater three initiatives almost always call for a new business model rather than incremental extensions.Although each CSR activity can be assigned principally to a single theater, the boundaries are porous: Programs in one theater can influence and complement those in another or even migrate. For example, a theater one initiative might improve the company’s reputation and consequently increase sales. Thus, while it was not designed to drive business results, it may end up doing so and as a result migrate to theater two. The valuable brand reputations of Tata in India, Grupo Bimbo in Mexico, and Target in the United States, to name just a few, are built in part on those companies’ philanthropic and community engagement.Similarly, activities in theater two may give rise to new business models and thereby migrate to theater three. Consider IKEA: Its People & Planet initiative calls for its entire supply chain to be 100% sustainable by 2020, even as the company aims to double sales by the same year. This aggressive goal is driving the development of new business models to close the post-consumer recycling loop. IKEA will have to radically alter how it designs furniture and, even more important, devise new models for collecting and recycling used furniture.Developing a Unified Practice PlatformOnce managers have inventoried their firm’s CSR activities, they can begin the rigorous undertaking of bringing discipline and coherence to the portfolio as a whole. Drawing on the experience of participants in HBS’s CSR executive education program and our research and consultancy with companies, we have developed a four-step process for doing so. The steps are often interactive and iterative and needn’t be followed in sequence, though all four must be executed. Companies seeking to coordinate established portfolios should begin with step one, which emphasizes rationalizing the programs within each theater. Companies building their first portfolios should start with step four, which focuses on developing an interdisciplinary strategy.1. Pruning and Aligning Programs Within TheatersWhile it may be unsurprising that CSR programs are often poorly coordinated across theaters, our research reveals that poor coordination is common even within theaters. Thus the initial step for many firms is to bring coherence to the existing programs in each theater. To do so, they must reduce or eliminate initiatives that do not address an important social or environmental problem in keeping with the company’s purpose, identity, and values. For example, a fast-food operator will be better served by a program that collects excess food from supply chain partners and delivers it to local food pantries than by an employee blood-donation program.Let’s look at how the large midwestern bank PNC unified a multitude of theater one philanthropic and community service projects, spread across numerous business units, behind a single cause. With $100 million in funding for the period 2010 to 2015, its Grow Up Great initiative provides school-readiness resources to underserved populations where the bank operates. Until the advent of the program, each PNC market had a CSR budget that regional managers allocated as they thought best, resulting in a well-intentioned but incoherent array of initiatives. Roughly 30% of aggregate funds were going to the arts, 25% to sports, 20% to civic activities, 5% to education, and 3% to health. Then-CEO Jim Rohr unified PNC behind Grow Up Great because of his long-standing commitment to early childhood education, the eagerness of many employees to engage with a local cause, and the program’s alignment with the bank’s community-development-oriented identity. By pruning its disparate CSR programs, gradually easing out those without an early education focus, and encouraging regional managers to redirect their discretionary budgets to early education, PNC has built a well-funded initiative that correlates better with its employees’ motivations and is likely to yield significant benefits to the communities the bank serves and relies on.The family-owned Mexican baking company Grupo Bimbo demonstrates alignment in theater two. Bimbo is the largest bakery in Mexico, with a workforce of nearly 100,000 and a similar number of small retailers in its network. Its comprehensive CSR programs focus on social welfare: It provides free educational services to help employees complete high school and offers supplementary medical care and financial assistance for dependents’ care to close the gaps in government health coverage. It also has a strong microfinance program to help its mom-and-pop retailers manage working-capital shortages and pay for small capital additions. As theater two initiatives, these are all explicitly intended to increase efficiency and effectiveness, and indeed they have improved employee performance and retention and strengthened Bimbo’s distribution chain.Aligning, then, is not about putting all your eggs in one basket, though that sometimes helps. It is about collecting activities that are consistent with the company’s business purpose and have a valuable social goal that the company cares about. Sooner or later activities that don’t fit these criteria have to go.2. Developing Metrics to Gauge PerformanceJust as the goals of programs vary widely from theater to theater, so do the definitions of what constitutes success. For example, theater one programs, as we’ve noted, are not designed to generate revenue or reduce costs, whereas theater three initiatives are. Therefore, measuring top- or bottom-line impacts would be irrelevant for the former but is essential for the latter.Gauging the success of a theater one program requires measuring its nonfinancial outputs. For Grow Up Great, PNC tracks the volunteer hours its employees spend reading to children and the increases in those children’s comprehension, along with the grant funding it provides to develop educational materials, the number of children receiving those materials, and the resulting improvement in school performance. It also measures additional funding that flows into early childhood education programs from other entities as a result of its advocacy efforts. Partnering with nonprofits or other third-party evaluators can help companies credibly gauge the social impact of their theater one activities.Coordinating initiatives does not mean they all address the same social or environmental challenge. It means they form a coherent portfolio in keeping with the firm’s purpose and values.Because theater two programs may generate revenue or reduce costs, measuring their performance calls on more-familiar, tangible approaches. These might include quantifying how energy- and waste-reduction initiatives impact the top or bottom line and improve air or water quality. Such measurements are commonly captured in corporations’ annual sustainability reports. UPS, for example, enlists an independent auditing firm to evaluate its progress on energy use and carbon emissions reductions and reports both the cost savings and the resource savings. Its most recent sustainability report includes its total CO2 emissions, the carbon emissions per mile driven by its fleet, the ground packages delivered per gallon of fuel used, and the number of miles driven by its alternative-fuel delivery vehicles. The report demonstrates both the environmental benefits of the company’s emissions reductions and the bottom-line benefits of its reduced fuel use.Not all theater two financial benefits are realized soon after investments are made, however, so companies looking for business gains from activities in this sphere need an ongoing system to track net present value. If benefits do not match expectations, corrective measures may be called for. And regardless of exactly how these factors affect business performance, a company must measure and report initiatives’ social and environmental benefits. This enables it to judge whether its investment has produced the desired societal gains—although sometimes theater two investments are made in anticipation of regulatory changes or market requirements and are best viewed as simply the cost of doing business.Because they generally involve new business models, theater three initiatives have particular measurement challenges. Consider Jain Irrigation, a global drip-irrigation-equipment supplier headquartered in India. Jain’s shared-value business model was explicitly designed to benefit India’s small, chiefly low-income farming landholders. Drip irrigation technology not only conserves water in a water-stressed environment but also supplies it in a controlled fashion, which helps increase agricultural yields. The company offers farmers microfinance loans to help them purchase its equipment, provides technical advice to help them increase productivity, and buys their output at guaranteed prices.Since creating societal value is essential to business success in this theater, firms must develop measures both of the social or environmental value produced by a new business model and of the financial results, and must demonstrate how the two are connected. In Jain’s case, the improvement in crop yields was dramatic. For a typical investment of $500 per hectare, farmers increased their gross income per hectare by anywhere from $500 to $6,000, depending on their crops. The added value created for its customers enabled Jain to boost its top line while retaining its operating profit percentage.Crucially for theater three initiatives, companies must demonstrate superior social or environmental value for their external stakeholders while maintaining or improving internal bottom-line targets—a goal sometimes attainable only in the long run. That’s why these initiatives, unlike those in theater two, may involve risky business decisions. However, if successful, they can transform companies into net positive contributors to societal well-being. These are questions every business should ask: Does our fundamental business enhance society? Do any of our products and activities diminish that goal, and if so, how can we mitigate or reverse them?3. Coordinating Programs Across TheatersCoordination across theaters does not mean that all initiatives should necessarily address the same social or environmental challenge. It means that taken together, they form a coherent portfolio, one whose initiatives are mutually reinforcing and consistent with the firm’s business purpose and values.Ambuja Cements, an Indian subsidiary of the Swiss conglomerate Holcim, illustrates such coordination. The founders of the company expressed a deep commitment to the communities where it sourced limestone and operated cement-production kilns. Ambuja’s CSR initiatives, encompassing both broad social welfare efforts and environmental conservation and protection programs, reflect that commitment. For many years after their inception they were largely theater one initiatives, managed by the Ambuja Foundation. But when Holcim acquired a controlling stake in the company, in 2008, it brought with it a more comprehensive focus on environmental and social sustainability. By 2010 Ambuja had initiated several plant-level environmental sustainability programs, mainly in theater two, to complement its corporate foundation programs. These included improved water management in the company’s plants, especially in drought-prone areas, and a concerted effort to increase the use of alternative fuels.Using our four-step methodology, Ambuja began in 2010 to proactively coordinate its portfolio of CSR activities across theaters. For example, its alternative fuels program, in theater two, led to the expansion of a theater one program for educating farmers about productivity practices, which now also includes instruction on recovering corn stalks, rice husks, and other farm waste—materials the company buys for use as biofuel.

In another instance of cross-theater coordination, Ambuja’s logistics managers identified the trucking fleet as an operational risk. The trucks were almost all owned by subcontractors, who often drove dangerously through villages as they transported limestone and cement. The managers realized that an accident could incur the villagers’ wrath and potentially halt trucking operations. So they asked the Ambuja Foundation to launch a driving safety program, which was later expanded to include health education on alcohol, tobacco, and HIV/AIDS. Here, too, a supply chain requirement in theater two sparked an education program in theater one.In a third example, a “water neutral” program in theater two, involving Ambuja’s mining operations, led to a highly successful program for “water recharge” (the replenishment of aquifers and other groundwater systems) in theater one, which gained significant financial support from the local government. As a result, the adjoining farmland has become much more productive and the company’s tracts of mined land, which would otherwise be fallow, have become arable. All this has enabled the company to push for an ambitious business-model transformation in theater three, where it can offer reclaimed land with good water (plus cash compensation) in exchange for new land to mine. Ambuja is now aiming to offset its plastic consumption by burning more waste plastic as fuel in its kilns than it uses to package its cement, and it is also attempting to significantly decrease its carbon emissions.4. Developing an Interdisciplinary CSR StrategyCoordinated support for CSR initiatives at the top levels of executive management is critical to success; we heard this consistently from CSR professionals during our research. Ideally companies should establish a position to be filled by someone whose primary responsibility is to integrate initiatives across all three theaters—regularly convening the key players in each theater to ensure ongoing communication and alignment—even if responsibility for individual initiatives remains dispersed.Yet such coordination is all too rare, and the range of purposes underlying initiatives from theater to theater and the wide variation in those initiatives’ management constitute major barriers for many companies. Purely philanthropic programs often reside with managers who have titles such as VP of corporate (or community) affairs; these CSR leaders commonly report to the HR chief and thus are two levels removed from the CEO. Alternatively, at large companies the head of the corporate foundation may handle philanthropy and community giving. Theater two initiatives are typically run by operations managers (and sometimes by environmental specialists), who may have a dotted-line reporting relationship to the VP of sustainability or the chief sustainability officer. CEOs, sometimes in concert with one or two senior managers, are more likely to become directly involved with shared-value initiatives, but our research indicates that this occurs at only about 30% of companies; in some cases CSOs have oversight, and often no single executive is in charge of these programs. With responsibilities spread among three sets of individuals at three different levels, it’s no surprise that companies often struggle to mold a coherent CSR vision.In one instance of cross-theater coordination, logistics managers identified the trucking fleet as an operational risk and asked for a driving safety program, which was later extended to health education.In our research and consultancy we’ve seen two effective approaches to CSR strategy development, one top down and the other largely bottom up. The latter approach first:In 2010 Ambuja established sustainability committees, which have oversight of all social and environmental activities, at both the plant and the corporate levels. The plant-level committee meets every month and funnels issues of companywide importance, such as driver safety training and alternative fuels, up to the corporate-level committee. Both groups include representatives from the Ambuja Foundation. The corporate committee also includes regional heads, who oversee the company’s plants; the foundation’s head; and the heads of corporate functions such as marketing and sales, HR, procurement, and land acquisition. At each corporate-level meeting, members discuss issues flagged by the plant-level committee along with concerns of their own. This process has enabled the coordination of theater one and theater two activities and the stretch toward a theater three transformation of Ambuja’s business model that we’ve described. The aspirational CSR goals of the company are to give back more than it takes from the community and to clean more than it pollutes in its manufacturing operations—a vision made possible only by this active input from across Ambuja and the effective coordination across the three theaters.IKEA has developed its blueprints in a top-down manner. When the company hired Steve Howard as its CSO, in 2011, it appointed him to its seven-person executive management group. This group, which includes the heads of all the operating divisions, sets the company’s vision and develops its strategy. Its work has facilitated the simultaneous pursuit of aggressive growth and bold sustainability plans we mentioned earlier, along with a social welfare initiative known as the IKEA Way—an array of programs related to preventing child labor and maintaining other labor standards throughout the supply chain. The sustainability agenda thus crafted at the top is being executed throughout the company.It’s neither practical nor logical for all companies to engage in the same types of CSR, since CSR programs are driven by diverse factors including the industry and the societal environments in which businesses operate and the motivations of the people who staff, run, and govern each company. For example, although a manufacturing company may have rich opportunities to reduce its environmental impact, a financial services company may be hard-pressed to do so—but it may be vastly more successful in the social sphere, with significant initiatives supporting financial inclusion and literacy. In a country lacking sufficient government funding for public health, a company’s philanthropic funding for clean water and sanitation may be far more valuable to the community than carbon mitigation initiatives to reduce climate impact, while a society that enjoys robust government provision for social welfare services may place greater importance on environmental conservation programs.Best-practices companies operate coordinated and interdependent programs across the CSR portfolio. Some of their initiatives indeed create shared value; some, though intended to do so, create more value for society than for the firm; and some are intended to create value primarily for society. Yet all have one thing in common: They are aligned with the companies’ business purpose, the values of the companies’ important stakeholders, and the needs of the communities in which the companies operate. These companies, of course, stand in stark contrast to those that are focused solely on creating value for their shareholders.A version of this article appeared in the January–February 2015 issue of Harvard Business Review.Content taken from : https://hbr.org/2015/01/the-truth-about-csr

[gravitascivics]

PROFITS OR MINDING ONE’S OWN BUSINESS

The last two postings of this blog addressed the role corporations play or should play within a federated arrangement.  Corporations themselves, in terms of structure, do adopt a federalist form. They provide the opportunity for regular folks to attain a vested interest in the welfare of publicly traded corporations by offering their stock. Stocks represent part ownership of some of the world’s richest and largest business entities.

         But there is a source of conflict; that is, the conflict between the financial interests of a stockholder versus the responsibilities of that stockholder as a citizen – a partner in the grand partnership under the auspices of its founding agreement, the US Constitution.  As a citizen, federation theory calls on each member to, at minimum, align his/her interests so that they do not oppose the general welfare of the nation.  But, at times (or is it most of the time?), corporations, in their efforts to maximize shareholder profits or dividends, have been accused, with reason, of implementing policies one can judge to be at odds with that general welfare.

         This eventuality has led to a developing set of court cases in which, for a variety of reasons, shareholders have sued corporate management when they deemed corporate policy has “shortchanged” them.  An initial case that set the tone for such cases was Dodge v. Ford Motor Company (1919).  In that case, the court mandated that Henry Ford, the chief executive of the car company bearing his name, cease expenditures that aimed at improving social conditions at the expense of the company’s profits and, in turn, dividends that would go to the shareholders.

         In that precedent-setting case, the shareholders won, and the last posting reviewed the relevant decision by the Michigan Supreme Court.[1]  That posting also provided information concerning subsequent cases (Shlensky v. Wrigley and Burwell v. Hobby Lobby) and how they affected this whole area of the law – “business judgement rule” and its related issues.  

This posting furthers that review by focusing on one of those related issues, corporate social responsibility (CSR).  This more targeted topic narrows one’s attention to the overall concern these postings aim at:  what are the responsibilities of a federated partner, be it a corporation, a person, or any other entity?

And this topic is not limited to federated arrangements.  It has gone global as it is a recurring concern business, political, and other leaders discuss at such meetings as the World Economic Forum Annual Meetings in Davos, Switzerland or forums run by the Center on Democracy, Development, and the Rule of Law at Stanford University.[2]

Certain factors have encouraged this more recent interest.  One, nations generally allow limited liability companies (LLCs) to protect the personal assets of individual investors that free them to issue corporate policies that might be questionable in terms of the effect they might have on others.  Two, the amount of political power corporations can accrue due to their financial strength.  And, three, the motivation corporations demonstrate to “behave” in accordance to social needs and wants in order to avoid government regulations.

One review of this corporate concern comments:

Managers are usually accorded significant latitude as long as they can point to a rational interpretation of their actions as benefiting the corporation as a whole in the long term.  The combination of economic and political power in the world’s largest corporations necessitates that executives consider the interests of a broader set of stakeholders, rather than only stockholders.  Indeed, social, environmental, and charitable programs often create shareholder value rather than take away from it.[3]

This writer enjoys watching golf on TV.  As the PGA tour makes its way across the country, conducting its individual events, each of those events is sponsored by some corporate entity.  During the weekend broadcast of these events, a corporate representative is interviewed by the program’s host.  Inevitably, he or she (overwhelmingly a “he”) boasts of how much money the event has generated for local charities.  Surely, this is a public relations ploy, but the funds do have real, beneficial consequences within those communities.

         All of this is considered the “moral minimum” that corporations are expected to fulfill.  And research indicates that this is only the beginning of how such concerns help corporations boost their profits instead of providing obstacles to doing so. Overall, they bestow what psychologists call a “halo effect” over those businesses.  People, consequently, tend to look at them positively as responsible and good neighbors.  One is more disposed to buy a product from a friendly, good-natured seller and these spots or sponsorships promote that image.

But this overall positive view does not go unchallenged.  And one can detect, among corporate policies, either a rejection of such strategies or deceptively projecting such an image but falling short of its demands.  For example, the corporate world is full of businesses that give token amounts to charities – often collected from others – while paying their workers below a living wage or denying them adequate health insurance.  Why?  To maximize profits by using what many see as short-term strategies.

And before one dismisses these “short-term” policies as merely exercises in greed, one should consider the justifications for it by reputable economists, including the late, Nobel Prize winner, Milton Friedman.  Friedman falls squarely as a natural rights advocate and, through his and others’ work, did much to define how that view has taken on a dominant position in how Americans see and understand governance and politics.

Central to Friedman’s argument in terms of CSR issues is his claim that people should have the option of how they should make contributions to social efforts such as charities.  That should include shareholders who do not buy stocks to make such contributions.  They surely do not need corporate managers making such decisions for them.  A corporation’s responsibility should be limited to following the laws – usually in the form of regulations – and maximizing profits so that the business can do what it is set up to do, make money.

In addition, it is safely in a corporation’s rights and even obligation to the owners of the corporation – its shareholders – to seek and use their legal political influence to minimize those regulations that affect the bottom line. And these arguments have found a receptive audience since World War II, especially back in the 1970s.  Of course, those are the years leading up to the Reagan era, in which natural rights thinking hit its apogee.

The next posting will ask:  are there responsibilities corporations have toward a federated union and, if so, what are they?  Federation theory, as opposed to natural rights theory, holds that there is a duty among corporations to advance or at least not be in opposition to the common good. While the term, fiduciary duty, might be too strong a standard, it is one that helps one analyze what the responsibilities of corporations, if any, toward that common good.  The next posting will utilize that concept to delve further into this concern.

[1] Robert Gutierrez, “From Cars to Lights to Hobbies,”  Gravitas:  A Voice for Civics, August 23, 2019, https://gravitascivics.blogspot.com/2019/08/from-cars-to-lights-to-hobbies.html AND “Dodge v. Ford Motor Company,” Case Briefs, n. d., accessed August 26, 2019, https://www.casebriefs.com/blog/law/corporations/corporations-keyed-to-klein/the-nature-of-the-corporation/dodge-v-ford-motor-co/ .

[2] “Business Ethics: Corporate Law and Corporate Responsibility,” BC Campus, n. d., accessed August 19, 2019, https://opentextbc.ca/businessethicsopenstax/chapter/corporate-law-and-corporate-responsibility/ .

[3] Ibid.

[makemoneyonlineprofit-blog]

A Retailer’s Guide to Corporate Social Responsibility: 7 Tips and Examples of CSR in Retail

https://120profit.com/?p=1130&utm_source=SocialAutoPoster&utm_medium=Social&utm_campaign=Tumblr Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is becoming an increasingly popular concept in the retail world. More and more merchants are realizing that giving back doesn’t just make the world a better place, it’s also good for business. Research has shown that 87% of customers consider CSR in their purchase decisions, and that “given similar price and quality, consumers [91%] are likely to switch brands to one that is associated with a good cause.” Clearly, engaging in corporate social responsibility can earn you extra points (and sales) from customers. That’s why if don’t have any CSR initiatives in place, you may want to cook up ways in which you can align your business with ethical practices and good causes. Here are a few ideas to help you do this: 1. Create special products for charity If you create or design your own merchandise, consider creating specific lines or products specifically for charity. That’s what Francesca, a jewelry retailer does, and it’s working out beautifully for them. According to their website, their business has raised over $87,000 to charity so far. Here’s how it works. Francesca has a number of jewelry pieces that were designed with specific charitable organizations in mind. For example, they have the Be Hers Medallion which was released in support of 2018 Be Her Freedom events. There’s also the Awareness Bracelet, which was created for the National Breast Cancer Foundation. Proceeds from sales of these pieces go directly their charity partners. 2. Create or participate in events that promote giving Every year, there’s an event called Giving Tuesday which is celebrated on the Tuesday following American Thanksgiving (this year it falls on November 27). This day is all about giving back. Businesses and consumers participate in charitable initiatives, and the movement is largely fueled by social media with the hashtag #GivingTuesday. Over the past few years, retailers have increasingly participated. There’s Petco, which donated pet toys to a number of animal shelters.Meanwhile, Draper James’, the clothing line owned by Reese Witherspoon, donated 100% of the proceeds from their #DJSisterhood collection to Girls Inc for Giving Tuesday. Now, you don’t have to wait for Giving Tuesday to come along in order to do something charitable. Most causes have dedicated awareness days or even months. October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month, while April is National Parkinson’s Awareness Month. Find the best time of year to raise awareness or funds for your cause, then launch a retail event for it. 3. Be conscious of how your products are sourced or manufactured While trying to lower production costs is just good business, don’t do it at the expenses of laborers or the environment. More and more consumers are starting to care about how products are sourced or manufactured. In fact, a lot of them would be willing to pay more for merchandise produced responsibly. As we cited in our post about competing with fast fashion, “an informal study of 390 consumers found that ‘over 75% of respondents agreed that they would be willing to pay more for clothing produced using responsible labor practices.’ Similarly, a YouGov poll found that 74% of shoppers ‘would be happy to pay an extra 5% for their clothes if there was a guarantee that workers were being paid fairly and working in safe conditions.’” Ask yourself, are your products sourced or manufactured responsibly? If you answered no or if you’re unsure, you may want to re-examine your suppliers. Get in touch and talk about their policies and working conditions to see if they’re upholding ethical business practices and working conditions. Have a look at what Everlane is doing. The apparel retailer spends months finding the best factories and ensuring that they’re in line with the company’s values. “We visit them often, and build strong personal relationships with the owners,” says Everlane on its website. “This hands-on approach is the most effective way to ensure a factory’s integrity. As an added assurance we also require stringent workplace compliancy paperwork.” 4. Sponsor a community initiative There are likely plenty of CSR opportunities right in your backyard. Do some research on what’s going on in your community and see if there are any charitable initiatives or events that you could support. Is a local non-profit org hosting an event? Are members of your community raising money for a new recreation center? Do what you can to support these efforts. You could, for example, sponsor that local event or donate a portion of your revenues towards the fundraising effort. Doing so will not only enrich your neighborhood, but it could also boost your image in the community. 5. Donate revenue or products One of the most common ways to engage in CSR is to support a charitable organization. Look for a group that supports a cause you believe in, get in touch, and strategize on how you can support them. You can, for example, donate a portion of your revenues to that charity. That’s what the GAP is doing in its Give Twice initiative. For every gift card sold, the retailer donates 2% of the purchase to organizations such as CARE or Communities in Schools. Other retailers are opting to donate products. Take medical apparel retailer FIGS, for example. The company has a program called Threads for Threads where it donates a set of scrubs to a healthcare provider in need, for every set of scrubs sold on its website. There are also businesses that decide to set up their own foundations. Companies such as Starbucks and Chipotle have taken charitable giving into their own hands by creating organizations under their own brands. Of course, this route may be a bit more complicated, so for a lot of SMBs, it might make more sense to partner up with existing organizations. 6. Invest in your workforce CSR isn’t just about external initiatives. The concept of giving can also be applied to your employees. Remember that it pays to treat and compensate employees well. Studies have shown that retailers who invest in their workforce not only have more motivated employees who provide better customer service, they also tend to be more profitable. In a New Yorker.com piece about retail staffing, James Surowiecki cites a Wharton School study that found that “every dollar in additional payroll led to somewhere between four and twenty-eight dollars in new sales.” One retailer that exemplifies this is Costco, which has reaped the benefits of paying and treating employees well. As TriplePundit’s Leon Kaye put it: While most big box retailers insist on paying low wages with the claim that thin margins require reduced labor costs, Costco for years has been breaking the mold. Wall Street squawks that the membership warehouse giant should push for higher profit margins and reduced labor costs, meanwhile the company, led by its iconoclastic founder and former CEO, Jim Sinegal, constantly flicks his chin at The Street and its yammering analysts. The results: happy employees, enviable stock performance and a brilliant shopping model that, let’s face it, bludgeons consumers into shopping happily for more. 7. Promote diversity Speaking of your workforce, a growing number of companies are engaging in CSR through more diverse hiring practices. For instance, back in 2007, when Walgreen’s established a distribution center in South Carolina, the company set a goal to fill 30% of the 800 jobs with individuals who had intellectual and developmental disabilities. It was a wonderful effort that proved to be incredibly successful. According to the Huffington Post, “By adapting the on-site training program to suit disabled job-seekers and by working closely with local agencies for people with disabilities, Walgreens was able to hire beyond its 30 percent target. What’s more, the company found that the center operated 20 percent more efficiently compared to others in its fleet, citing increased productivity, lower turnover and a highly motivated workforce.” There’s also Johnson & Johnson, which shows a commitment in hiring more women by incentivizing their top managers to hire more female employees. Forbes reports that “Since 2015, Johnson & Johnson’s top managers have a portion of their bonuses tied to meeting certain diversity metrics, including how many women they hired in the previous year.” Already engaging in CSR? Here are tips to boost awareness (and sales) If you already have CSR efforts in place, here are a couple of tips to help spread the word: Include it in your packaging Be sure to talk about your initiatives in your packaging. If revenues for a particular item would go to charity, see to it that this fact is mentioned in your packing. Doing so not only spreads awareness, but it also encourages shoppers to buy the product. In a survey by Nielsen about CSR, they found that about 52% of global respondents “say their purchase decisions are partly dependent on the packaging – they check the labeling first before buying to ensure the brand is committed to positive social and environmental impact.” Nielsen also saw “an average annual sales increase of two percent for products with sustainability claims on the packaging and a lift of five percent for products that promoted sustainability actions through marketing programs.” Actively market your efforts When you launch your CSR efforts, market it like you would for an event or a promotion. Mention your initiatives to customers, put up in-store decals, posters, or signage, talk about them in your newsletter, and dedicate a few social media updates to your cause. If you have a website, create a dedicated page for it as well. Celebrate the success of your initiatives Once your CSR program has gained traction, be sure to celebrate its success. Customers love to hear that their money is being put to great use, so update them on all the good that you’ve accomplished. Document the results of your efforts (i.e. money you raised, number of people that you’ve helped, etc.) then spread the word through your site, employees, newsletter, and social media accounts. It’s always great to communicate good news and this move could also encourage customers to buy from you and support your cause even more. Your take Do you have any CSR initiatives in place? Let us know in the comments. About Francesca NicasioFrancesca Nicasio is Vend's Retail Expert and Content Strategist. She writes about trends, tips, and other cool things that enable retailers to increase sales, serve customers better, and be more awesome overall. She's also the author of Retail Survival of the Fittest, a free eBook to help retailers future-proof their stores. Connect with her on LinkedIn, Twitter, or Google+. 120profit.com - https://120profit.com/?p=1130&utm_source=SocialAutoPoster&utm_medium=Social&utm_campaign=Tumblr

[education-news]

Business Ethics, Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) And Corporate Governance – Boon Or Bane?

The Origin, History And Evolution The phrase Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) – a sub-set of business ethics – was coined in 1953 with the publication of Bowen’s ‘Social Responsibility of Businessmen’, which posed the question: What responsibilities to society can business people be reasonably expected to assume? Writing on the subject in the 1960s expanded the definition, suggesting that beyond legal obligations, companies had certain responsibilities to society at large. In 1984, the celebrated management guru Peter Drucker, wrote about the imperative to turn social problems into economic opportunities. Throughout the 70s and 80s, academic discourse of the concept grew, but the first company to actually publish a social report was Ben and Jerry’s in 1989, and the first major multinational was Shell in 1988.

The First International Code Of Conduct In the late 70s, both the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and the United Nations Centre for Transnational Corporations (UNCTC), began developing codes of conduct in an attempt to control different aspects of corporate globalisation. In 1976, the OECD, recognising the complications associated with companies operating across borders, established a set of guidelines to ease the workings of globalisation, thereby setting the rules of the game for foreign direct investment (FDI), and creating an atmosphere of confidence and credibility in overseas corporations. The OECD ‘Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises’ covered areas, such as, accounting, tax payments, and operating in accordance with local laws. The guidelines were actually aimed at the respective countries rather than the companies, so that compliance would be critical or crucial for credit and ranking.

However, on the other hand, the UNCTC code of conduct aimed at monitoring and regulating corporate abuse rather than to facilitate corporate access to new markets, was unsurprisingly less successful. The code might have been an effective tool to control corporate excesses, but, unfortunately, the whole body was soon dismantled/dissolved under enormous pressure from the worldwide corporate conglomeration.

The Present The final outcome has resulted in a highly superficial and acutely watered-down set of measures that are little more than a shopping list/guide:

Cause-related marketing

Sponsoring awards

Voluntary codes of conduct

Social and environmental reporting

Shareholder engagement

Community investment

Eco-efficiency

In order to accomplish the above, huge investments being made in think tanks, front groups and fly-by-night operators; needless to say, the benefits are obviously about brand and image building, consumer loyalty and PR, such as,

Reputation management

Risk management

Employee satisfaction

Investor relations and access to capital

Competitiveness and market positioning

Operational efficiency

Maintaining the licence to operate

Let me at this point quote the most touted example of CSR, internationally speaking: the case of LEGO – Build (And Be) The Change (You Want To See In Others) – a Danish company manufacturing educational toys for children.

It all started, a couple of years ago, with a nine-year old kid writing to the company, which read: When I grow up, I want my children to grow up in a healthy world.

The company, at once, responded by launching the ‘Build the Change’ initiative; a series of events held around the globe, giving children the voice to tackle the various challenges they face.

LEGO wants these events to be a place where children from around the world can come together, on a regular basis, to creatively explore and collaborate on solving problems.

Each event has a theme, such as, build your school, neighbourhood, etc, with an emphasis on children’s ideas and creations that inspire the future.

As benign as it might seem, the questions that still need to be asked are:

Can any investment made with a profit motive be socially and environmentally responsible (and accountable)?

Even assuming that it can be (which has never been the case – not even once in the annals of business history), is an ethical investment enough?

What if tackling social and environmental issues does not support economic growth (i.e. economies of scale)?

Do voluntary codes of conduct really work?

Does a company or a corporation have a set of values other than its share value (price)?

By being almost exclusively responsible (and accountable/answerable) to the investors, can companies/corporations place the interests of people and the environment above that of self-interest?

If compliance is the issue, then who pays for it – the multinational or the wholesaler/retailer  and/or the employee/local community?

In the final analysis, can the consumer really change the market – its behaviour and its imperfections?

Finally, if CSR cannot bring an end to destructive practices for as long as they are profitable, does it really hold water or can it be actually put to the ultimate test?

Likened to an iceberg, CSR activities are rather invisible, making it an active attempt to increase corporate domination, instead of merely a defensive image/brand management operation.

In other words, can we expect every decision made in one’s self-interest, through market machinations (the so called Adam Smith’s ‘invisible hand’), to result in public good?

Who can stop the market juggernaut and who can fight the PR industry, especially, if it is all about only rights, devoid of responsibilities, duties and obligations?

If you would like to be a part of EBS, feel free to get in touch with our counsellors or drop us an Email here:info@ebsedu.org. Also simply visit below links for further queries and MBA courses you might be interested,

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Source:https://ebsedu.org/blog/business-ethics-corporate-social-responsibility-csr-corporate-governance/

[alexrascanu]

How to Reach Your Potential: An Interview with Louise Adongo

Louise Adongo has taken part in "How to Reach Your Potential" initiative, a series of 100 interviews with leaders who inspire Alex Rascanu and whose insights can help you reach your potential.

[Also check out our interviews with Trina Boos, Hamza Khan, James Tjan, Vlad Rascanu, Drew Dudley, Alexandru Holicov, Andrew Mizzoni and Christa Dickenson.]

About Louise:

Louise Adongo is Manager of Policy and Corporate Supports at Housing Nova Scotia. A social change agent with strong leadership and collaborative capacity, she has received a GoverNEXT Rising Star award, Minister’s and Premier’s Awards of Excellence, and a Woman of Influence peer-recognition award from the African Canadian Woman in Public Service. She currently sits on the Board of Credit Union Atlantic and the Steering Committee for Brilliant Labs NS. Previously, Louise volunteered on the Board of the Health Association of African Canadians and was a member of the Canadian Centre for Vaccinology’s Health Policy Translation Working Group.

Louise's multi-disciplinary academic background and diverse life and work experiences render her imperfect for siloes. Unafraid to try doing old things differently, she has worked on projects in program development for public and not-for-profit sectors in Nova Scotia and parts of Africa. During her first community development experience, she discovered her passion for social justice and equitable resource use. She has since worked in various research, policy and evaluation roles in provincial government for close to a decade.

An avid reader, traveller and gardener, Louise holds graduate degrees in Biochemistry and Applied Health Services Research. She is cautiously curious about how we might encourage the practice of difficult conversations at the interpersonal and community level, and agrees with the oft-quoted James Baldwin: 'Not everything that is faced can be changed, but nothing can be changed until it is faced.'

Connect with Louise on LinkedIn.

Alex: What is your life’s purpose?

Louise: I ask myself this question about once every 5 years. A friend of mine once called it my quarter-life crisis (which doesn’t quite work but let’s set aside the weird math). Smile. I am of Christian faith and often find the passage Philippians 4:8 great for helping me focus and get re-centered when I feel that I have lost focus for myriad possible reasons.

In my most recent go around with this question while I was out for a run training for a 10k race, I thought about what makes me happy, what motivates me and when I feel most confident. It drew me to the following statement which I hope while succinct captures the depth and breadth of how I want to live: “Honour myself by honouring others.”

Alex: What are the three things you’re most passionate about?

Louise: Collaboration, Inclusion and Innovation.

Alex: How do you stay healthy? What’s your main health-related goal?

Louise: I run, bike and hike as often as I can when the weather is accommodating and I also work out (love kettlebells at the moment). And my main health related goal is balance – body, mind and spirit.

Alex: How do you build wealth?

Louise: This is an interesting question or maybe just the timing is interesting. My friend Nnamdi Oranye is part of the African diaspora asking questions about how we might spur (more) innovation in Africa and see the benefits of disruptions found across the globe. As part of that he wrote an Op Ed: The Tipping Point for African Innovation.

[…] opportune time for African innovation … “the question is why? The answer often lies in our own understanding of ourselves and how we assess what we value." […]

- excerpt from Nnamdi’s Op Ed

In response to the question, “What do you think are the weaknesses of the African continent when it comes to making a difference in terms of innovation. Some say that the heavily reliance on a single commodity such as minerals. What could be other factors and what could be done about it?” that was posted in promotions for this Op Ed on LinkedIn, one commenter said something that really resonated with me:

“We need to understand the difference between 'making money' and 'creating wealth'. We tend to think that they are the same. And so, our business behaviour, from CEO to vendor is to grasp at the opportunity to 'make money'. This results in short-term thinking, which stands in the way of innovation. What is in the way is not education, a focus on minerals etc. It is our philosophical orientation to business and life that needs to change.”

Alex: What’s your main financial goal?

Louise: Another great question, I have had an opportunity to develop greater financial literacy as a member of the board of a credit union. But on a more personal level, in part as I felt the overwhelmingness of my student loans in times of under-employment, I have reflected on my relationship with money and debt. I love watching Gail Vaz Oxlade’s shows on TV. But probably the biggest eye-opener for me in my setting of financial goals was reading Kate Northrup’s book Money: A Love Story. (I mean she even encourages us to call our bills invoices for blessings already received!)

In short, my main financial goal is to continue to be curious about, and therefore hopefully continue to resolve my limiting beliefs about money. Whether it is earning it, spending it or investing it.

Alex: How do you balance work and family life?

Louise: Not well is the short answer, and it is something that will probably always remain on my “do better at” list as there is likely always going to more I can do to be present more both at work and with my loved ones.

However, recently at the FCI-CWI Women's Leadership conference, a speaker spoke of “work-life integration” rather than work/life balance which is quite mythical, if anything it is to be gleaned from the laughter I heard in the room when she spoke of not ever finding work/life balance and introduced the new term.

Alex: How do you enjoy spending time with family and friends?

Louise: Oh, so many ways but maybe the easiest way to talk about how I enjoy time is to consider that I love words and I love conversation. So, there is a sacred place for ‘snail mail’ in my heart and I am in a few book clubs. I also enjoy cooking meals with friends and sharing a laugh over after work socials. Sometimes when I have not connected with a friend in a while I like to go hiking, visit local markets (farmers' or craft) or spend way too long chatting at home on a comfy couch or in a café. I am also quite adventurous so my friends and family know I am often game to try out new activities with them.

Alex: What has been the most fulfilling role you’ve ever had, or the most fulfilling project you’ve been involved with so far?

Louise: It is difficult to just think of one. I have been fortunate to work on a number of great projects.

I am proud of work I did with Ann Divine, a great mentor and friend at the NS Human Rights Commission and in amplifying voices of Black and Immigrant Women through International Women’s Day (March 8th) events in 2008 and 2014.

In 2015, I worked with Chantal Brine to host an event for women and girls with Vicky Saunders, founder of SheEO. This was fulfilling because among many things I witnessed her ‘walking the talk’ regarding radical generosity when she responded to my ‘cold-call’ reach out on LinkedIn on a completely different project which led to that event.

I also felt proud of the contribution I made in my board role at CUA where I provided input to the 2016 Annual Community Impact plan and supported the proposed subcommittee name change from Governance and CSR to Governance and Community Impact.

I could say more in terms of conversations about needs to create opportunities to strengthen digital literacy among Black and First Nations youth, that led to my role on the Nova Scotia Brilliant Labs steering committee or “that one time,” smile when I advocated to another great friend and mentor Sylvia Parris to bring Kimberly Bryant to Halifax to speak to members of the African Canadian Women in Public Service, and cross-sectoral senior leadership, as a role-model for visibility in the ICT sector. All of these roles and projects have been quite fulfilling.

And I cannot wait to see the fruits of these efforts as I look to the future and think about work I would like to do to support the movement of having more women, and for me specifically diverse representation in boards across all sectors. I am inspired to do this by Kathleen Taylor's words at the opening plenary of 2017’s Governor General’s Canadian Leadership Conference, where she said, regarding increased diversity of boards, that “diversity on boards was not a supply problem…”. I am also motivated to see what might be in this work by the Deborah Gillis at the Oct 24th Nova Scotia Status of Women 40th anniversary celebration, shared about what change/progress is happening and is still to come.

Alex: What’s one career planning lesson that has made a significant difference in your life?

Louise: Again, I can’t only think of one but I promise to only share two. Smile.

Ann Divine very early in my career encouraged me to keep a record of my professional achievements and to track them by the leadership competencies I exhibited. I have since added contacts/ references who can verify what I document. It has been a very useful personal and professional record, especially on days when things don’t go as well as I might like. And it has also been a great confidence booster as I see my growth and trajectory.

My second lesson has been from Eleanor Beaton , who has a really great podcast that I would encourage anyone who wants to learn the ‘how tos’ of Fierce Feminine Leadership to subscribe to her podcast. Eleanor has a wealth of information on what holds women back from achieving their self-defined goals and she speaks from a place of personal and professional experience in a way that resonates with me at different times through any given year and leaves me with clear next steps and action items that don’t feel overwhelming to execute. My lesson from her was to be aware of the hot mess that happens when one up-levels. And recognize that it is part of becoming the person that I need to be at this new level experience.

Ok I might have one more.And that is FOCUS, to acknowledge that my sphere of interest versus my sphere of influence are not the same size. Many people tell me this.

Alex: What would you like your legacy to be?

Louise: If I think of legacy as what I want people saying about me when I am not in the room, or what would be written on my epitaph. Then I want my legacy to be “she persisted” [smile].

And "She had conversations with people and asked questions that shed light on what is possible were we to work in a "fresh" way. Once people saw the possible, it became actionable as people "yearned for the vast and endless sea"."

Alex: Thank you so much for taking part in this interview, Louise! You're such an inspiration! Your insights and openness are much appreciated.

[theinclusionmasala]

Life at Faytex

Consulting Faytex, a sneek peak of the life: As you can see from the posts it has been a busy few month at the pad manufactury... Faytex is just not any other pad brand it is so much more. Not only are the pads safe for maternity & sanitary care... the mission is to aid to the advancement of women in Ghana! You might wonder if it is a social company? No it isnt. It is a private company with a purpose. Corporate Social Responsibility is an important part of the company but if there arent enough sales a part of the CSR cant be completed such as free donations. However through strategic partners menstrual hygiene management seminars and other social projects can still take place. Therefore Faytex values next to its customers and other stakehlolders - its partners so much. New partnership: The pad manufacturer has now made new partnerships with Power to Girls Foundation. This particular organisation is lead by an amazing, passionately gender oriented young woman named Aisha Addo. She is the Founder and main driver behind Power To Girls Foundation. The foundation aims to empower girls within the Canadian diaspora to believe in themselves and provide leadership and mentorship opportunities. Being of Ghanaian descent herself, she organises a lot of empowering events in Ghana. Due to the fact that Aisha is a real go getter and doesnt wait for change to happen but makes the change we partnered up with her. Day of the Girl : Ms. Addo had invited Faytex to Day of the Girl on Wednesday the 11th of October 2017 which is International Day of the Girl Child. This is the international observance day declared by the United Nations. The observation supports more opportunity for girls and increases awareness of gender inequality faced by girls worldwide. This inequality includes areas such as access to education, nutrition, legal rights, medical care, protection from discrimination, violence against women and forced child marriage. The celebration of the day also reflects the successful emergence of girls and young women as a distinct cohort in development policy, programming, campaigning and research. Many global development plans do not include or consider girls, and their issues become "invisible." More than 62 million girls around the world have no access to education. Worldwide and collectively, girls between the ages 5 to 14 spend more than 160 million hours more on household chores than boys of the same age. The Day of the Girl helps raise awareness not only of the issues that girls face, but also what is likely to happen when those problems are solved. For example, educating girls helps reduce the rate of child marriage, disease and helps strengthen the economy by helping girls have access to higher paying jobs. Power To Girls collaborated not only with us but worked in partnership with Cross Roads International, The High Commission of Canada, Girls Education Initiative of Ghana and Women in Law & Development Africa. The conference took place in Osu Presbyterian Hall, Accra with motivational speakers such as Dr. Zanetor Agyeman Rawlings, MP (daughter of ex- President Jerry Rawlings, 1st President under the 4th Republic of Ghana and former first lady Nana Konadu Agyeman) currently medical doctor and MP representing the Korle Klottey constituency. The conference was opened with the speech of Djifa Ahado, First Secretary of Development and Senior Programme Analyst for the Government of Canada - High Commission of Canada pledging that the Canadian Government is doing all it can to support girls. Interesting fact to know, is that it is Canada whom submitted a resolution to the United Nations for international recognition of Day of the Girl. The Fay International Ltd. marketing manager, Mary Achieng Ojuka, introduced menstrual hygiene management to the girls and distributed safe and healthy Faytex menstrual pads to the students of OPPS, St. Barnabas and Teshie Lekma. The celebration of the Day of the Girl was such a success that it made it into the Ghanaian Times a few days later. Philanthrophy Day: By participating in the Day of the Girl event we came in touch with GrubforSmiles. Another great initiative for women in Ghana. Together we participated in the Girl Project. A 100 percent philantrophic event for market women who carry their babies on their back called Kayayei. Faytex conducted interactive workshops on menstrual health management with physical demonstrations including how to apply and dispose of a sanitary pad. Faytex encouraged women to share their experiences with a varied amount of unsafe sanitary pads widely available in the West African market. Having come through their individual ordeals, they were encouraged to be familiarised with Faytex products. The day was a big success with a turn out of 200+ people. The women left the event enlightened and got a glimpse of their favourite actress and Faytex ambassador Rabby Bray. This is just a glimpse of the many ongoing projects. There is still so much more to do in order to make Ghana a better place for women. However, at Faytex is about making changes one step at a time. Touching the life of women through sanitary and maternity pads should become the motto. If you are interested in helping women in Ghana - soon I will announce how you can help ! If you cant wait and have your own ideas mail me! francine.carron@gmail.com Check : www.faytexsanitary.com

[creativesage]

(via Business students willing to sacrifice future salary for good corporate social responsibility: study)

By Debbie Haski-Leventhal and Mehrdokht Pournader

More than 90% of business students in a study on corporate social responsibility said they would be willing to sacrifice some percentage of their future salary to work for a responsible employer. A surprising number of 14% are willing to sacrifice more than 40% of their future income to do so.

However business students who were also employed full or part time were willing to sacrifice less of their future income than other participants. Those employed made up more than 60% of participants (30% occupying management positions).

While it’s easy to sacrifice a non-existing salary, these results show how committed business students are when it comes to working for socially responsible companies. It also sends a strong signal to both business schools and potential employers.

As part of a UN initiative Principals for Responsible Management Education, we conduct a biannual global study on the attitudes of business students. The survey asks them about their values and personal responsibility; attitudes towards corporate social responsibility and the importance of working for responsible employers.

More than 1,700 business students from 40 countries participated in the latest survey in 2016. Students were at both at the undergraduate (40%) and postgraduate (60%) level and the most participants lived in Brazil (17%), India (13%), US (13%) and the Netherlands (12%).

Participants were aged between 17 to 69 years, but more than half were in their 20s and 46% were females. More than 60% of the respondents were working either full time or part time and 30% occupied managerial positions.

Overall, it was more important for female students that their employers were ethical, sustainable and cared about their employees.

We defined corporate social responsibility in this study as  business decision making that is linked to ethical values, compliance with legal requirements, and respect for people, communities, and the environment around the world. We then asked the students to indicate their level of agreement with 11 corporate social responsibility and ethics statements, from one (strongly disagree) to five (strongly agree).

Most business students we surveyed showed positive attitudes towards corporate social responsibility and responsible management education. Approximately 75% of students agreed with the following statements: “companies should do a lot more for society and the environment”; that “social responsibility and profitability can be compatible”; and that “business has a social responsibility beyond making profits”.

Most students disagreed that “the most important concern for a firm is making a profit, even if it means bending or breaking the rules”.

What students see as good corporate social responsibility

In the 1980s and 1990s several studies  showed that business students were more unethical and more corruptible than students in any other faculty. They tended to cheat more on exams and thought that it was okay to bend the rules to maximize profit.

The next decade, the 2000s, witnessed some of the greatest business scandals. From Enron in 2001, via Worldcom (2002) and AIG (2005) to the more recent Volkswagen diesel emissions scandal (2015), these business scandals brought people’s trust in corporations to a new low. 

Fingers were pointed at business schools, by academics,  business and the media, for being partially responsible for the lack of ethical business leadership.

As the president of Texas A&M University, Robert Gates, said in a speech in the aftermath of Enron’s collapse:

“All of these liars and cheats and thieves are graduates of our universities.”

The values associated with corporate social responsibility at that time were neatly summarised in 1991 by academic Archie Carroll. He developed a well known pyramid outlining how employees and business managers saw corporate social responsibility, ranking business responsibilities in importance from financial, then onto legal, ethical and philanthropic. Although he later argued that all four should be achieved together.

Our survey results suggest that this might be changing. Business students who participated in our study demonstrated a set of values that could lead to higher levels of corporate social responsibility in the future.

The students were asked to rank the four business responsibilities in the way they perceived as the right order of importance. The results, shown in the below figure, are an alternative way of seeing business responsibilities, with ethical and legal as the most important and financial responsibilities only following these two.

Interestingly, female students prioritized ethical and social responsibilities while males ranked financial responsibility higher. For working students, particularly in managerial jobs, it was more important to hold ethical and legal responsibilities rather than give money to charity.

The students were also asked to rank ten life goals and values on a five point scale, from “not at all important” to “absolutely essential”. Over half (53.9%) the students reported that “living a happy and comfortable life” was absolutely essential, making it the top life goal for them. Only 12.6% ranked “making a lot of money” absolutely essential, bringing it last on this least. However, 39.5% of students said that making money was fairly important. Males ranked “making a lot of money” as more important than females.  

The results of the third round of this international study send a clear message to both business schools and companies that want to attract business graduates.

The findings show that the best way to win the war for talent is by genuinely leading sustainable and responsible companies. These companies need to exhibit all aspects of responsibility and communicate this to potential employees.

People who will join businesses in the future, particularly females, hold very high expectations of them. There is a great opportunity to rise to the occasion.

[Entire post — click on the title link to read it at The Conversation, and to view all of the infographics.]

***

At Creative Sage™, we love to connect corporate leaders and entrepreneurs with good causes, and help companies start genuine Corporate Social Responsibility and Sustainability, Social Entrepreneurship, Intrapreneurship, or philanthropy programs that are a win-win for all partners. We’re always researching new developments in the Sharing Economy that include new business models to increase profits, and also support social good.

Please do not hesitate to email us if you would like to discuss your situation and find out more about how we can help your organization move forward to a more innovative and profitable future, strengthening your branding and resonance with customers while helping to do good in the world through appropriate, authentic CSR partnerships with nonprofits, philanthropists, educational institutions and programs, or government agencies and community organizations.

We can also help you connect with celebrities and other notable people who can help amplify your message of social good, or headline entertainment events and concerts for good causes. You can call us at 1-510-845-5510 in San Francisco / Silicon Valley. We look forward to talking with you!

***

[lionsclubs]

Partnership Spotlight: The Aruna Abhey Oswal Trust Helps LCIF Build ENT Center in Kenya

According to its Ministry of Health, Kenya has a shortage of ear, nose, and throat (ENT) health care. There are more than 600,000 Kenyans who cannot hear properly. Without access to early treatment, they are at risk of completely losing their sense of hearing. Rendered deaf, a parent may lose the ability to work and provide for their family. It also could mean a child might not hear the loving voice of his or her mother or the instructions from their teacher at school, putting them at risk of falling behind and becoming dependent on others.

Last year, the Aruna Ahbey Oswal Trust joined forces with LCIF to create a partnership called the Lions Clubs International Foundation (LCIF)/ Aruna Abhey Oswal Trust Humanitarian Initiative Partnership. This partnership supports LCIF’s initiatives in sight, youth, disaster relief, measles, and humanitarian efforts. Partners are a large and important part of how LCIF is able to carry out life-changing projects and programs, for example, the construction of an ENT center within M.P. Shah Hospital in Kenya.

The new, state-of-the-art Aruna Abhey Oswal Pediatric ENT Centre at the Children’s Medical Centre is addressing the dire need for ENT care in the region. Inaugurated in January 2017, the clinic provides diagnoses, evaluations, and treatments for both common and complex ENT, head, and neck complications. It is estimated that the center will provide consultations for 2,500 patients and 390 major procedures will be performed annually.

The new ENT center is an addition to a hospital that has been around since the 1930s. M.P. Shah Hospital is a not-for-profit hospital that provides medical, nursing, and rehabilitative care. Thirty percent of its revenue supports services for those who could not otherwise afford medical care.

In an area where medical care is not always affordable, this ENT center is an important component in local citizens’ healthcare. Dr. Bhupi Reel, a Consultant Pediatric Intensivist at the hospital said, “The ENT center has been an invaluable addition to the Children’s Hospital. We recently referred a 3-year-old girl who had inhaled a small whistle that was ‘whistling’ with each breath. As we now have the luxury of ENT on site, we were able to take the child to [the operating room] and remove the ‘foreign body’ less than an hour after presentation. This prevented any complicated lung infection that would have likely left her in ICU needing ventilation. In addition, this was carried out as a CSR [corporate social responsibility] activity because the family could not afford treatment. Hence, the pediatric team would like to sincerely extend our gratitude to the introduction of this service.”

The hospital is also doing ENT check-up camps at nearby schools as a corporate social responsibility activity, which means the services are performed at no cost to the patient. In addition, all of the babies born at the hospital receive special testing for hearing and ENT complications at a reduced cost to their families. For babies who do have ENT issues, treatment can begin immediately, improving the likelihood of overcoming their problems.

The Aruna Abhey Oswal Pediatric ENT Centre at the Children’s Medical Centre in M.P. Shah Hospital is just one example of the projects the LCIF/ Aruna Abhey Oswal Trust Humanitarian Initiative Partnership is addressing. Because of the partnership’s support, Kenyans who desperately need ENT care are able to get the help they may not have received otherwise.

To support causes like this one, consider making a donation today.

[perfectirishgifts]

Cisco’s Inclusive Future For All Starts With 12 Actions And A New Webex

New Post has been published on https://perfectirishgifts.com/ciscos-inclusive-future-for-all-starts-with-12-actions-and-a-new-webex/

Cisco’s Inclusive Future For All Starts With 12 Actions And A New Webex

Why do you love where you work? #WeAreCisco

It was a busy week for Cisco. The company hosted its WebexOne collaboration event and released its Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) report. The two were brought together by Cisco’s mission of creating an inclusive future for all. 

“The power of our technology to create positive outcomes on a global scale was immediately apparent to Cisco’s founders and has been core to our CSR programs ever since,” says Tae Yoo, Cisco’s SVP Corporate Affairs. Cisco has had a history of engaging in long-term commitments that engaged everybody within the company and their partners. 2020 was a challenging year, but not everybody was impacted in quite the same way, which is why it is paramount that inequities are addressed so that the future can really be inclusive for all. 

As you read through the 68 pages of the report highlights, you realize the comprehensive nature of Cisco’s approach to CSR, as well as the measurable outcomes it builds on. The redesigned Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) reporting hub now holds all the information and data that relate to the ESG initiatives, policies and performance with reports going back to 2005. Transparency is clearly top of mind for the leaders at Cisco. They use a materiality assessment process conducted in full every two years to readjust their CSR strategy and keep it relevant and effective. 

Cisco Year in Review/CSR highlights for Fiscal 2020

This year’s CSR report has a lot of information ranging from environmental impact to diversity and inclusion, trust and responsibility, employee engagement, circular economy, tech for good and Covid-19 response. This article will focus on inclusion and collaboration, which best reflects how Cisco’s CSR strategy is a business pillar, not a side project. It is woven into their products and solutions. 

Under the leadership of Francine Katsoudas, EVP and Chief People Officer, Cisco transformed Human Resources from a traditional department focused on maximizing resources and managing assets to an organization that sees its employees as communities. As such, it is focused on how these communities are impacted as people, as a community and as the broader society. In this vein, “Cisco has started to codify a set of beliefs to further our purpose and demonstrate publicly who we are as an organization,” says Shari Slate, VP Inclusive Future & Strategy and Chief Inclusion & Collaboration Officer.  These beliefs are:

Technology makes the world a better place

Social justice is apolitical

Addressing insecurity across fundamental human needs, rights and access 

Fostering a culture that is beneficial to all 

Modeling curiosity by continually educating ourselves about all forms of inequality and injustice

With these as the bedrock of its call to action, Cisco felt that in 2020 the initial 12 actions needed to address the issues that most specifically impacted African American/Black employees and communities. 

Part of the 12 actions address diversity and inclusion within its own community where Cisco is committing to:

Achieve a 25% increase in representation of all employees who self-identify as AA/Black from entry-level through manager level and a 75% increase in representation of employees who self-identify as AA/Black from Director through VP level by 2023.

Close gaps in the representation on the board and our Executive Leadership Team (ELT) beginning in 2020 and beyond by leveraging diverse candidate slates, robust succession planning and a commitment to developing a pipeline of diverse talent for the executive ranks.

Expand their competitive sourcing to require 100% of bids include at least one qualified diverse supplier to double our percentage spend with diverse suppliers by 2023.

Cisco’s language in the document that outlines the 12 actions is clear and direct. It might be too blunt for some, but it is good to see leadership not shying away from commitment in a year that saw a lot of “marketing activism.” Social justice is indeed apolitical, but we must recognize that a significant part of Cisco’s business is rooted in very risk-averse verticals such as finance and, of course, government. Making a strong statement against systematic racism and calling out the need for institutional reforms is something many other organizations only tiptoe around. 

‘Inclusive for All’ Is Reflected In Products Like Webex

Inclusion does not start and end with employees. It is distilled into products, as it should, especially when it comes to collaboration. The Webex team launched the newly integrated platform that brings video, voice and chats together with a long list of new features and enhancements to make virtual collaboration rich, natural and accessible to all. From live transcriptions and real-time translation to new templates that give everybody in the meeting the opportunity to speak. 

Of course, these advancements in experience are as much about staying competitive as they are about driving long term engagement. As we start thinking about returning to the office, it is paramount that participants joining meetings remotely feel that their voice is as important as the voice of those entering the meeting from the office. A lack of parity of experience will quickly drive people to old habits relegating video conferencing to where it was before the pandemic: a much weaker second choice to in-person collaboration.

This goal of working towards an inclusive tomorrow applies to CSR initiatives as well as business solutions. Both are equally needed to make sure what is waiting for us on the other side of the pandemic is not the new normal but something different and better. 

Cisco’s CEO Chuck Robbins wrote in his opening to their CSR report: “We are at a critical moment in the history of our nation and world. There is so much more we can do to seize the moment and create a more inclusive and sustainable world together. I remain hopeful for the future and optimistic that together we can continue to drive change and leave a lasting impact for generations to come.” 

I, too, remain hopeful that 2020 will be a watershed year for many companies, not just in their digital transformation advancements but also in their commitment to building a diverse and inclusive business that works on creating products and services that address inequities rather than create them.

Disclosure: The Heart of Tech is a research and consultancy firm that engages or has engaged in research, analysis, and advisory services with many technology companies, including those mentioned in this column. The author does not hold any equity positions with any company mentioned in this column

From Consumer Tech in Perfectirishgifts

[creativesage]

(via On 40 Years Watching the Sustainable Business Field | Sustainable Brands)

By Matt Polsky

The second of a three-part proposal for using sustainability to recharge America's problem-solving.

[Read Part One]

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As I approach the 40-year mark (no, the sustainable business field isn’t that old, but I’m counting poking-and-prodding prep time in those early, mostly barren and lonely MBA years), I wanted to reflect and offer some suggestions, not so much to the field at large, but to its emerging leaders — those already bending rules in the “Purpose,” “Business-as-an-Agent-of-World-Benefit,” “Values,” UN SDGs and “Context” wings. Of course, potential leaders within the now-conventional sustainable business field are welcome to listen in.

These pioneers are now making some headway towards mainstream relevance. But we need to try harder to avoid common one-step-forward/half-step-back change patterns. I continue to see unnecessarily self- or culturally imposed constraints on potential effectiveness because of not questioning enough of our assumptions. And in the last few years I’ve seen a possible good news/bad news result: mid-20s to early-30s graduates of some prominent green MBA/Masters Programs in good positions, and who with their LEED and GRI certifications are a step beyond their generational predecessors, but who have “settled.” They routinely follow old-line organizational procedures, and seem to have given up on transformational change.

As some examples, I’m still not seeing enough realization that we’re going to have to learn our way to sustainability, and therefore humility and curiosity are acceptable personality traits. There’s not enough boldness to raise, and comfort to discuss, some difficult topics within our business organizations. These include: ethics that are not yet being forced on you, state and national policy and politics, gray areas, uncertainty, and complexity. We don’t often challenge organizations to leave their comfort zones. We don’t explain systems thinking, one of our powerful tools, very well. Our communications field-influenced work doesn’t always ask “What’s special about sustainability” that might not apply anywhere else? All the writing about the importance of innovation doesn’t go far enough to ask about lurking but lethal “innovation killers” outside of the main, usually technical, areas getting the attention. The take-down of “common sense” as an unquestioned virtue by the contrarian field of behavioral economics, such as the primacy of rationality and its long-held but mistaken separation from emotions in our decision-making, are not appreciated.

Everyday references to business in the media, as in “business is supporting the rollback of environmental regulations,” or even just routine single-bottom-line messages, are not commonly refuted with counter-examples offered by groups such as Ceres and the American Sustainable Business Council, or the TBL concept. Challenge those conventional wisdoms, too.

We seem content with success in filling old occupational titles, and not fully exploring and building on new ones, such as Danone’s “Chief Manifesto Catalyst,” Ben & Jerry’s “Activism Manager,” Volans’ “Chief Pollinator,” Google’s “Design Ethicist and Product Philosopher.” Our Green MBA programs don’t seem to want to tell students, at least those who are open to hearing it, that they’re going to have to invent their roles in the field and redefine them as they go.

Examples of courage are still rare and this trait doesn’t even appear in lists of what we tell students to cultivate. I’ve often written about the too-easy acceptance of the purported objectivity and supremacy of data and metrics, rather than using them as tools in the pursuit of sustainability.

I’ve long noted a superficial use of what should be one of our most treasured words - “community” - as actual better performance by sustainability practitioners compared to their non-sustainable world peers is barely detectable. Ask, for instance, do we routinely respond to emails or messages on our company’s “Contact” sites? Do we get back to people when we say we will? Do we play fair when we compete for contracts? Do we cover each other’s backs when one of us goes out on a limb and it doesn’t go so well? Are we treating each other within the field the way we would want to be treated?

And now the same thing is happening with another potential treasure - “transformation” - which is cavalierly being thrown around. With some exceptions, the differences between it and its apparent opposite, “incremental,” are also hard to perceive.

“Diversity” programs, while well-intended, totally miss over-generalizations about, and show no empathy towards, white men, who are apparently all the same. Their fears of reverse discrimination and possibly how to address it almost never come up.

While I see some advantages, I’m not totally comfortable with the swing to, and especially the conformity around, positive psychology and the “flourishing” or “thriving” themes that seek to replace the “sustainability” term. I just heard a lecture on survivalism from the “Transition” wing of the sustainability field – not a lot of flourishing there. I’m too aware of the gloomy yet prominent environmental writers, Elizabeth Kolbert and Derrick Jensen, who stunningly offer no hope. And while I have problems with those extremes, too, we cannot simply ignore these perspectives.

Finally, while we’ve heard the message we need to learn to understand and talk to the Trump voter, we’re only at the very beginning of figuring out how (or haven’t yet decided that we truly need to). Doing so will require a new attitude and perhaps skillsets.

So as not to fall into the glass-half-full and no-hope traps myself, I’ll end more positively and make a few more suggestions, including reframing what’s on many minds into a “lemons into lemonade” opportunity.

I’m seeing and recently reviewed reports and articles from a growing number of consultants and foundations who are telling business what the latter may not want to hear. It is no longer so rare. And, at least when I’ve seen them do it, they are not getting hit for it.

In your UN SDGs or related pursuits, don’t not pursue mainstream companies from whom you wouldn’t necessarily expect positive results. They might be ready to show some “Principle,” too. I showed many examples in a three-part series last year.

At the next sustainable business conference you attend, put the smartphone down a few times, look for someone you don’t know whom you ordinarily wouldn’t talk to, go up to them and ask: “What’s working for you here, and what isn’t?” Your new friend might have something on their mind that you need to hear.

Finally, if the leading edge of the sustainable business field plays its cards right, learns and revises quickly as it goes, and brings along the rest of the field, with a lot of luck, the next potentially very scary four years can actually be an opportunity to begin to displace “conventional” business-as-usual with a new business-as-usual: “Business as an Agent of World Benefit.”

Read Part Three: A review of the social cost of carbon

[Entire post — click on the title link to read it at Sustainable Brands.]

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