Corporate responsibility

There are some interesting voices around questioning the value of certain corporate responsibility initiatives. Dan McQuillan, and his collection of thoughts on Slideshare, is probably onto something.

I showed Dan’s slides to a friend who has worked in CSR and human rights (for large corporates) for over ten years, who tends to agree…

“… especially his point that stakeholder engagement flatters companies (and some NGOs) by thinking that they are at the nexus of something exciting and worthy of attention (in most cases, not)”

Internal (employee) doubts about corporate responsibility are also real – albeit rarely leak outside of the organisation.

It’s an issue worth tackling – but it can only happen from the ‘outside-in’.  Companies who care about doing good, strangely enough, only stand to benefit.

Which does not mean that organisations should throw out their ‘CSR babies with the bath water’.  There needs to be greater distinction between organisations addressing real social/environmental issues as part of their core beliefs, versus those caught up in compliance-led ratings and marketing puffery.

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Social media for Stakeholder Engagement

LONDON, EC1 – I attended a fairly interesting conference today looking the use of Social Media in the field of stakeholder engagement.  CSR was a primary starting point.   Social media, quite rightly, wasn’t the sole focus.

The discussion about high profile CSR failures is always of interest.  The Tesco example above, which I’d not seen before, is rather good.  ie. buy energy efficient light globes (reduce carbon footprint) to earn airmiles (increasing carbon emissions).  This is what happens when you put the sustainbility message in the hands of marketers.

I particularly liked the Nike video below.  A nice example of collaboration between companies and “AdHocracies” (groups that form to attach meaning to serious issues).

Some great speakers overall.  The grandees of the UK’s social media scene were certainly present (the Dells, the Shells, SAP etc). The initiatives presented were all decent and well thought out – but it was the non-corporate input that ignited the room.

The talk with Dan McQuillan from Social Innovation Camp had a stand out quality.  Dan provided a non-corporate and non-consultant perspective that was desparately needed today.  His jovial and quasi-socialist point of view (‘at first do no harm’ / “its not about companies… its about issues… we need to socialise solutions to the problems… its about overall impact on the world”) provided the room with tangible goals.

In the world of vaguely defined terms such as ‘stakeholders’, ‘sustainability’ and ‘engagement’ some moral benchmarks are very much needed.

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The end of winter



FEB 28,  ZOUZ  – I have spent the last 3 days in Zuoz, Switzerland catching up with friends from business school. Zuoz is a magical and extremely well preserved town in the Engadine mountain range with odd and interesting traditions.

One charming ritual is the signalling of the end of winter.   Young lads, perhaps 10 or 12 max, take to the streets with full scale leather whips.  During the day you can see them practicing in lane ways.  Usually with a father or older brother standing near – arms folded, grunting with approval whenever the boy achieves an almighty ‘thwacking’ sound.

By Feb 28, the last day of winter, a group of boys take to the streets.  The cacophony of whipping sounds carries on late into the night.  These sounds supposedly crack the ice – accelerating the melting of the snow.

Do these boys actually believe they have in their hands the power to dissolve snow and control mother nature?   Probably not.  But so what if they do – this is probably a better class of illusion to have.

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