Our filth columnist gets overheated about best practice clubs to promote CSR. Are they worth the membership fee?

The Filth Columnist

If you can’t stand the heat, get out of the kitchen? I want to let off some more steam. 

As many of you will know, there are a number of organisations set up to promote best business practice. I do not intend to list them, or talk about my specific experience of any one of their methodologies, but I think there is some room in this column to make a fundamental point that is bothering me. And of course the filth columnist is curious to know if you have a view too.

Being part of a best practice club comes at a price. This is usually in the form of a membership fee (possibly framed as a 'donation' to avoid VAT). Fee structures tend to be linked to the size of business (usually determined by headcount and/or turnover) and the more that you pay, the broader the range of services you can expect to receive in return. I suppose that’s kinda OK – after all, why should people get a Gordon Ramsay meal if they only want to pay McDonalds’ prices?

I have a philosophical issue with such fee structures. Is it fair to think that those people willing to pay are probably, by the fact that they have committed pound notes to be members, already on the road to achieving excellence in CSR? Would it not be more sensible for such clubs to target non-member businesses and to encourage them to fall into line with the appropriate models of excellence?

So ask yourself the question: “Why do some businesses seem to remain oblivious to the benefits of membership?” I can only see two obvious reasons - a lack of awareness of the benefits, usually as a result of being too small to have a CSR function, or from a lack of funds available to pay the membership donation.

But there is a third potential reason. Every business tends to like its big customers, as new customers are unknown and can take a large investment in time and energy to sign up – indeed there is no guarantee that the cost of development time will be recovered. 

There is a natural tendency to want to work with current clients. If a best practice club operates a sliding scale of fees (which gets higher, the bigger the business) it doesn’t take a genius to work out that it is better economics for the club to continue to court the members where there is an existing relationship and to nurture established CSR programmes with their potentially huge budgets. 

There is less effort required on the part of the club to work with people who already welcome them with open arms and embrace the need for CSR, than to support small enterprises that have multiple issues arising from little internal investment in their CSR programme.

I also have an issue with best practice clubs adding on costs wherever possible on top of membership fees. I’ve recently set up a project via a club at a brokerage fee of £X per head. This was for a team of 20 people. The project was popular when it was publicised, so I went back to the brokerage to say that there would be double the number of people - the instant reaction was to double the cost. 

However, there would be little additional effort required on the part of the broker, other than to let the project know to expect even more willing helpers (and I will have to supply double the equipment and materials at double the cost). Isn’t it about time that big businesses reject this practice and collectively demand that fee structures are either based on a single membership fee, or on “pay as you go” where the pricing is commensurate with effort? I would much rather give the extra £1000 that the broker will pick up as a result of the goodwill of our people to benefit the good cause directly, instead of lining the pockets of the best practice club’s brokerage. Am I a lone voice?

Granted we need someone guide us. But isn’t it time that those businesses which have already established best practice stop paying these fees and start to take other firms yet to see the benefit of CSR under their wings? To me that would be a better investment of time and money. Small businesses will be the cornerstone of economic recovery after all.