Hello and Welcome

What is this? It's a chance for the people who want to see CSR websites brought together as a force for good to exchange thoughts and ideas.

It's also a chance for those people who are taking an active role in developing this concept, and may be guiding some of the thinking behind it, to stay connected with each other and the project too.

The Changeboard team are running 4 Round Table discussions in London and one in Manchester during June and July 2008 to sound out the concept with a number of experts in the field. Those invited to the sessions come from a wide range of industries and have a very different set of experiences - but share a sense of wanting to do something positive and are happy to work collaboratively to help to find a solution.  

Debating time at these sessions is unfortunately limited, so if you have attended a session and want to develop your views of the concept with the rest of those people who want to change the world, here's another opportunity.

Jim and I would like to sincerely thank those people who have given up time to add their collective brain power to try to solve the connundrum and shape the solution. If you would like to talk to either of us, please do not hesitate to get in touch.  We will soon be publishing some of the thoughts that have come from the first round tables.

This is the start of a journey and we hope that you will all enjoy the ride.

Marcus  

Just wanted to add my thanks to the 25 or so of you that have attended our two roundtable discussions on the subject of CSR, and thanks in advance for those attending the next sessions.

Some robust debate has thrown up a range of questions which I would appreciate some further input on:

1. who in the world of work is currently engaged by CSR?
2. what subjects/topics are most likely to engage individuals?
3. is CSR seen within the corporate world as a fluffy add-on, or is it intrinsic? 
4. why should CSR be taken seriously?
5. what examples do we have of CSR adding real commercial value to businesses?

Look forward to hearing your thoughts.

The readiness is all...

Best, Jim

It was an excellent experience to be able to discuss at a recent Roundtable event the future development of CR policies, and how companies will successfully implement CR in the future.

One point I felt it was necessary to raise was the manner in which companies attack corporate responsibility.  So often, as another participant noted, it is merely a political tool and a "box-ticking" exercise.  Having worked with companies that target CR from two perspectives, in terms of using CR to instigate meaningful change and those that use CR to improve their corporate image, I feel I have a good awareness of how corporate responsibility can be positively harnessed and how it can be exploited, and in turn how those who should be assisted by CR are also taken advantage of.

I do of course appreciate that there is a need for tangible commercial outcomes from CR activities, but it needs to be in proportion.  I have found that some in the investment banking industry adopt CR with a disproportionate focus on improving image, with being a responsible corporate citizen a by-product of image improvement, whilst it should arguably be the reverse - Change first, PR second.

I noted at the Roundtable discussion that the companies that will benefit most from CR are those that make it an intrinsic feature of their corporate approach, not as a merely cynical PR exercise.  To my mind, give it five years and those that will be adopting CR as primarily an image-boosting exercise will still be making great hay of their CR activities whilst the sun shines on them, giving great brand exposure and arguably achieving the ultimate objectives of any CR activity.  They will still have dedicated CR departments where policy has to be devised by those in the CR function, only for CR Managers to have to persuade senior management to see the commercial benefits.

But by the same token, give it five years and those that use CR to create meaningful social change first and good PR second will have a top-down approach, still serviced and directed by CR Directors/Managers, but with ultimate direction from the very top.  Will it be called CR anymore in those businesses?  I don't think so.  Will it be known simply as Human Nature?  Quite likely.

Director/Manager of Human Nature - Which company will be the first to create that post?

Discuss

http://www.changeboard.com/hrcircles/blogs/editor/archive/2008/05/16/scrap-hr-directors-welcome-to-a-new-breed.aspx

Hi Pat - looks like Changeboard's weekly (filth) columnist has had a similar thought (click on link above).......Cheers, Marcus

At the roundtable discussion we talked a lot about getting people to engage with any online community and the difficulties involved in doing so. One of the responses centred around people whose dedicated role it is to enhance their employer's CSR portfolio and who would, thus, welcome such a tool. 

We also touched, however, on the importance of extending CSR not just to corporates but to smaller companies. Perhaps we didn't delve deeply enough into this area. How much importance does the SME sector have, particularly given the size of it within the UK economy?

If that importance is high, how easy would it be to engage with smaller businesses who don't have a dedicated CSR person, or even a CSR policy? How do you persuade a small business owner or director that the limited time they have to spend online should be directed away from marketing (or their perception of marketing) and onto something that they may not feel holds bottom-line relevance for them?

Our lively discussion showed just how much CSR currently means many things to different people! My experience so far in talking to both small and large companies, is that the prominence of CSR as part of business strategy is very much down to the individuals leading organisations. If their intrinsic values motivate them to be social and environmentally responsible in daily business practices, they don't need the CSR label really, its inherent in the way they conduct business and how they treat their staff. For those organisations who don't give it any thought at all, but see it as a necessary part of looking good from a marketing perspective, I think it could quickly become a political and bureaucratic paper exercise - which would be such a shame. Even Paul Smith has a slogan now "Giving back is the new black". So CSR or 'giving back' as I prefer, it fashionable but let's hope we can make it so for all the right reasons!

thanks for the opportunity of being able to share in the roundtables.
I look forward to seeing what happens next and the outcomes of those round(square) tables!!

Just wanted to draw your attention to a project that my colleague Natalie has been working on this week - it's been headlined by CSRWire as:

"Changeboard.com gathers bloggers from around the world for debate on CSR and Social Justice"

They're referring to an HR Carnival (click here): CSR & social justice | HR Carnival #38 that we've hosted consisting of around 40 HR bloggers from around the world who we've asked to write and comment upon CSR. We've had over 25 bloggers contributing some fascinating perspectives from India, Europe and the States.

It's quite a read - the deal is that all the content has to be linked into a single posting - but worth it: