THE NEWS, ANALYSIS, RECRUITMENT, EVENTS AND INTELLIGENCE NETWORK

Why 'good' business = good business

Howe: CSR should be communicated not promoted

You have a responsibility to communicate that good work to certain groups of stakeholders

Where should CSR fit in a business. You work for a PR consultancy. Is it part of communications?

CSR is absolutely not just about PR. CSR should be in the very fabric of an overall business strategy. CSR is fundamentally good business sense. It should then be supported by credible, authentic and strategic communications.

I see CSR communications as a critical element of any corporate communications strategy of any organisation – big or small. Some companies have been doing CSR policy work for a long time; and some because they had to, for example oil companies or pharmaceuticals, where there are huge compliance issues.

I worked with Microsoft for many years and it has always focussed on corporate citizenship – their form of CSR. A lot of companies over the last decade have become engaged in CSR – with some awesome work going way beyond compliancy.
CSR should be a fundamental part of your business strategy, regardless of your communications.

Should CSR and communications really be mixed?

A year ago sceptics were saying you should not be PR’ing what you are doing. I agree with that. You do good. Ultimately you are a business. You do good, to do good. The two sides of that coin are not mutually exclusive.

A lot of sceptics question whether it is right to communicate what you do in the CSR area. To me it is not about promoting what you are doing – it is about looking at what an organisation is doing in giving back to the world, the environment and communities. You have a responsibility to communicate that good work to certain groups of stakeholders.

Philosophically if an organisation is doing a lot of good CSR work, we as communicaters should look at how it is right to communicate that, and who should we communicate that to. It is part of good stakeholder communication.
It is not a facet of PR or promotion; and that’s where a lot of companies have got into trouble, regarding green-washing.

Now that CSR is becoming more mainstream, it is pushing PR and PA professionals to become more strategic about advising clients on how they should be communicating.

Who should own CSR?

The board must own CSR. If an organisation is doing it in the best possible way it has to be a fundamental part of the business strategy. There must be the three Bs. The Board must Buy-in to CSR and have a Belief in it. If the board has a strong, strong belief in doing CSR that can create enormous benefit for any company.

You have to be strategic. If you are a major brand there is now an expectation on those brands and what they are doing.

CSR in Asia is often linked into government. What’s the impact of this?

In some sense businesses are taking the role of government. An interesting debate is where do business and government overlap in the CSR arena. So many businesses are doing huge amounts of good. CSR goes beyond green issues. The social aspect is absolutely fundamental – the environmental part is one element.

A lot of organisations do not yet understand the social contribution, and then the economic contribution they can make. You can make a superb economic contribution to communities.

Is that the job of business or is that the job of government?

What can be legal compliance in one country in the world can be completely different in another. In China more is expected of companies.

You can have a debate about whether that is right or wrong but if you are doing business in China, and China is such a dynamic fast-moving market, then any organisation or MNC should accept that they may have to contribute much more to this economy to ultimately reap the benefits.

I sit in the camp that says a good CSR strategy has to be localised. An organisation has to look at what it needs to do in a particular country to do business well.

Does that mean playing by different rules?

If in China that means from the CSR perspective it has to go way beyond what it may need to do in Germany then so be it. Clearly from a public affairs perspective there is then a dialogue to be had between PA representatives and the Chinese government about the scale of that contribution.

If it means having to contribute a lot more than in more developed economies you have to take that on the chin. It is part of understanding how to do good business in China. Companies will benefit by contributing to the long-term health of this country; it is as much about a social and economic contribution as it is about an environmental contribution.

What’s next for you and Text 100?

This is an interesting time for Text 100. I head up CSR comms work for the company globally. What we are considering is gearing up to launch a CSR practice here in China.