CSR – HOW can we make a DIFFERENCE?

CSR – Corporate Social Responsibility – is a fashionable acronym. It has powerful marketing potential, especially if the communications department is good at creating an attractive story.

Unfortunately, CSR often remains little more than a marketing tool. The impacts that the efforts of companies have had in bringing about social upliftment, environmental improvement, improved labor practices, transparency in the way business is done, have often remained minimal.

The purpose of this article is for the business leaders, wherever they are, to open themselves to a new understanding of the term “Corporate Social Responsibility”, CSR in short, and to re-think how it can bring renewal in the way they do business, and in the lives of others in their community.

What is it? 

The term CSR embodies three dimensions. It encompasses

• The people in the region where our business is situated,
• The environment in which our activity takes place, and the impact the products we sell have on the people that use them, and their living space,
• The way we interact while we make and use these products.

The overarching aim of CSR is to promote long-term sustainability.

Allow me to unpack this.

CSR aims to ensure that NO ONE in our sphere of activity or influence is deprived of the means to live a happy, healthy life.

The life experience of many in our world is far from happy and healthy.

There are poor people who barely have enough to eat. In many areas, our activities have done irreversible damage to the environment in which they took place. The goal of maximizing profits is so dominant that we have forgotten to be polite, caring and peaceful.

CSR is an attempt to restore good healthy living for people, and other living creatures.

So, what is the challenge? 

Stated briefly, CSR is a strategy to restore wholeness.

There are people in our neighborhood who do not know where their next meal will come from. Can we bring relief?

There are youngsters who have grown up without role models – no father or mother, or responsible adult. They have not learnt what it is to love, to care, to take charge of their own affairs. They do not know how to control their own emotions or instincts, and harm themselves or others.

Much economic activity has been carried out without regard to the long-term damage done to the environment. How can we reverse this?

In our profit-driven world, maximizing advantage is the prime driving force. How can we learn to have a more holistic view of life that values togetherness, peaceful living and goodness?

In a short article like this it is not possible to cover all the dimensions of CSR. As an example of meaningful change, I will focus on one dimension only – social responsibility. This is probably the most challenging dimension.

In our example, we will consider the situation where a company engages with an organization that helps people who do not have the means to live, what we consider, a normal life. Examples are – an orphanage, a shelter for homeless people, a rehabilitation center for people with serous addictions.

So, what does it take for your organization to make a real difference in the lives of people in one of these situations?

Walk with me through the process. 

You, as senior executive, are convicted of the need to place CSR on the abiding agenda of your beloved company’s strategic interventions. Doing this for the sake of “looking good” is just not good enough! You want to see lives changed – you want the disadvantaged to become what you are – a person who lives with a purpose, one who has fulfilled his God-given calling.

After doing some online research, you decide to visit one of the orphanages in your city, speak to its leaders and find out what programs they have for their charges. See what their needs are, and if they would appreciate companies becoming part of their support network.

You start wondering how, in your personal capacity as senior executive of Company X, you can get involved. What does it take for you to become part of them?

Having understood what their aims are, and how they operate, you ask if you could to get to know one of their “family” better, so you can understand their struggles.

They are only too happy to do that. In fact, one of the ways of growing their people is to link them to a trusted “father figure” who will become a role model.

You get introduced to a young a boy in his mid-teens. You arrange to take him for a hamburger and Coke and get to know his life story. Then you tell him about yourself – your early years, your family, some of your own struggles. You arrange to meet with him on a regular basis. Gradually he starts to open up and begins sharing some of the issues he struggles with. You take him to your home – your wife and children start developing a relationship with him. Your aim is to offer to become his mentor.

The next step is to share your vision with your work colleagues. Maybe some of them will also get excited. You tell them what you have done and ask them if they think Company X could become a “development partner” for an orphanage like the one you visit regularly. You tell them about your new young friend, and the joy he is bringing into your life. At this meeting you find out that one of your colleagues is a voluntary football coach at the club where his son plays in one of the teams. You start sharing stories of his experiences as a coach, and yours as a prospective father figure for the young boy at the orphanage. Some ideas about meaningful CSR activities for the company become a discussion topic.

You give it time for the idea to germinate. In a month’s time you schedule another think-tank meeting. Maybe it’s time to organize a special event, like inviting the leaders of the orphanage to tell your leadership team more about the hopes and challenges of their work.

Next, it is time to put CSR as the main agenda item of a serious board meeting. The agenda may look something like this:

MAIN focus – Corporate Social Responsibility.

• What does it mean for Company X?
• Target Interventions
• What do we hope to achieve?
• Establishment of a steering committee
• Next meeting

CSR must become a core area of activity of your company with a budget, objectives, targets, and  performance criteria. There need to be regular reviews, as with other key activities such as marketing, sales, production, quality improvement and safety. Successes will be celebrated, failures investigated. Steps will be put in place to improve. CSR progress will feature in quarterly reports to the Board, as well as the Annual Report.

What will CSR do for us? 

CSR will do what all intentional activity does to people – it will CHANGE US! As we get involved in the planning and execution, our values will shift. People will become more important than profits. We become more adaptable and creative. We make time for activities that have eternal benefits. We become what we are meant to be – caring human beings who take the time to listen and are prepared to do something about the suffering in the world. Money becomes a resource to be managed wisely, rather than the central goal of our lives.

How do we measure the change? 

Since the CSR initiative is a deliberate business decision, it is logical to methodically assess the results of our interventions. We do not only want to know how well we have invested our time, money and other resources, – we want to learn how we can improve and grow.

Measuring success in this area is more complex than just focusing on the financial return on our investment. We are dealing with change in behavior, skills levels, attitudes and even physical growth.

It is suggested that the assessment of impact will become a quarterly exercise. Information will be obtained from active participants – both mentors and recipients of this dedicated change program. The data is gained from verbal and written reports presented at formal reporting sessions. It will include factual feedback from the management of the orphanage, but also verbal and written accounts of change, as well as unresolved challenges, from the participants in the CSR initiative.

The purpose of the evaluation is not merely to satisfy accountability criteria for monies and time spent by employees of the company. The information gleaned will help us to improve and grow a bold, worthwhile effort which, surely, is part of the life purpose for all of us – to make this world a better place.

Are you ready for the journey?

Written by Dr Wolfgang Bernhardt.