CSR

Corporate Social Responsibility is often seen as an onerous risk to manage. We believe that for a well-intentioned organisation, the lesser aim, that of monitoring and processing risk, is entirely a management issue. The strategic issue is how to ensure the company’s ethics drive competitive advantage and therefore positively affect the company’s risk:reward profile.

In broad terms, we believe the logical start point is to map out the various stakeholders and then identify potential ‘wins’ available to them. Those that overlap with the core business strategy are identified and it is these overlaps that form the cornerstone of the organisation’s CSR model. The minimum standard against which we measure the model is that it is ethical and profitable.

Potential ‘wins’ that do not stand up to this scrutiny are not necessarily irrelevant, but they tend to represent largely altruistic options that don't make strict bottom line business sense. They are set aside and may later be brought back into the debate after a judgement has been made by the organisation’s leadership.

To guide the overall process we look for opportunities to capitalise on seven key themes:

• How CSR can enhance, inform and innovate as a complement to the corporate strategy.
  
• How board members can broaden their strategic planning tools to include these opportunities.
  
• How to hone the company’s natural empathy with CSR and weave it into the corporate culture.
  
• How to enhance the ability of individuals to take advantage of this area from both the personal and professional perspectives.
  
• Identifying and highlighting the many corporate and personal benefits.
  
• How to weave CSR drivers into the organisation’s talent development and corporate communications strategies.
  
• Where could this be relevant to the organisation’s future?