Social Responsibility

Respondents call for combining financial, corporate responsibility publications

The prospect of folding sustainability reports into annual financial reports was a tactic viewed highly by the vast majority of sustainability report readers in a new KPMG-SustainAbility survey, “Count me in: The readers’ take on sustainability reporting.” The vast majority of the 1,827 sustainability report readers, who responded to the Oct. 1, 2007-Jan. 31, 2008, survey, “desire reports in the future to be integrated with annual financial reports,” according to the findings.

Surviving CEO scandal, Qwest Foundation looks to leadership and an education focus

When former Qwest CEO Joseph Nacchio resigned from the telecommunications carrier in 2002 during an insider trading scandal, he left in his wake a disbanded Qwest Foundation, effectively shut down after the US West merger in 2000. Richard Notebaert stepped into the CEO role after Nacchio left and worked on re-energizing the foundation and restoring community outreach as a company priority. With that history, Ric Padilla, Qwest’s Vice President of Corporate Social Responsibility, understands the importance of C-level support.

Prudential Foundation’s Gabriella Morris doesn’t shy away from shining ‘a light on disparity’

Gabriella Morris, the President of the Prudential Foundation, describes herself as “basically an introvert,” and I suspect her friends and colleagues might get a big chuckle out of that self-characterization. After all, when asked at the start of an interview what differentiates the Prudential Foundation from other corporate philanthropies, Morris quickly says in jest: “I’m here.” Morris has been “here” at Prudential Financial since 1985 and she’s presided over the Prudential Foundation since 1994. Like the Prudential Foundation itself, Morris is not at all shy or defensive about the foundation’s community involvement, even in what some might consider edgy arenas.

Companies avoiding the negatives of political and civil involvement need to positively engage and assess

Governments have the primary—but not sole—responsibility in human rights. This idea is increasingly accepted as fact, but it is just the starting point for immense interpretative exercises by human rights activists, academics, a specially appointed representative of the U.N. Secretary General and many others who are trying to draw practical conclusions regarding the role of the private sector. Companies, in turn, seem to be caught unaware.

Takeaway from progressive practices initially small, but can be material over long haul

Companies rarely act on new initiatives without first knowing the so-called “business case.” Corporate responsibility must similarly factor in. The effects of corporate responsibility on profitability—the real bottom line—differ from company to company based on a number of considerations, not the least of which are size, market penetration and reach, and reputation. Another factor is the firm’s approach to corporate responsibility, ranging from very strategic or incremental on certain issues to systemic and cross-functional in scope. Yet, except for small companies whose strategic decisions and financial performance are guided by a clear set of values, chances are the CR business case is either too small or likely to take too long to have a material effect to compete with more immediate ways of generating revenue or cutting costs.

Companies took ‘road less traveled by’ well before they could name the route

Corporate social responsibility (CSR)—the term used to describe a company’s societal duties to a wide range of stakeholders—suffers from a lack of imagination. Those who view it as a defensive strategy with little or no impact on the bottom line create arguments that try to compartmentalize the topic and ignore the broader context of the changes taking place in corporations. On the other hand, those who promote CSR are characterized as ideological zealots focused on a singular aspect of a company’s actions.

Financial firms cited for their corporate-community partnerships

The Committee Encouraging Corporate Philanthropy recognized the philanthropic efforts of two financial services firms, the PNC Financial Services Group and Moody’s, as part of CECP’s National Corporate Philanthropy Day Feb. 25.

Blodgett of ACS focuses lens on an overlooked population in powerful book, emerges as an advocate

Their portraits compel the reader to ask questions: How did they get here? How do they survive? What were they feeling when the photos were shot? Through their sometimes soiled faces, expressionless stares, eclectic outfits or telling bodily injuries, each of the displaced people photographed in Lynn Blodgett’s “Finding Grace, the Face of America’s Homeless,” offers a glimpse of the humanity in the people so often overlooked by mainstream America. “Finding Grace” is not the first published work documenting the struggles of the homeless, but it is the first photographed by the CEO of a Fortune 500 company.

Corporate responsibility analysts respond that focus should be on ‘how,’ not ‘why'

You phone Robert Reich, the former U.S. Labor Secretary, at the appointed hour and he asks you to hold on for “half a second” because he’s “in the middle of a sentence.” For two minutes, you hear him pecking away in the background on a computer keyboard, perhaps writing one of the three books he’s working on simultaneously these days. One such Reich-authored book, “Supercapitalism: The Transformation of Business, Democracy and Everyday Life,” published a few months ago, has drawn a lot of attention for its slant on corporate social responsibility (CSR), which Reich describes at one juncture in the book as being “as meaningful as cotton candy.”

Transparency International works globally against exploitation, bribery schemes

In 1993, when Peter Eigen, the World Bank’s Director of the Regional Mission for Eastern Africa, felt the international banking institution was refusing to confront corruption, he founded Transparency International. Dedicated to eradicating and building awareness about corruptive practices, which the group defines as those exploiting public power for private gain, Transparency International is a worldwide network of international governments, corporations and individuals. The organization has 95 national chapters.