IBM Global services through its “institute for business value” surveyed 224 business leaders worldwide.
Purpose: Understand how Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is understood and applied.
A very hopeful statement: Despite the economic downturn, CSR remains part of the corporate strategies. Even better: the subject is progressing.
CSR remains in the core strategy in order to fulfil two objectives:
- Improve the societal contribution and the corporate image
- Use CSR as a growth accelerator
I must confess: I am delighted it seems to be agreed CSR can be a growth accelerator. Indeed a company cannot afford to live on only a good image and a positive societal contribution. It needs growth and profitability too. I am convinced that by demonstrating its ability to act as a competitive business advantage; CSR will be considered as equally important as sales or finance.
By the way the survey emphasises several business cases in which costs reduction have been achieved and new business opportunities have been discovered by trying to improve a societal contribution.
Of course the positivism needs to be balanced. The survey indicates limitations to reach the different CSR targets. For instance on a regular basis companies seem to be failing in understanding consumers, investors and employees concerns. Another big challenge is the information gathering in a correct and regular manner. Indeed with no appropriate data: it is hard to assess an environmental impact improvement or a cost reduction…
Even though I am convinced we are taking the right direction. CSR is paradigm change in the corporate world. Thus processes are not yet fully efficient. The most important is to acknowledge the improvement and be aware of the remaining path towards CSR operational excellence.
You can download the full survey on the following link: IBM CSR survey
And you have you got the feeling CSR remains a hot topic during the economic downturn?
