Seminar: The role of CSR and sustainability in your business

Topic Number: 9

Principles of Business

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Overview

Given the growing importance of CSR and sustainability, this seminar will look to understand the role these elements play in your business.

You are tasked with evaluating how your business can engage with each of the 4 perspectives of CSR. Thereafter, you will determine how you can tailor your business operations to develop a strategic CSR model.

Given the multitude of ways a business can engage in CSR you will highlight the different approaches your business can take from philanthropy to strategic CSR.

Finally, you will develop a set of benchmarks and key success factors to determine the impact of your CSR activities.

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Learning outcomes of this seminar

• Determine and describe how your business could engage with each of the 4 perspectives of CSR

• Critically evaluate your business model and tangibly re-engineer it to consider how you would implement strategic CSR

• Be able to explain the differences between philanthropy and strategic CSR

• Highlight a set of benchmarks and key success factors for a CSR initiative

Agenda for this seminar

Re-engineer your business model to deliver strategic CSR

Explain the differences between philanthropy and strategic CSR highlighting what route your business would go down

Develop a set of benchmarks and KPIs for your CSR initiative

How can your business engage with each of the 4 perspectives of CSR?

Structure for the session

You will have 15 minutes to

discuss each question

We will have a de-brief at the end of each 15 minutes to hear your thoughts on each area

Feel free to ask questions but please do not have separate conversations ‘we are all in

this together’!

Need to raise the CSR Bar

If you look really really hard at impact and ask ourselves how many

corporate CSR programs and initiatives actually move the needle in a way that is noticeable and measurable… we

have very few examples where it can be

confidently asserted

Business got itself a bad reputation

Source: IMDB, 2014

Creating shared value

View video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z2oS3zk8VA4

Consider Corporate Social Value“Corporate policies and practices that enhance the competitiveness of the company while simultaneously advancing social and economic conditions in the community in which the company operates” Michael Porter

Source: Kramer & Porter, 2006

Connection between competitive advantage and social issues

Source: Kramer & Porter, 2006

How can your business engage with

each of the 4 perspectives of CSR?

Lets understand where your business is today

Source: Emeraldinsight.com

Determine where your business is at in each of the stages

Economic Legal

Ethical Discretionary

What does your business do/offer that

adds value to the stakeholders it touches?

e.g. sell healthy food that provides nutrition

to people

What is your companies legal obligations to your customers, employees and stakeholders? E.g. adherence to treating

customers fairly principles

What are the practices you deploy that are

ethically the right thing to do but not mandatory?

e.g. Fairtrade coffee

What activities do you do for the betterment of the community beyond the businesses own self-

interest?e.g. employee volunteering

Applying your analysis to the 4 perspectives

Source: Bovee et al, 2013

An example from Unilever

Source: Unilever, 2014

Re-engineer your business model to

deliver strategic CSR

Consider how you are going to re-engineer your current model: 4 stage process

Stage 1: Re-define operating practices and activities within the value chain

Source: Porters, 1985

Consider all aspects of the value chain:A Case in Point Nike

Step 2: Reconceiving products and value propositions to meet social needs

Product Price

Packaging Messaging

Source: Unilever, 2014

Re-engineering a product

View video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WC_H37Tuyb4&noredirect=1

Step 3: Building Clusters in the community: Can’t do it alone

Consider Micro-insurance in rural India

Source: TATA-AIG, 2014

Step 4: Focus on issues you can solve

Consider insurance: An example from Direct Line Group

Explain the differences between

philanthropy and strategic CSR

highlighting what route your business

would go down

An IBM Perspective

Source: IBM, 2014

3 Models to consider

http://www.ecrc.org.eg/Uploads/documents/Articles_Philanthropy%20or%20CSR.pdf

Philanthropy has a place

Democratisation of Philanthropy

View video: http://www.ted.com/talks/katherine_fulton_you_are_the_future_of_philanthropy#t-161977

Some questions to consider

What is the purpose of your

business?

What stage of business are you

at?

Are you in a position to

consider phil or SCSR?

Do you have a roadmap to

integrate these activities?

Develop a set of benchmarks and KPIs for your CSR initiative

A Unilever Approach to Benchmarking

Source: Unilever, 2014

End of Seminar

Note: This recording is for your personal use only and not for further distribution or wider review.

© Pearson College 2013