Globally many institutions, B Schools and chambers have
come in for heavy criticism from the public for awarding corporate
citizen awards, Best Leader Awards and management excellence awards to
certain companies and leaders for demonstrating sustainable CSR and
management practices when in fact eventually they have either been
bailed out by the tax payers or gone under or got ridiculed for want of
poor management or greed. So at least in the future all institutions
need to become more stringent in its criteria to prevent its awards
becoming a joke, misleading the public and getting ridiculed by the
public. In early times, stewardship and corporate citizenship may have
been thought to be a nice sentiment but unnecessary. Corporate
philanthropy used to be linked to building a company’s image and
improving its relationships with the community in which it operates.
Corporate citizenship has become a necessity in today’s global society,
economy and environment. We all know top companies tend to have a strong
focus on the top line and the bottom line. Shareholders love them and
the stock price movements attest to their performance. But perhaps one
less visible ingredient of the performance that adds to the growth of
the company and its people is corporate social responsibility and
business ethics that most shareholders do not worry too much about
because some dividends keep coming year after year. Merely talking about
being a socially responsible or ethical entity in the CEOs Report does
not help- words need to match action for the outcome to translate into
success in the marketplace and when recruiting. Little wonder that
though many companies claim to be involved in myriad CSR activities only
a very few have ingrained it in their best practices. In some cases
companies use CSR to build/boost the image of the CEO more than the
company. Not realizing that they do more damage than good for the CEOs
public image in the public space.
Effective Leaders
In fact effective leaders are good stewards who make
wise and careful use of all their resources- personal time and energy,
material and physical resources and other people. They take a holistic
view of the community and the business enterprise, recognizing that what
happens in one side of the business in some way impacts the other.
Therefore, most CEOs need to exhibit an altruism that prompts them to
reach beyond their own particular organizational responsibilities. The
most admired CEOs are those who are committed to causes beyond their
personal egos, and who find small and large ways to contribute to the
communities to which they belong. This is important because many young
people these days want to work for a company with a good soul. Companies
with strong social consciousness attract good people. For many companies
CSR efforts is also a differentiating factor for potential employees
looking for a break. That’s the kind of sentiment that drives CSR in
companies that are also among the best employers. For some companies CSR
practices are part of their tradition of giving back to the community
with a twin focus on education and society and for some companies CSR
initiatives are driven by the beliefs of creating strong branding and
enhanced visibility for the company in society. While companies could
adopt different means to reach out to society the bottom line is without
CSR and ethics it can neither neither grow nor be a good employer of
choice. Voluntary work undertaken by companies for society for example
spans, employee involvement in supporting schools, monetary
contributions, working with NGO’s, setting up special healthcare camps
to adopting villages. Perhaps no other initiative helps give employees
back to the society than the one focused on education. Some companies
are doing their bit to teach the children in underprivileged
communities. Therefore at the end of the day if the CSR money is well
spent it reflects not only in the company Profit & Loss statements but
also in the kind of people companies are able to attract into their
business. Hence the time has come for our shareholders to start asking
what impact their CSR money and ethical business practices have had on
society and their company and to ensure that a company’s business
practices do not work contrary to public interest.
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