Corporate Social Responsibility, Talk about the good work being done by firms in touch with their triple bottom line.

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Corporate Social Media Responsibility

David Connor | Wednesday 30th September 2009

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Is it a coincidence that the rise of Corporate Social Responsibility appears to mirror an increase in wider lower level stakeholder action and almost exponential growth in access to and distribution of information?

In a relatively short time period the explosion in mainstream grassroots awareness of business responsibility has been hard not to notice. It would be arrogant to consider this an effect of management capability as it is at least as much about individual enlightenment. Most of the people I have met have engaged in the agenda as a consequence of their own values, increased awareness of today's social and environmental issues and growing opportunities to actively make change happen.

You cannot underestimate the impact of social media on this level of awareness, and thus education. As Clay Shirky articulately presents on his TED Talks summary of historical revolutions in media, "we are all now both consumers and producers of information" he says. Thanks to platforms such as blogging, Twitter, Facebook, mobile telephones, etc. all individuals and groups can communicate in both directions simultaneously to their entire audience. Tomorrow's social media champions (and winning businesses) will be those most effectively filtering and exploiting these saturated information streams. Timberland only this week produced their online Q2 2009 CSR performance figures demonstrating greater stakeholder transparency and responsiveness.

Whilst Corporate Social Responsibility as an element of leadership development at the executive and board level has continued to improve at a steady pace, it is the surge at the bottom of the pyramid fuelled by such access to information that will be the key in the next evolutionary stage of the agenda's coming of age. The economic recession appears to have hit its nadir with increasing speculation of recovery on the distant horizon. Corporate Social Responsibility has survived well, a little battered maybe like everything else, but appearing to be enjoying much more productive media coverage than negative. As one corporate dinosaur steps off the top perch they are replaced by the conveyor belt that constantly produces younger if not always wiser business women and men of the future. One question is will this type of incremental change at the top be fast enough to adequately deal with our impending challenges such as climate change. The US Chamber of Commerce's stance on climate change is possibly saying not.

Corporate Social Responsibility is itself still learning and the number of engaged participants is growing every day. Education is at the core of making change happen, with social media providing an efficient vehicle for transporting the required information. Knowledge is only power when it is used.

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Jeff Mowatt 8 January 2010

Here is an extract of how it was related in our founding paper prescribing a more inclusive capitalism and social business model:

"By going with the normal flow of free-market enterprise and the emerging replacement of monetary capital with intellectual capital as the dominant form of basic enterprise capitalization, it becomes easier to set up new companies primarily on the basis of invested intellectual capital. (See Post-Capitalist Society, by Peter Drucker). In plain English, socially responsible and forward-thinking companies can be set up quickly and cheaply--and these companies have indefinite potential for earnings and localized, targeted economic development. The initial objective is to develop model enterprises and communities, then implement successful strategies from those models into surrounding communities regionwide or nationwide, as needed. still remains committed to limiting and controlling information."

http://jm.ly/0k2Iqm

Phillip Pool 9 November 2009

Good article, I like that the people at the lower end of the spectrum are being empowered, its a nice way to instill checks and balances.

vivian norris de montaigu 22 October 2009

the most important thing for the future is that there is not economic colonization of content distribution...

Marianne Eppig 15 October 2009

Thank you, David, for this article. I suppose I'm one of the less wise business women just off the conveyor belt, but I - along with my peers - have learned how to leverage this new information system to learn and to educate about the importance of CSR for improving our collective future.

Since us youngsters will be around longer to witness the consequences, it makes sense that we would care (perhaps) more about creating positive change. And we are finding that unlike many of our predecessors, we can actually influence change at a young age through these grassroots and social media platforms. I agree, however, that education is critical for making these changes positive.

Thank you again and I'm looking forward to reading your other articles,
Marianne