CSR ! not by chance but rather by choice

It’s been time since I wrote a post and i think this deserves the space

I had a chance to attend a great seminar thanks to my friend Priyanka KS on CSR 2.0 by
Dr. Wayne Visser and was fascinated by his vision and expertise into the subject (He holds a PhD in CSR) and how CSR is just considered an additional activity. A lot of people want to help the society but wander off in this thought frame " Ah... first let me earn money then let me help the society by giving it to some organization"

He spoke on a concept called CSR 2.0 which is very much based like web 2.0

Web 1.0 was for a few and select and included things like shell objects and coding and thus people did not take it up but as Thomas Friedman said "the arrival of Netscape had a whole new effect suddenly web changed"

Web 2.0 where we are sharing and reading all this is pull driven there is freedom, connectivity with projects like one laptop per child web 2.0 is gaining power it has empowered people. Social media has shown its true strength weighing in to campaign and helping people.

CSR 2.0 should also empower people and not should be based on the shiny annual social report if small things which can help the society and can help the business be integrated that helps the business and community at large.

One of the common examples was mobile phones the average life span of a mobile phone in UK is 9 months and thus there was no idea what to do with these old phones which had heavy metals like Nickel and Cadmium. An organization called "Fonebak" gave free shipping and got these phones and recycled them. Same was the case with a US carpet organization which made artificial carpets and once it got old they gave them a free replacement and used the old materials to make a new one. This made absolute business sense because

1) You are giving a customer a free upgrade and no one feels sorry for freebies

2) Your loyal customer base will spread good word about you and finally

3) You have raw material which with a little bit of work can work into a new carpet.

Unfortunately organizations do not realize that another example was with Wal-Mart which started selling Cotton and Fish based on some regulations and only when these were cleared they were kept on the Shelves for viewing which made sense as customers did not look at the norms they were happy with what is available.

There were ten essentials for CSR 2.0

1. Inclusiveness – involving stakeholders directly from beginning to end

2. Market driven – no longer expert driven

3. Innovation – smart companies turn market pressure into stakeholder led innovation

4. Sincerity – you can no longer uphold an image that is not real

5. Co-ownership – a truly embedded value-based culture requires involvement

6. Dynamics – standards and annual audits replaced by 24/7 engagement

7. Quality – CSR as immersive business strategy

8. Personal – It’s about you, not your sector! What are your own ethics?

9. Pluralism – number and nature of CSR projects will expand dramatically

10. Proximity – local impact is global

Hope that organizations realize that its not about growth its about how you grow

Cheers

Arvind !!