Beyond the Bottom Line: Corporate Social Responsibility
As corporations face increasing pressure to do well by doing good, many are declaring a commitment to socially responsible business practices. But implementing such practices is where it gets tricky. How do you design corporate social responsibility (CSR) efforts that are integrated with the business strategy? How do you measure social impact? How do you promote a corporate culture that embraces and supports your CSR strategy? How do you decide where your focus should be?
Lena Pripp-Kovac, Dell
Last fall 33 senior executives who grapple with these issues at corporations near and far attended a new HBS Executive Education program titled Corporate Social Responsibility: Strategies to Create Business and Social Value. Developed by Social Enterprise Initiative faculty members and chaired by V. Kasturi ("Kash") Rangan, the program was designed to help executives formulate and manage strategic corporate social responsibility initiatives that integrate with their business practices and produce measurable results. In addition to guest lecturers, the program's teaching team included James E. Austin, Marc J. Epstein (at the time, a visiting professor from Rice University), Rosabeth Moss Kanter, Herman B. ("Dutch") Leonard, and Rangan. Participants represented a broad range of industries, from telecommunications to retail to food service.
For Lena C. Pripp-Kovac, head of corporate responsibility for Dell's Europe, Middle East, and Africa operations, the program helped her see the importance of strategy and focus. "There are about 40 things we could do, and they are all very heartwarming," says the native of Sweden, who is based at Dell's southeast England office. "The program helped me see that if we really want to make a difference, we need to be strategic in setting priorities—just as we are with our business decisions."
Having good ideas and good intentions, she observes, is not enough. Focus is critical to success. "The challenge is how to measure the right thing and focus on the impact rather than the effort," says Pripp-Kovac, who draws parallels between the early years of the environmental movement. "It's easy to be blindfolded by the number of audits or the amount of money you spend, so you have to really fight to concentrate on the impact of your programs." In her communications with a broader Dell audience, Pripp-Kovac has already put to use two of the measurement models the program introduced to her.
Like Pripp-Kovac, Genzyme's Judy Ozbun, associate director of community affairs, left the program with tools for integration that she has applied in fine-tuning the biotech company's 2006 corporate responsibility strategy. For example, upon completing the program she realized that there was a missing piece to a policy Genzyme was in the process of developing regarding the corporation's charitable contributions. Key to implementing the new policy, she realized, would be buy-in from the leaders of individual business units. Her group is currently developing a training program to educate these leaders on the new policy's full impact.
Impressed by the diversity and expertise of the HBS faculty, Ozbun found the case studies to be particularly useful in helping her gain an understanding of the challenges in building a global program and the different ways of addressing those challenges. From a case on Nike, for example, she was able to see the importance of internal communication, a topic that is particularly relevant at Genzyme, which is highly diversified and growing rapidly. A case on Unilever provided a strong model of how to work within a community, particularly in the developing world, to understand the local needs.
Pripp-Kovac and Ozbun agree that corporate social responsibility will only have a bigger impact in the future as corporations integrate it into their everyday practices. "If we can help facilitate a paradigm shift whereby corporate social responsibility is not separate from business, but rather a critical component of it, then we are on the track to sustainable, social wealth creation," says Ozbun.
