Earlier this year, The McKinsey Quarterly, interviewed Richard Haass, President of the Council on Foreign Relations on the new social and political demands on business. Haass’ take on CSR is spot on…
The Quarterly: Are there new social and philanthropic responsibilities and standards for global businesses?
Richard Haass: It comes down to a balance between opportunity and obligation. For large businesses, there’s not only a tremendous opportunity but also an obligation to make a difference.
Take climate change. This is one of the few areas where many businesses are actually in the vanguard. They’re discovering that sound environmental decisions are often financially beneficial. Rather than there being a price to pay, they often turn out to be good for the bottom line.
Another such issue is corporate social responsibility. I don’t like that wording, because it is marginalizing. The phrase sounds like a set of philanthropic activities somehow divorced from the corporation’s self-interest. Actually, it’s in the corporation’s self-interest and should be mainstream. Perhaps not immediately, but certainly over time, smart corporate social responsibility will contribute to the bottom line.
The semantics of CSR are hindering the corporate mindset that business strategies can be used to simultaneously solve social problems and contribute to a company’s bottom line. While “sustainability” and “citizenship” are decent alternatives to CSR, I’m still waiting for a word/phrase that precisely describes this concept.
-Aneesa Arshad
