When companies started funding social upliftment initiatives in the 1990s, the response from investors, employees and customers was positive. Corporate reputations soared on the back of successful projects. Corporates were seen to be philanthropic, taking it upon themselves to uplift downtrodden social groups that had no financial means to play a role in the companies’ future.
The question from several leaders of companies I interact with is how they should start showing their companies to be good corporate citizens. The transition needed is for companies to address the tension between financial returns and meeting wider societal needs. What we have seen – which world-renowned Harvard University academics and economists Professor Michael Porter and Mark Kaplan first pointed out in a 2011 article in the Harvard Business Review – is that the best results come from those companies that place upliftment of society and/or environment at centre stage in the company’s business strategy.
The other side of this trend is that investors are increasingly unwilling to accept corporate spin, wanting to see that companies are sincere in working towards social upliftment. Take those banks that resolved to improve their environmental impact. The response from civil society organisations was to demand that the companies reduce investment in initiatives that are harmful to the environment, such as coal plants.
What is needed is for business to ACTUALLY CARE! That way they wouldn't need to show anything.
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