CSR begins to take solid shape
By Ding Qingfen and Selina Lo (China Daily)
Updated: 2006-10-27 10:44
Business, social commitment
In the last two years, integrating social and environmental benefits with
business profitability has become a popular strategy of local and international
companies. Valentino cited the Fortune 500 companies 25 years ago that no longer
exist today because they failed to adopt a strategy of sustainability. "We are
talking less about the economy and more about what we should do for society and
the solutions we can provide," said Valentino. "The social contract has been
moved from the industrial to the private sector because great wealth, power and
influence are now in this sector. We should be leaders in the CSR movement."
Although CSR is still a new concept for most Chinese companies, they are
catching up with their international counterparts and learning from them.
"International companies have long-established CSR standards and common
practices, but it is a new concept in the banking sector and we have kept on
improving ourselves," said Ma Li, executive vice-president of the Shanghai
Pudong Development Bank (SPDB) and keynote speaker at the CEO Roundtable. The
SPDB's CSR efforts include creating an environmentally friendly office,
educational programmes and micro-financing for industries relevant to social
welfare.
Corporate social innovation
At which point does innovation come into CSR? "We're looking at new core
competencies that companies develop that are new values to produce innovation,"
said Valentino. "Innovation is trying something that's never been done before.
You begin to look at the issues, realize its impacts on your markets and
employees and do something about it within the context of CSR. It's a
value-added approach because you are innovating to find how you can do things to
get a pay-off from both sides." In Bayer's definition, "It is not just corporate
social responsibility but corporate social innovation that drives us to create
systemic change towards sustainable development."
Deloitte's school mentoring programme, where staff volunteered to mentor
disadvantaged children for an hour a month, provided a good example of such
innovation. After a year, the children had gained a great deal of confidence
while staff learned to solve problems more creatively without guidelines.
Deloitte Director P.C. Lim shared the company's experience with roundtable
delegates: "CSR doesn't have to start with money. It's the management's
commitment, good partners and planning it out."
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