April CSR Social with Anna Triponel: Corporate Responsibility in a Globalized World

New York Corporate Social Responsibility Group cordially invites you to attend April CSR Social.

Corporate Responsibility in a Globalized World

Increasingly companies are being held accountable for misconduct overseas in courts located where they are incorporated, rather than where the conduct took place. Although business around the world is increasingly connected, stark differences exist between countries on the methods used to trigger corporate responsibility for human rights violations abroad. Find out about the modalities used by plaintiffs in the United States and how these modalities differ from other countries. In particular, the speaker will contrast the U.S. approach, a common law system that has a unique statute in this area, the Alien Tort Claims Act, with France, a civil law country which is increasingly influenced by European Union regulations. Understanding the differences in corporate responsibility will in turn affect both companies seeking to understand their litigation risk and plaintiffs seeking redress.

WHEN: Tuesday, April 27, 6:30 pm

WHERE:
The Vig Bar - Backroom
12 Spring Street
corner of Elisabeth
New York, NY

SCHEDULE:
6:30 - 7:00 Open Networking
7:00 - 7:15 Presentation by Anna Triponel, Associate at Jones Day and Head of International Law Pro Bono Group
7:15 - 7:30 Q&A
8:00 - 8:30+ Open Networking

COST: Suggested donation: $5

RSVP: lcandu at yahoo dot com

ABOUT:Anna Triponel is a lawyer at the law firm of Jones Day. She advises multinational companies on cross-border business transactions, in particular between the United States and Europe. She also heads the International Law Pro Bono Group and has contributed briefing papers to the ongoing work of John Ruggie, the Special Representative of the United Nations Secretary-General on the issue of human rights and transnational corporations. Miss Triponel was recently asked by Kluwer Law International to contribute to the understanding of comparative corporate responsibility for human rights violations abroad. She is an advisory council member of the Public International Law and Policy Group and regularly publishes in the area of corporate law, international law, and development aid.

Naked Civics from Nate Garvis and Target

This break-out session focused on the concept of Naked Civics, which strips away the angry noise that surrounds how we talk about the most important issues facing us today. It’s a new way of thinking that allows us to drive success through designed integration of activities with the elements that make communities more prosperous.

Nate Garvis, Target Corporation’s dynamic and witty strategic counsel, elaborated on the importance of de-politicizing and de-professionalizing our approaches to public policy to everyone’s benefit. Nate sees much opportunity in the world where stakeholders, industries and sectors partner with others in weaving the fabric of productive and common good-oriented civics. The only right direction is the ‘forward together’ one because it both honors community values and reveals business opportunity. The role companies can play in this new vision for building successful communities is exciting and rests on the following ideas:

All that matters is the common good. Everything else, including all the civic, religious, commercial and political institutions are tools we have created over time in our quest for healthy, safe and innovative communities.

The tools we have now are very powerful. We can achieve enormous good as well as terrible things with these tools. The hope is that we will use the common good lens in designing and redesigning our tools to access great opportunities.

When values become embedded into our culture and habitats, they propagate organically. For example, environmental stewardship is most likely to become ubiquitous in a decade from now. All products will be designed to incorporate environmental considerations and the concept of being ‘green’ will be taken for granted.

Corporate pre-regulation with the focus on common good is a successful approach that helps companies build partnerships within their communities and earn good reputation.

Writing and Reading CSR Reports: Baxter and Risk Metrics Group

The Beyond Reporting break-out session of the BCCC Conference focused, as the title suggests, on the corporate social report which has become a routine task of the CSR departments. Companies recognize these reports as an essential management tool to communicate and track key performance indicators. Analysts use these reports to evaluate how the environmental, social and governance dimensions are affecting the financial health of the company.

So what? asked David Wood, director, Initiative for Responsible Investment, Harvard University, the two panelists, Elaine Salewske, Senior Manager, Corporate Communications, Baxter International Inc and Eric Fernald of Risk Metrics Group.

In order to ensure a comprehensive approach, it’s important to consider two perspectives of reporting: that of the writer as well as that of the reader. Baxter is a long-term reporter and believes in the need to prioritize content rather than the production of the report. In deciding what to include into a report, Baxter uses GRI standards as well as requests for information from the numerous stakeholders. On the other hand, Risk Metrics Group looks at many sustainability reports – as many as 500 annually – and rates companies based on a multitude of metrics relevant to socially-responsible investors and other stakeholders. RMG provided a perspective on how that content is weighed and analyzed externally. The conversation focused on the following main ideas:

Materiality is a key consideration for a corporate sustainability report. Given that it will never be possible to satisfy all demands for information, the company focuses on the areas that matter most for its business.

By creating a repository of all types of sustainability-related information, the reporting processes help a company establish performance goals and mobilize necessary resources to achieve them in due time. Reporting has a ‘plant the flag in the ground’ effect on the entire company.

Socially responsible investors are primarily interested in a company’s key performance indicators (KPI) – or the areas where the company has the greatest impact. CSR reports need to incorporate these metrics to achieve materiality and relevance.

Meaningful reporting that drives sustainability performance and achievement in a company is resources intensive because it considers a wide spectrum of values and issues and spans across regions and countries.

The Business of Corporate Citizenship: Creating New Social Ventures Within Your Company

This is the name of the BCCCC Conference session I'm attending. Two companies - eBay and MAC Cosmetics are showcasing their innovative corporate social ventures. ebay presented its innovative World of Good and MAC Cosmetics - its MAC AIDS Fund.

Amy Skeeters-Behrens, head of eBay's Global Citizenship Marketing, considers World of Good a successful entreprise created by eBay's intrapreneurs. The venture is alligned with Pierre Omidyar's vision of a ecommerce place where everyone will feel trust and confidence in the fact that their purchases make a contribution to a more equitable and just world.

Diana Echevarria, executive director of MAC Cosmetics' North American Programs talked about the success of the VIVAGLAM campaign which in partly was due to the enourmously influential pop star of today, Lady Gaga's involvement as a spokesmodel. Another factor of success is MAC Cosmetics' heavy focus on a couple of related issues such as AIDS, women's health and sex. In addition to being smart and sexy, the marketing strategy behind the VIVAGLAM campaign has tremendously benefit the overall sales and ultimately the company's bottom line, which Diana pinpointed as one of the two most important challenges. The other challenge is how to allign customers' values with the specific community/culture. American consumers might be OK with the proceeds from the VIVAGLAM campaign going to support drug-users and sex workers, but in France this is not as acceptable because of the availability of a broad government-funded assistance net. Similarly, Lady Gaga's exuberance might not be the best fit with the Middle Eastern culture and values.

Live from Boston College Corporate Citizenship Center Conference

I just arrived in Boston and will be staying at the Intercontinental Hotel where the 2.5-day International Corporate Citizenship Conference is about to start. I'll be blogging live, tweeting (@luciacandu #bcccc_conf) and writing about the interesting discussions and speeches that are planned in the agenda.

I'll focus more closely on two breakout sessions: Beyond Reporting David Wood, Director of Initiative for Responsible Investment and Elaine Salewske, Senior Manager, Corporate Communications, Baxter International Inc. and Naked Civics: Private Interest/Public Good with Dan Bross, Senior Director, Corporate Citizenship, Microsoft Corporation and Nate Garvis, Strategic Counsel, Target Corporation. In addition, I'll highlight any other interesting ideas during key speeches and the other 2 break-out sessions that I'll physically be able to attend.

I'm writing this from the In Good Conversation Salon and am looking forward to the conference welcome reception that will feature as plenary speaker Niloufar K. Molavi, Tax Partner and Chief Diversity Officer, PricewaterhouseCoopers.

The Responsibility Revolution and the evolving corporate consciousness

I finally got my hands on the "The Responsibility Revolution: How the Next Generation of Business Will Win" by Jeffrey Hollander and Bill Breen after reading great reviews here and here. I've been looking for the next good book on corporate responsibility - corporate consciousness - and I found it.

The book acknowledges the rapid evolution CSR from the fringes of business activity to the very core and into the mainstream of business thinking. Jeffrey Hollander, himself a visionary businessman, and Bill Breen talked to a number of revolutionary entrepreneurs who revealed a variety of business models designed with consideration of the new challenges and expectations. Only such companies, the authors claim, will thrive in tomorrow's economy. They see the following as the key factors driving corporate consciousness to higher levels:

1. The threats and opportunities posed by global climate change;
2. The importance of a company's reputation;
3. The need to compete for high-end talent;
4. The benefits of leveraging employees' untapped potential;
5. The importance of approval from external stakeholders;
6. The importance of positive change throughout supply chains;
7. The benefits of partnerships with the nonprofit sector;
8. The opportunity to engage and contribute to a new era of change.

The authors don't make a secret out of the fact that: "to move beyond a strictly bottom-line orthodoxy is to embark on a journey filled with peril as well as promise. Making the shift to a purpose-driven model, in which profits tell you only part of the score, is risky, painstaking work." And the risks are significant:

1. By having too many option and too little focus there is a risk to fail to deepen the company's social impact.
2. CEO's grand vision might never come to fruition if middle managers fail to understand how to connect it with customers and consumers.
3. Unless CR efforts are embedded into both tactic and strategic business decisions, they won't save a company its reputation.
4. If it CR looks like PR, it probably is and the public opinion won't like it.
5. During buyouts, a company's values might take a big hit.
6. The market is oversaturated with greenwashing and customer's cynicism is high.

I'm looking forward to finding out how the companies featured in this book approached these risks and what makes them revolutionary.