Are there Canadian companies whose social purpose and CSR have been shaped by our cultural values?

Indeed. In the Forbes blog, The Impact of Values and Culture on CSR, Paul Klein shared the point of view of four remarkable Canadian companies, and the cultural values that have shaped their social purpose and approach to CSR.

Tom Heintzman — President, Bullfrog Power

“Canadian culture has long been influenced by our relationship to the environment and energy has long played a significant role in the Canadian story of that relationship.”

Result: the belief that consumers have a unique ability to change the world.

Shelley Broader — President and CEO, Walmart Canada

“At the heart of Canadian culture is the belief that all people should be treated equally and have equal access to life’s necessities, like food, education and health care.”

Result: a purpose to lower the cost of living for Canadians.

Debbie Baxter — Chief Sustainability Officer, LoyaltyOne

“Canadians care about sustainability, diversity and innovation.”

Result: AIR MILES for Social Change.

Peter Sinclair — Vice President of Corporate Social Responsibility, Barrick Golf

“Canadians put a priority on listening and sharing ideas.”

Result: programs rooted in a genuine respect for embracing differences, understanding, and listening.

Have these organizations found their Corporate Soul?

Corporate Soul is the recognition of the needs of stakeholders beyond shareholders: community, employees, customers, the environment, and maximizing value for them.

How does a company do that?

By using their Head to develop a sound business strategy based on their Vision, Mission and Values, including professional development for staff and institutional competency for the organization.

By involving the Heart that results in teamwork, collaboration, and sharing leading to a corporate culture that is passionate about its business.

By respecting the Hands that create the products or services so the organization can remain in business.  These hands need to know that their skills and knowledge not only earn them a standard of living, but also make a difference in the world.

By remembering the Feet, the path that is created while getting the job done.  This includes the impact on environment, the communities in which they operate, and the people they employ.

Add these components together: there lies Corporate Soul and the roots of organizational sustainability.  The Forbes blog doesn’t provide enough information to shed light on all Corporate Soul components of these organizations but it seems that they have the foundation in place. They are taking steps to meet the challenge: do well by doing good.

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In an article published on Huffington Post, Tapscott argues that businesses aren’t people and that the conversation around board room tables is solely about maximizing shareholder value—which is the driver of executive compensation.

Welch disagrees. In an interview with the Financial Times on the Global financial crisis of 2008–2009, Welch said, “On the face of it, shareholder value is the dumbest idea in the world. Shareholder value is a result, not a strategy…your main constituencies are your employees, your customers and your products.”

What Tapscott fails to see is that the executives that are concerned about compensation are PEOPLE. They see, think and feel in ways no machine ever will. They can think beyond numbers, revenue, inventory, assets—to consider strategy and approach.

And the executive isn’t the only person in an organization. The rest of the business is also made up of people, and as Jack and Suzy Welch point out in the Wall Street Journal these people also feel, think and want to make a bigger difference in the world than just maximize shareholder value.
How many employee surveys have ever found “Maximize Shareholder Value” to be the number 1 priority of every employee outside of the corner office? Zero.

People, do have a need for financial success, but they are motivated by much more than just dollars and cents (see Dan Pink’s talk on Motivation). And for an organization to maximize its potential it needs to enable its employees to satisfy more than their base needs for survival – money, health benefits, RRSP matching; they need to help them realize loftier goals and higher purpose.

They need to tie their purpose motive with their profit motive.

How does an organization tie their purpose motive with profit motive? By recognizing and living it’s Corporate Soul.

Corporate Soul is recognizing the needs of stakeholders beyond shareholders: community, employees, customers, and maximizing value for them. This leads to better performance from employees and better results for shareholders.

Here are 4 ways that organizations can live their Corporate Soul:

1. Have a well-developedvisionand mission, together with a statement of values, all of which inform the business strategy.
2. Recognize employees as the most important ambassadors of an organization and put intentional actions in place to ensure employee engagement is alive and well.
3. Make customer/client service a top priority.
4. Respect the community, including people and the environment, for the contribution they make to corporate success. Make community engagement a key component of corporate activity and give back to the community to make good happen.

Welch may not refer to it as Corporate Soul but he clearly recognizes the importance of a corporation being human. Rather than debating the “corporation as person” idea, challenge organizations to find and live their Corporate Soul.

The post Welch v. Tapscott: The “Are Corporations People?” Debate appeared first on amplifi digital advocacy and csr consulting.

If you haven’t yet, you should. Talk about Corporate Social Responsibility best practice!

These Olympics touched all stakeholders in a profound way, the people and the planet, locally and globally.  London 2012 totally embraced, and brought to fruition, their claim that these Olympic games were “everyone’s 2012.”

A Games with Sustainability at its core…

The flame has barely been extinguished, yet the impact of the games lives on. Sustainability was woven into every aspect of this event with the goal of leaving a legacy, and indeed it has done just that.

The Executive Summary of the sustainability report states, “from planning and construction and staging the Games to realising their legacy, our principal ambitions are to set new benchmarks in sustainability, inspire behaviour change, and maximise the social, environmental and economic impact of the Games to Londoners and the UK.”

To achieve this, the Sustainability Plan covered five main themes: climate change; waste; biodiversity; inclusion; and healthy living. With a mission statement, key objectives and commitments in each area, they were able to achieve remarkable results and engage an entire country and beyond in the process…and therein lies the key component, engagement of the people.

…and driven by 70,000 evangelists

According to a blog on HBR by Rob Goffee and Gareth Jones The Olympics’ Greatest Feat: An Unpaid, Highly Engaged Workforce, it was the 70,000 volunteers that made this extraordinary event possible.

As Britain’s biggest peacetime mobilization of people since the Second World War, the organizers deserve the praise of the enthusiasm, authenticity, and inspiration of the diverse group of volunteers that included students and pensioners, the well-heeledand unemployed. The commitment of volunteers touched everyone from athletes, to guests, to those employed in the wide range of services to the games.

These people were engaged and connected to the games in a way that far outreached the typical volunteer experience; they were advocates and evangelists pleased to be able to support and showoff their country and city. Or advoteers as James Temple outlines in his TEDxCalgary talk.

Any lessons for the corporate world?

Yes!

Great Britain has shown that a mission supported by key objectives, commitment to tactical ways to fulfill those objectives, and volunteers engaged in a greater vision can achieve electrifying results.

An event the size of the Olympics could easily result in mixed messages, logistic disasters, and volunteers lost in the shuffle. But the organizers have shown that with a well-executedand well-communicatedplan, great things are possible.

The challenge is on for corporations globally. And for Brazil, the bar has been set high.

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This common misconception needs a tune-up. Research is showing that healthy organizational cultures are a key component in long-term, sustainable success, and values are the cultural glue that holds it all together. For those that believe investing in the soft side of business is a waste of time, beware: there are significant benefits that come from a vibrant and alive corporate culture.

Shawn Parr’s Fast Company article, Culture Eats Strategy for Lunch, outlines the upside of investing time in culture.  He includes:

• Company focus on the mission, vision and goals;
• Employee motivation and loyalty;
• Team cohesiveness;
• Consistency, coordination and control within the company; and last, but not least,
• A spirit that shapes employee behavior at work.

Employees are your Advocates

Employees are the number one advocate or ambassador of any organization.  Does it not make sense to create an environment in which they feel motivated to provide the best service, top quality products, and are inspired to amplify your messages to all stakeholders with enthusiasm and commitment?

Graham Lowe, author of Creating Healthy Organizations, would certainly support this approach.  He identifies two important building blocks of healthy organizations: a positive culture and inclusive leadership practices.  These tactics improve the workplace, are a route to better business results, and ultimately to a better society.

With a plethora of false promises and violations of trust, organizations run the risk of creating exactly what they set out to avoid; a negative impact on the profit line.

Consumers are staking their claim

Sustainable success depends upon values-based leadership, integrity, respect for employees, customers/clients, the community and the environment.  If nurturing of the organizational soul is fluff, bring it on.  With the Internet at their fingertips, and living in the age of disclosure, consumers are staking their claim in a society that makes good happen.  It IS possible to have both a healthy organizational culture AND a solid bottom line.

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When you want to know what a phrase means, what do you do?  You Google it.

And if you Google ‘corporate soul,’ links appear on the page however, the true depth of the meaning isn’t revealed unless you dig a little deeper into the company itself.

Google defines corporate soul not only in words, but in its actions as well. 

In 2010 Chade-MengTan, one of Google’s early engineers, gave a TED talk that spoke of the company’s compassion and how it is good for business.  At Google, employees are encouraged to be concerned about the greater good, to work autonomously in serving that end, and to prepare themselves through inner development and personal growth, thus enabling them to MAKE GOOD HAPPEN in the company and in the world.  This vision takes a giant leap beyond Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR).

Rob Moore, Interim President of Canadian Business for Social Responsibility, submitted an article on CSR in the December 29, 2011 Special Section of the National Post.  He states that it is about a company’s commitment to integrating social and environmental sustainability into their organizations, and returning a profit to their shareholders, while recognizing the interests of all stakeholders.  Stakeholders include customers, business partners, local communities, the environment and employees.   CSR is an important step in the right direction to creating an integrated and sustainable world.  Yet as the authors of Good Company state, business success in this Worthiness Era depends on a commitment that moves well beyond writing cheques to actually taking action.  One that focuses on actually making a difference, not just giving donations as an “add-on” to the business agenda.

Worthiness attained through the nurturing of ‘corporate soul’ challenges companies to create a renewed corporate cultural climate, one that takes that leap beyond CSR.  This means integration of concern for the greater good into the company’s vision and strategic plan, recognition that inspired employees are the greatest ambassadors of one’s business plan, and that staff development means cultivation the whole person, not just the marketing mind.

Does this type of investment compromise the bottom line?  Ask Google.  Their success speaks for itself.

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Not so much anymore. A new wave of doing good is rising in corporations – one that moves well beyond writing cheques to actually taking action. One that focuses on actually making a difference, not just giving donations as an “add-on” to the business agenda.

In short, passive philanthropy is no longer an acceptable form of ‘doing good’.

Can you think of any companies that are NOT involved in some sort of philanthropy; who do not support a cause financially at least to some degree? It’s difficult. Most big businesses have been participating in philanthropy for many years. But what has been the true purpose of their philanthropy? Our good friends at Wikipedia tell us that philanthropy etymologically means “the love of humanity” – would you say that many businesses have been philanthropic because they love humanity?

Increasingly corporations and non-profits(or more appropriately the individuals who work inside these organizations) are realizing that although money may be changing hands there really isn’t much else happening. That corporate philanthropy is lacking soul.

Fast Co Exist recently featured a post by Katherine Pickus, Divisional VP, Global Citizenship and Policy at Abbott, where she opined about the disappearing barriers between business and non-profits and how it’s driving innovation.

The programs she describes in her article point out how businesses are becoming more involved in the non-profitsand projects that they would have otherwise just funded. They are now offering the expertise of their employees (and giving their employees a chance to engage in order to make a difference) and creating lasting value.

These programs create shared value between the business and non-profit.

For the business, it builds the skills and abilities of their employees while enabling them to be more engaged in the business. For the non-profit, it provides a boost to their usually stretched human resources to tackle projects that may involve specific expertise; and where managed properly, actually builds capacity among the non-profit’s employees.

I recently heard an executive from IBM Canada speak about their corporate volunteering program, and he said that employees often return from their volunteer role saying that it was the best thing they have done as a part of the company – as impressive as it could be upsetting considering these are 10 year IBM veterans.

THE CHALLENGE
Giving is good, right? Philanthropy can’t be bad, though some of it does have a “doing good to do bad” sense about it. So let’s make 2012 the year to look deeper, discover the corporate soul of the givers, and reveal opportunities for engaging with non-profits in a way that helps build capacity for all in order to achieve sustainable success. Let’s embrace the new rules for business success and move from “best practice” to “next practice.”

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