Third Weekend of Class - Corporate Social Responsibility ( CSR )

In the third and final weekend of class we discussed Corporate Social Responsibility ( CSR ). We went over CSR in the news, the different ways companies define CSR activities, and what is CSR. We then discussed whether companies should be doing CSR and why they are doing it currently.
In this area we discussed the steps in evolution for CSR. We identified where companies are in the steps and where they should strive to be. Below is the slide that was used in class, provided by Dr. Jane Machin

We continued with several benefits companies can gain by getting to the opportunity stage of CSR. In the opportunity stage, CSR is strategic and supports the core business objectives of the organization. These core competencies are then leveraged to create positive business value as well as shared value in social change.

The next post CACI CSR will go through the following process as well. 

In order to identify potential issues to go after, a company must:

1.  Understand their current CSR programs
2. Know their current business objectives
3. Be able to list their core competencies
4. Now, you must embrace the stakeholders
5. Look and observe what your competitors and industry are doing and compare them to your current programs and core competencies

Once you have this drawn out. It is important to evaluate the issues identified. It is important to identify which are most important, feasible, and authentic to the organization. This will give you the best competitive advantage.

You then want to generate solutions. You can look at Hypothesis Driven Marketing to help aid this. Re-framing the problem will help create solutions.

Then the organization needs to implement the solutions. This will help with support from higher management. Targets need to be set and embedded in core functions and it is better to make the commitments public.

Some of the critical success factors that were identified were that an organizations CSR activities need to be:

• strategic
• consistent
• authentic
• measurable
• reportable
• simple

If you can directly align your CSR activities to strategy, draw a straight line from your activity to profit, you are more likely to succeed and grow shared value within the business and community.