As the world recovers from yet another crisis with typhoon Haiyan - we see humans struggle to do good. Don't get me wrong - we all have great intensions but they seem to be spurred by the 4th Estate and the media coverage. As individuals, what gets our attention is what is staring us in the face. How do we sustain the causes that are unfinished? The UN keeps on appealing for more aid and there does not seem enough to go on. A few years back a contract UN worker lamented how organisations normally approached the UN at the end of the annual year to implement their excess budget so they could declare it in their annual reports. The UN worker also highlighted that the organisations concerned never wanted to get involved in feasibility of the project or the monitoring of their projects. So tell me this, as shareholders - how engaged was the organisation in CSR?
A few months ago we were discussing the Dove - real beauty campaign. I love the campaign as it addressees a need - that of the dwindling teenage girl self-esteem but my astute student asked me - "How can one company ask you if you are fair enough (Fair and Lovely) and the next minute talk about real beauty?" And that is an excellent point. Very few members of my class had caught on it was the same company that sold both products. So where does CSR begin and end?
In January, earlier this year, at the AIBMENA Cairo Conference I was asked whether I thought the west was way ahead of this region in social responsibility but on debating this topic I brought up two points: (1) the law was more strict in the west and this gave more guidelines to companies operating in the west - did this mean people were doing it because they were good or because the consequences of non-compliance were avoidable? (2) in emerging markets and especially in MENA - the concept of zakat, often did not allow more conscientious Muslims to declare their good works. Did that mean it did not qualify as CSR if it was not audited?
The bad side of being good is now every organisation wants to audit it in PR terms (col.cm.) or even worse through reports. I have nothing against reports - but the report is a tool - not the ultimate goal! The good side of the new movement to auditing is that we are helping organisations realise they should have a moral conscience. We need to take it a step further. I firmly believe before we step outside our organisation, we need to look internally and if the culture of doing good is rampant, it will spread outside and be genuine.
A few months ago we were discussing the Dove - real beauty campaign. I love the campaign as it addressees a need - that of the dwindling teenage girl self-esteem but my astute student asked me - "How can one company ask you if you are fair enough (Fair and Lovely) and the next minute talk about real beauty?" And that is an excellent point. Very few members of my class had caught on it was the same company that sold both products. So where does CSR begin and end?
In January, earlier this year, at the AIBMENA Cairo Conference I was asked whether I thought the west was way ahead of this region in social responsibility but on debating this topic I brought up two points: (1) the law was more strict in the west and this gave more guidelines to companies operating in the west - did this mean people were doing it because they were good or because the consequences of non-compliance were avoidable? (2) in emerging markets and especially in MENA - the concept of zakat, often did not allow more conscientious Muslims to declare their good works. Did that mean it did not qualify as CSR if it was not audited?
The bad side of being good is now every organisation wants to audit it in PR terms (col.cm.) or even worse through reports. I have nothing against reports - but the report is a tool - not the ultimate goal! The good side of the new movement to auditing is that we are helping organisations realise they should have a moral conscience. We need to take it a step further. I firmly believe before we step outside our organisation, we need to look internally and if the culture of doing good is rampant, it will spread outside and be genuine.
