INTRODUCTION TO CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY PAGE

I look forward to the day when terms like "Corporate Social Responsibility," "Corporate Citizenship," "Corporate Responsibility" are redundant - because the concept has become so embedded in good business practice. Business leaders will recognise that they will not be able to run a successful enterprise in a global, connected economy except by being genuinely committed to responsible business practices.

There are many different definitions of "Corporate Social Responsibility." For me, it is about minimising negative environmental and social impacts - and maximising the positive impacts.

In our most recent book, Adrian (Hodges) and I tried to tackle two of the biggest problems in the way "Corporate Social Responsibility" is currently handled: namely, that all too often it is a bolt-on to business operations rather than built-in to business purpose and strategy; and that it has become too much associated with risk-minimisation - rather than being seen as a source of creativity and innovation - maximising business opportunities.

In order to create this positive corporate mindset and find these new business opportunities, we advocate a Seven Step Model. We have now developed a series of learning programmes to help businesses implement the model successfully. CLICK HERE FOR MORE INFORMATION.

I regularly write and speak on Responsible Entrepreneurship. Some of the key texts and the most recent ones are listed below.
For a full list of speeches and articles on responsible business, on the website, CLICK HERE.

Responsible business practice is relevant for any firm of any size - but for smaller businesses, the language, agenda and examples need to be appropriate and accessible for owner-managers. As chairman of the UK's Small Business Consortium, I have been championing the idea that it is "just good business."

My forward agenda in the Responsible Business area includes:

  • How large and smaller firms learn from the innovative ways that leading-edge small firms handle these topics
  • Helping businesses to integrate their commitment through the Seven Steps
  • The link between individual values, corporate values, culture and successful integration of Responsible Business practice: how these are established, embedded - and the connection to training, appraisal and rewards
  • Leadership in responsible business
  • What has BITC learnt from a quarter century of engaging business
  • How a business successfully engages its stakeholders to find corporate social opportunities
  • Participating in Tomorrow's Global Company Inquiry
  • supporting the Nigerian NGO: INTEGRITY with a toolkit and How to guide for organisations in Nigeria wishing to fight corruption

I am delighted now to be taking up an exciting new role as the first director of the new Doughty Centre for Corporate Responsibility at the Cranfield School of Management.

Hot-Links CSR

Please click here to read all about : Good Business: Small Firms and Responsible Entrepreneurship