Think About Corporate Social Responsibility
Eric Dauster at the Bayosphere has some pretty good thoughts on Corporate Social Responsibility. He opens with this:
Naturally, everyone would like to see corporations show a greater degree of support for social issues. Since a lot of revenue flows through major corporations it’s easy, for example, to suggest that corporations should demonstrate a higher Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) through charitable and philanthropic means.
Which has me ready for a round of corporate bashing. You see, Mr. Dauster would classify me as unnatural. I wouldn’t like to see corporations show a greater degree of support for social issues. What sense does it make for Microsoft to be involved in farm workers rights?
But then he turns things around and hits the nail on the head:
After all, is it reasonable to expect that a corporation can answer to any master other than their bottom line profits? Think about it — how can there be more than one “bottom line”? Even if social good is part and parcel to the core mission of an organization, the bottom line will always be the bottom line, and that bottom line is profits. Executives will choose profit over social good, time and time again. It’s their job.
In most parts of the country, this is obvious, but in the Bay Area, this is revolutionary thinking. A business exists to make … profits! Not change the world, but make profits.
Mr. Dauster goes on to say that the way to make corporation more socially responsible is to have good social responsibility increase the bottom line profitability. He doesn’t give any specific ideas about how to do this, and my opinion is that it may not be possible. However, the important point is to note that thinking about an issue like corporate social responsibility is more productive than feeling that corporations are evil and should be boycotted unless they support your agenda.
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