CSR and Value Creation: shareholders, communities and governments

CSR Foundation of Ghana’s

Inaugural National Public Lecture on CSR United Nations Global Compact Awards Night

British Council Auditorium, Accra, Ghana Sept 13, 2013

CSR AND VALUE CREATION Shareholders, Communities and Governments

Wayne Dunn

Professor of Practice in

Corporate Social Responsibility McGill University

Institute for the Study of International Development

[email protected]

What is Corporate Social Responsibility?

Where did it come from?

How did it get here?

Why isn’t it?

• Community social responsibility

• NGO social responsibility

• Government social responsibility

Or is it part of all of these?

Shared Social Responsibility

Creating Shared Value

Where did it come from?

Globalized world is demanding more of business…

Global media – The CNNization of the world – remote local issues direct to television screens

Proliferation of NGOs and CBOs – direct, well organized and financed support to communities

Internet and Social Media – direct communications from remote projects to worldwide audience

Global Democratization – increased attention to local issues

CSR History – late 1990s to present

Some phenomena

Growing expectation that business can and should

contribute to social and community well-being

Emergence of Social License - Local communities

and other stakeholders have growing power and

influence

Reputational capital is increasingly important

www.waynedunn.com;

[email protected]

CSR History – late 1990s to present

‘Socially conscious’ shareholders

Social Investment Funds (Socially

responsible investment refers to making

investment decisions based on financial

returns as well as a company’s social and

environmental practices, corporate values

and ethics).

The Financial Markets

• Dow Jones Sustainability Index

• FTSE Sustainability Index

“By working together to mobilize sustainable investment in the Least Developed Countries, government, business and civil society give hope and opportunity to the world’s poorest”

“lasting and effective answers can only be found if business – working together with other actors including government and civil society– is fully engaged”

Kofi Annan

United Nations Global Compact

announced by the then UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan in

an address to The World Economic Forum on January 31,

1999, and was officially launched at UN Headquarters in

New York on July 26, 2000

CSR in the OLDEN DAYS

Policies &

Good Intentions

Solving Social

Problems

CSR in the OLDEN DAYS (cont)

Framework

Plan

?Results?

System

more than a warm fuzzy issue

Spending isn’t the answer

Partners

CSR: Beyond Beads and Trinkets

What is a company’s social responsibility

throughout the industrialized world and in many developing countries there has

been a sharp escalation in the social roles corporations are expected to play.

Companies are facing new demands to engage in public-private partnerships and

are under growing pressure to be accountable not only to shareholders, but also to

stakeholders such as employees, consumers, suppliers, local communities,

policymakers, and society-at-large.

Harvard CSR Initiative

“CSR is the continuing commitment by business to behave ethically and contribute

to economic development while improving the quality of life of the workforce and

their families as well of the local community and society at large”

World Business Council on Sustainable Development

What is CSR

It’s about organizing business investments,

operations and activities so social value is created

while also creating shareholder value.

Collective Social Responsibility

The Millennium Development Goals

(MDGs) are eight international

development goals that were officially

established following the Millennium

Summit of the United Nations in 2000

All 193 United Nations member

states and at least 23 international

organizations agreed to achieve

these goals by the year 2015

What is Corporate Social Responsibility?

Why isn’t it

• Community social responsibility

• NGO social responsibility

• Government social responsibility

Or is it part of all of these?

Shared Social Responsibility

Creating Shared Value

Strategic Social Responsibility

Shared

Value & Responsibility

Community

Government

Business International

Organizations

NGOs

How to think about CSR systematically

• Frameworks and systematic approaches to

CSR is still an evolving area, despite a lot of

progress over the last 15 years

• No one size fits all

• CSR programs and activities can be examined

along many dimensions

Some Key Dimensions to Think About

Type of Activity

Grants and Donations

Community Social & Health

Training and Education

Local Institutional Development

Local Infrastructure

Employment

Procurement

Local Industries (Oil Palm)

Other

Some Key Dimensions to Think About

Value Proposition What Value Gets Created – For Who?

Avoid Zero-Sum situations when possible

Value Sustainability Does the initial investment continue to provide value beyond the investment timeframe

Social Value Return on Investment Not every dollar invested in CSR creates the same level of social value

Some Key Dimensions to Think About

Partners

Who/what benefits from success of this initiative?

What sort of partners would fit with this initiative? (if any)

What value would they receive? Create? (for project and

for company)?

Shareholder Value Creation

What’s in it for the company?

CSR is about value creation not Charity

Value for People

Value for Communities

Value for Shareholders

Value for Governments

CSR is a SHARED RESPONSIBILITY

Need to balance interests

Questions, Comments, Suggestions

Wayne Dunn

Professor of Practice in Corporate Social Responsibility

McGill University | Institute for the Study of International Development

[email protected]

www.csr-exec-ed.com

Desk: +1.250.743.7619

Mobile: +1.250.701.6088

Ghana +233 (0)54 110.7974

“Education is not the filling of a pail but the lighting of a fire.”

William Butler Yeats