Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is here to stay, graduates, books, workshops and conferences on the subject demonstrate the relevance it has acquired in recent years, 67% of companies say they are making efforts in this regard and 74% find relevant use.
One of the reasons for this boom is the need to generate trust and bring the company closer to society. In the US, for example, 80% feel that organizations do a poor job of balancing the search for profits with the public interest. In this same sense, 47% of Chilean executives consider that CSR improves the corporate reputation of their organizations.
By this, I do not mean that CSR should be just an “advertising” or “makeup artist” tool, that supports the construction of image and credibility, but I do not believe that it is merely a form of philanthropy. I consider companies as "social actors" immersed in a network of relationships with their different audiences with whom they must interact permanently and it is in this link that it seems to me that social responsibility is present.
One of the pending tasks in relation to CSR is the ability to successfully communicate its initiatives, identify with specific social causes and not only collaborate with them. If, as I mentioned before, companies are "social actors" that depend on their ties to survive and succeed, generating socially responsible relationships must be present in the DNA of the organization, born from corporate strategy, while communication must be oriented to enhance these values in society.
In a society fragmented into subcultures, the ability of companies to identify with social causes is the “positioning” of the new era, it is the way to generate differentiation in the face of the attacks of multiple messages that our public is subjected to.
The Grameen Bank, for example, created by Muhammed Yunus, better known as the “banker of the poor,” has expanded worldwide, has 98% recovery rates (higher than any other bank) and has developed new lines of services that include telephony, Internet and others. Always defending the cause of defeating extreme poverty, through the support of low-income women.
Another experience to highlight is that of Anita Roddick and her company “The Body Shop”, one of the main cosmetic brands in Europe, focused on natural products, that have defended the defense of the environment since its inception, their posters are closer to what that a foundation would make than those of its competition.
The causes can come from many sources, from own experiences such as Ken Lyotier, a person in a street situation in Vancouver who manages to set up a recycling company and who today employs many people in this situation or from the workers themselves, as in the case Nutrimental that improves all its indicators by investigating, following and sharing the dreams of all the people who made up the company.
The market and marginalized sectors are also an important source, Hart and Clayton (2002), for example, among their studies have shown the ability to generate wealth from the poorest bases of society, generating opportunities and services for people who have been excluded, and at the same time opening new markets and business possibilities.
Finally, companies must ask themselves what really moves them, what motivates their members? How do they relate to society? What is the mandate of the vision? Today's positioning is the causes with which we identify, and marketing is no longer just about the brand, it is cause marketing.
SOFOFA. (September 2003). Industry Report. SOFOFA Social Responsibility Bulletin No. 13
SOFOFA. (September 2003). Industry Report. SOFOFA Social Responsibility Bulletin No. 13
Argenti, Howell & Beck (2005), The Strategic Communication Imperative, Mit Sloan Management Review, 46 (3), 83-89.
SOFOFA. (September 2003). Industry Report. SOFOFA Social Responsibility Bulletin No. 13
Villegas (2006) Communication Management. http://www.arearh.com/
Dawkins (2004), Corporate Responsibility: The Communication Challenge, Journal Of Communication Management, 9 (2), 108.
Rochlin (2005), Bringing Corporate Responsibility to the DNA of your company, Harvard Business Review.
An interesting work on the subject is: Nordström and Ridderstrale, (2000) Funcky Business, Madrid: Pearson Educación SA
For more information see: Yunus (1997) For a World Without Poverty. Editorial Andrés Bello.
For more information see: Goleman, Kaufman and Ray (2000). The creative spirit. Vergara Publishing House.
For more information see:
For more information see: Barros and Cooperrider (2000) “A story of nutrimental in Brazil: How wholeness, appreciation, and inquiry…” Organization Development Journal, 18: 2, 22
Hart and Clayton (2002), “ The great leap - Driving Innovation from the base of the pyramid. MIT Soan Management Review, 44: 1, 51-52
