The 5 Things That CEO’s Fear Most About CSR

CSR and the subsequent level of social impact created, is fast becoming a ‘must do’ subject within boardrooms across the globe, which is making business leaders (who are used to the traditional focus of pure wealth creation) a little uncomfortable.

As CSR becomes an increasingly important driver for strategic and commercial growth for forward-thinking and socially-aware businesses, it means that CEOs are also having to change their own personal perception and mindset, towards what once was regarded as a ‘nice thing to do’.

Businesses are ultimately set up to make a profit (what they do with that profit, is their own choice) but the context of profit in a more socially-conscious world is expanding rapidly.

When I founded the Annual Birmingham CSR Summit in 2011, the whole premise of my idea was to encourage more strategic conversations about what CSR truly means to the modern day business and to broker more cross sector relationships, based on the sharing of best practices.

I decide to partner with the CSR Network Thrive and in 2012, we launched the 1st Annual CSR Summit asking one simple question “Do businesses truly see CSR as something critical?” – June 2015 will be CSR Summit number 4 and we will continue to focus on the win/win result of opening up strategic growth opportunities for businesses, whilst creating a more strategic and long-term approach to CSR.

I firmly believe that this ethos increases the chance of long term impact in society, not just a one off activity that makes people feel good for the day!

In our business, we help key decision-makers within the business to unlock the entrepreneurial potential of their staff, aligning personal values, wants and needs with that of the business, and combine that with a more strategic and embedded approach to CSR.

We come across many reasons why companies find it difficult to view and embed CSR as a strategic driver for growth, and prefer to view it as an expense and a ‘nice thing to do.

Here are my top 5 factors that would enable decision-makers to implement a more strategic view of CSR, that creates both long-term commercial AND social impact in society:

• Create a collaborative company vision – Leaders need to set the ‘corporate frame of CSR’ but give all stakeholders (including staff, customers and suppliers) more opportunity to ‘paint the picture’ of what this means for the company. Encouraging their personal and social inputs into a corporate vision, would help to increase motivation and productivity, as they would ‘own’ the future of the company’s CSR agenda.

• Embrace the fear of what the future may look like – Fear is a psychological state of mind that inhibits action. For the CEO / Executive Team that wishes to become more strategic with CSR, it can affect the culture of the business. It is important for CEO’s to work with others to create strategies that could be implemented if the specific ‘fear’ came true – that way, if it happens, you know what to do and therefore there is nothing to fear!

• Watch the accepted language of the company – Positivity is key in any business. So often, the context of what is being said is open to interpretation, so it is important that the desire to change and what it means for the company and staff, is clear, communicated effectively and that the feedback channel you employ, gives you confidence that it was received well.

• See change as evolution, not revolution – Change is the only thing in life that is constant, and this is no different in business. But strategic CSR includes a transparent and inclusive integration of personal change, to achieve corporate change. It is essential that leaders promote a collective approach to change, detailing why change is important but how this will affect each and every person.

• Decide to learn the lessons that you don’t want to be taught – Executive teams are used to ‘how things have always been done’ and it is an imbalance for them to have to learn new ways to achieve the results they are used to. The transition can highlight their own inadequacies that they had learned how to hide, or indeed, open up new opportunities that are not feeling confident enough to take advantage of. But tough lessons, breed maturity and the power in learning from them is priceless, so adapting to the aftermath of learning, is crucial for survival.

The world of CSR and Social Impact, has changed.

I simply hope that some CEO’s make the decision to change too – that way, society will truly prosper because businesses will finally regard CSR as an long-term investment, not a short-term expense.

Till the next time,

JB

Joel Blake is an award-winning CSR Strategy Advisor, Motivational Speaker and Entrepreneur. He is the Founder and Chief Executive of Cultiv8 Solutions, a leading CSR Advisory firm for the professional services sector. He has over 15 years of experience in CSR Strategy Development, Diversity and Entrepreneurship. You can learn more about Joel Blake by visiting www.linkedin.com/in/joelgrahamblake

Why Social Impact Should Be Agenda Item No 1!

As we are all strive to grow, post the horrors of the recession, I see businesses all clamouring to demonstrate their values, ethics and how they are contributing to the development of society.

But, don’t you think that the world of business has been guilty of leveraging the notion of ‘doing good’, without realising how much untapped potential they have to actually make a sustainable long term impact?

I believe that the more companies measure their social impact in clear financial numbers, that senior directors, boards and shareholders can understand, the more confident the organisation would feel about investing MORE into activities that meet social needs AND provide long term business sustainability. That is the REAL win/win!

Why do I passionately believe that?

Because in any business, the numbers do not lie!

It is essential that social impact is viewed as a board level strategic driver of growth for businesses. Yes, I know that it feels uncomfortable to view helping society, in hard commercial and monetary terms, but that is the language that boardrooms need to be discuss this subject in, in order for more investment to be made into society.

CSR, Social Responsibility, Citizenship, CR whatever term that your business likes to use, is often seen as a business expense – an expense that brings some form of intangible value to the business.

Often, this value is based upon PR and Brand Awareness, as the value of good news can be priceless if it is utilised correctly.

Culturally, social impact has been regarded as ‘something that we just do’ or ‘helps to bring out staff together’ or ‘makes us look good’…don’t get me wrong – the ‘feel good factor’ that CAN inspire others to take positive action.

But I’ve never been comfortable watching businesses promote good news stories via simplistic, easy to deliver models of CSR activity that they can hang their hat on for PR, especially when nothing pulls the heart strings of customers more, than doing something good for the community!

Simply put, it is not sustainable to base long-term social impact, on high levels of ‘feel good factor’ alone.

Here are three reasons why Social Impact needs to articulated in numbers:

– Business who evaluate their return on investment more accurately, can identify where they can make the most social impact: Some companies may be better at meeting one type of social needs, over another. Without knowing the direct impact in bottom-line financial terms, it is difficult to know where that may be, long term.

– New cross sector partnerships can be formed to meet social needs, in innovative ways: Articulating social impact in financial terms, can reveal gaps and missed opportunities where positive impact can be compounded within the community. This can help grass roots organisations who have the local networks, links and access to work in partnership to fill those gaps where larger businesses cannot.

– Your numbers always tell the real story: Profit can mean different things, to different businesses, in different ways. But the hard facts and figures on any investment, whether it is about meeting corporate objectives or social needs, tell you what is really happening and also reveals what needs to be done.

That is why I decided to focus on the largest contributing business sector in Birmingham and have launched the Cultiv8 SV50 campaign, to find, measure and promote the Top 50 Professional Service Sector firms by their level of social impact!.

For information on this, feel free to get in touch.

Just think: how much additional investment could we ALL bring to the city to our meet social needs and help our communities prosper, if our businesses had financial clarity on how much they actually help those less fortunate, within our city?

Ladies and gentleman, this is now possible to work out…

Till the next time,

JB

Birmingham, UK – The City Where Good Business Means Doing Good?

What do businesses need to understand, in order to create a successful cross sector, integrated and strategic CSR programme for a whole city?

This is a question that I was pondered whilst sitting in the audience, at a recent ‘CSR City’ event held at Pinsent Masons, Birmingham. A number of city organisations were also presented with their certificates, as new signatories of the Birmingham Business Charter for Social Responsibility.

 

With a number of business leaders from a number of Professional Service sector firms in attendance, the event, at times, became a self-congratulatory stage promoting individual projects and activities, but it WAS great to hear about some of the good work that is being done and the impact it is creating for others in the community.

I was also pleased to hear the agreement in the room that the business sector (professional services was the focus at this event) have a clear responsibility to use their resources and capacity to do more for society and that our local authority, is willing to put resources behind a strategic city-wide response to meeting our cities social needs.

But if I’m honest and based on my experience, I think there is a storm ahead..passion, a ‘feel good’ factor, pats on the back and great speeches is one thing..but what do the numbers on social impact at board level, say?

Let’s look at some key factors that the business leaders in attendance DID NOT KNOW:

• EU CSR directive set on 15th April 2014 states that companies with >500 employees must publicly report on their CSR impact.
• 2% of gross profit of companies in India MUST be spent on CSR.
• The World Economic Forum have set a proposal, for all stock market / listed companies to legally report on their CSR strategies.

Now, you may be thinking “this is all global level activity, so how does this have a local impact?”

Fair question, but this is about understand the factors of the ecosystem that businesses are a part of and the future impacts to come, even if they don’t know it yet.  Let me focus on one key factor: Money.

CSR / Social Impact / Citizenship / Social Responsibility or whatever term you may wish to use, is often regarded as something you should not connect to the notion of making money or profit. It’s taboo, it’s not moral, it’s not the done thing…personally, I believe therein lies the problem.

I believe that if businesses both view and integrate social impact as a strategic investment tool of growth for the business, then I believe real sustainable change will take place in society and within communities.

Here are my reasons why:

• If a business invests money into ANY business activity, it must measure the return on that investment, to ensure the best amount of value is being achieved. CSR / Social impact is no different.
• If social investment is measured in hard business numbers and the results are positive, then this will give confidence to key decision-makers within the business, to INVEST EVEN MORE into communities.
• Financial metric analysis forces key decision-makers to strategically review CSR strategies, methods of measurement and stakeholder relationships focused on sustainable business growth, and more importantly, sustainable impact that must be achieved in order for ALL of society to achieve!

This is why we have already launched the Birmingham SV100, a new league table that will rank the Top 100 Birmingham companies from across all sectors, based upon their Social Earnings Ratio (SER).

This process has already started, and we are inviting companies to contact us to learn how they can get their own Social Earnings Ratio Score, for inclusion onto the Birmingham SV100.

Simply put, for every pound spent by a business on CSR, we measure much money their social impact adds to their company bottom-line. We also measure social impact as a percentage of the companies overall net worth and a few more bits and bobs..

I am determined to help businesses embrace social impact more strategically, so that together, we make Birmingham the ‘CSR City’ of Europe, a place where good business means doing good – hmm, that has a nice ring to it, don’t you think?

3 Reasons Why Social Impact Should Be A Strategic Tool For Growth!

Doing good is fast becoming a strategic imperative for forward-thinking ambitious businesses.

For years, there have been stories in the media, questioning the values and ethics of businesses. CEO’s are being held to account for their actions, brand values are being tested and social impact is fast becoming an item of serious debate.

But are business, and corporates in particular, ready to receive the emerging benefits of bringing social impact into the heart of their business?

This was a key question on Friday 6th June 2014, when we held our 3rd Annual CSR Summit at Aston Business School, UK. Our theme was Social Innovation, looking at how businesses can use social impact as a disruptive tool for commercial growth and corporate venturing with small SME’s with niche capabilities.

From CEO’s to charities to social enterprises to public sector organisations to big businesses, the mix provoked healthy debate and the sharing of insight and experiences. Cultiv8 launched its preliminary Social Value Report which highlighted the first phase of research in conjunction with the CCEG, into we convert Social Impact into tangible financial metrics in £millions for companies – it was interesting to see the faces in the audiences, when we explained that disruptive innovation allows us to measure a companies social impact in £millions, without needing the companies permission AND its legal!

I would have loved to have seen MORE corporates there. We had a few but it got me thinking – are corporates REALLY AWARE of the opportunity that social impact provides them, their stakeholders and the future of their business?

 

Here are three key benefits that I believe are so often overlooked:

– Social connectivity can identify leadership potential: Social connectivity is about connecting hearts and minds together, which is an invaluable skill that corporate leaders need to have. Leading people is hard at the best of times, but connecting with others through a genuine appreciation of their values and their own external perspective, empowers that individual to embrace challenges more readily, therefore increasing productivity and, more importantly, sourcing positive solutions because they know you care about THEM.

– Niche businesses can fill the gaps that are leaking money from the business: System failure is often masked by ‘corporate arrogance’ and that arrogance, often results in missed opportunities. If more corporates were willing to embrace smaller companies who have the access, networks and niche experience on the ground, then many corporates could reserve the funds and resources that use to fix ‘burst pipes’ caused by old traditional and hierarchical thinking.

– The numbers tell you the story, if you believe the numbers make sense: Social impact is often regarded as the ‘kum-ba-yah’ of business; the warm and fluffy feeling that oozes through the company; the icing on the proverbial cake at the end of the financial year!

But if the numbers created by social impact are looked at through commercial eyes, how would that change the focus of the business? I believe so!

This is why we license software that gives companies their own Social Earnings Ratio score. Our software allows your company to:

• Measure and report your companies’ social impact in £’s figures
• Measure your social impact as a % of your companies’ overall net worth
• Benchmark your company against your competitors and across private, public and third sectors seamlessly

I think ambitious businesses need to think long and hard about what ‘being social responsible’ means to them – in their defence, many have been and are doing wonderful things for the good of society. But the time has come, for there to be a more commercial and strategic approach for investing into social impact.

If a company can articulate what social impact means to their bottom-line, then maybe they will decide to invest even more to meet growing social needs – would be nice, wouldn’t it?

Till the next time, J

 

About:

Joel Blake AGP is the Founder of Cultiv8 Solutions – learn more about him here.

Cultiv8 Solutions is an award-winning social impact consultancy based in the Colmore Business District, Birmingham UK. 

They believe that Banking and Finance companies (or any corporate) have the greatest opportunity to create impact for their shareholders. But more importantly, for their communities. 

They help these companies convert doing good, into a tool for growth and meeting social needs sustainably.

To learn more about how they can help your company:

Email – info@cultiv8solutions.com

Web – http://www.cultiv8solutions.com