When the bottom line isn’t enough

I have spent the last four years watching people die." With this heart-wrenching line, diplomat, humanitarian, and social issues advocate Stephen Lewis opens his angst-ridden Race Against Time, an eloquent book on Africa’s AIDS pandemic. The book convincingly amplifies the author’s impassioned plea for the global community to hear and respond to the call for help to avert a mega-misfortune of our times. Most disturbing, of course, is that no one has to die of this dreadful disease in the developed continents, where drug cocktails have transformed AIDS from an inexhaustible destroyer to a relatively controllable chronic condition. But 2005 was the deadliest year on record for the modern-day plague because these drugs are still unavailable to most of the 26 million Africans infected, out of 40 million AIDS patients worldwide.

Race Against Time pulls us out of our comfort zones and brings us into the sad reality of so many men, women and children in Africa who struggle daily to stay alive. It trains our consciousness, in particular, on the plight of a large number of people who are faced with the AIDS tragedy in the midst of scarcity and extreme poverty. It makes us understand the appalling gap between vision and current reality. It infuriates because of promises inadequately delivered or not even fulfilled.

"I’ve always felt that social injustice is morally wrong, and we should try to correct it," Lewis declares. "I have never encountered a situation where millions of people are dying needlessly and the world seems to tolerate it. We spend 20 times more money on wars and weapons, while preventive care and medical attention for AIDS receive less than a paltry $50 billion, versus a trillion dollars earmarked for war arsenals," Lewis quickly adds.

In his impassioned speech at the International Association of Business Communicators (IABC) conference in Vancouver, Canada, Smith once again pitched for support, compassion and commitment to AIDS-stricken Africa. He offers a fresh perspective on global issues, and a direct challenge to the myths of globalization. Drawing upon his extensive political and international experience, Smith explores the role of business and leadership in promoting a different set of economic and social priorities for the 21st century. He espouses the thinking that businesses exist not only to make their bottom lines robust, but also to share their hearty profits and support causes that can improve people’s lives. His appeal to business communicators centered on the role of corporate social responsibility (CSR) in addressing universal problems, and the communications professionals’ role in elevating these priorities and encouraging the instinctive empathy of individuals.

"Be a communications giant," Smith says, and "be part of the distinctive opportunity to help alleviate the mounting ills faced by mankind."

Lewis is one of Canada’s most respected TV and radio commentators on social affairs, international development and human rights. For his tireless efforts in combating the spread of AIDS in Africa (where he is the UN Secretary-General’s special envoy), last year, Time magazine named him one of the Most Influential People in the World in the category of "Heroes and Icons," alongside the Dalai Lama and Nelson Mandela. He is also a commissioner on the World Health Organization’s Commission on Social Determinants of Health, and director of the Stephen Lewis Foundation.

Locally, our government health executives fear the "hidden, growing" AIDS threat. Though we have not reached the tipping point yet, the Philippines is rife with the ingredients for an AIDS disaster. Information, education and communication programs can be our vital weapons to prevent this from happening. Lewis has his hands full in Africa. It’s up to us concerned Filipino communicators to take care of our own "backyard." This is one public anxiety that we can help nip. After all, we can’t have healthy businesses thriving in an unhealthy society for long.

Structuring The CSR Function

From July 5 to 7, the League of Corporate Foundations (LCF) hosts its annual CSR Expo. The event takes CSR to heart as it urges for more active private-public sector partnerships in an effort to provide system-wide business solutions to social challenges. Corporations big and small are called upon to give back, pay it forward, and help build better communities, empower people, improve health conditions, educate kids and adults alike or support any cause that they are willing to pour funds into.

Planning for and communicating about CSR is becoming increasingly challenging in today’s business environment. The regulatory climate is getting to be more stringent, corporate shareholders are demanding more transparency about the impact of a company’s operations, consumers are more aggressively sanctioning companies that are not behaving responsibly. The Internet gave birth to a highly competent medium of communication (talk blogging) through which stakeholders can shine the spotlight on a company or brand and influence the perceptions of millions of people instantly.

The CSR function among Philippine companies is relatively young. There isn’t any established "best practices" on how to set it up. Should CSR be a stand-alone unit or part of an existing one? Should it be a direct-report job to the CEO, the foundation’s executive director, or the head of public affairs? How many employees and what kind of funds should be earmarked for CSR?

A 2005 global survey by Melcrum Publishing reports that the most widespread CSR structure (30 percent) is one in which the CSR concern is handled either by the communications or human resources department. The second most prevalent (24 percent) is for the CSR group to be under an existing division in the corporate office. The CSR function operating as a separate department located in the corporate center occurs in only slightly more than one in five companies with CSR work (22 percent).

The study also reveals that the CSR purpose is most commonly moved by corporate communications and is predominantly centralized – an indication, perhaps, that this young function is still too small to have resources for a less centrally managed way of operating and is finding its marks in setting an encompassing strategy adaptable to local situations. The Melcrum study suggests that CSR should be put where the influence is. Fast-moving consumer goods companies such as Procter & Gamble or Coca-Cola are marketing-driven organizations, so the logistical resources, power and control lie in the marketing department. In other industries, complying with regulations and maintaining relationships with civil society organizations take priority. In this case, corporate governance, risk or legal departments have the influence.

Examining how well CSR is integrated with the organizational strategy, nearly half of respondents (47 percent) say it either "drives" or "influences" the company road map, while another third (29 percent) reports that it is aligned with the strategy after the strategy has been set. The remaining quarter of respondents declare that their CSR activities don’t relate to the business plan.

The quantitative data and qualitative interviews contained in the study present a picture of a CSR function in flux. Although the majority of functions are located in the executive office and corporate communications, large numbers have moved their functions from these departments in recent years, which is, in truth, aimed at getting the rest of the business involved – the front-line employees, the managers, the CEO, the board. Thus, drafting the terms of reference should have everybody in the company aligned as it sets the direction, balance and content of the overall CSR program.

Telling The CSR Story

Three decades ago, management guru Peter Drucker proved that in business, "strucure follows strategy." Looking at current setups and practices, many organizations ignore Drucker’s proviso when it comes to setting up CSR functions. As Geoff Roberts of Responsible Corporations observes, many CSR programs are created with no clear idea of how they will support the corporate strategy and objectives. This can lead, as Roberts emphasizes, to CSR being viewed as "off-line," with the result that any commercial advantage is lost, and in extreme cases, it is reduced to the task of producing a feel-good report, with CSR issues making no real impact on the company’s forward direction.

In this context, Nancy Murphy of APCO Worldwide advises that CSR communicators need to be prepared to not only tell the company story proactively, but also to clearly connect that story – and the actions, programs and associated costs – with business objectives. And to communicate how a company’s CSR efforts relate to its business objectives, one must first confirm that the two are related. Without such alignment, no means of communication, regardless of how well it is crafted, is likely to demonstrate the connection convincingly.

Assuming the alignment exists, show that the CSR activities can result in higher ratings on parameters like consumer satisfaction, increased efficiency or more revenue. It would also be helpful to have information that CEOs and senior leadership care about at our fingertips, turn our employees into CSR ambassadors, do what we say and say what we do, and help connect the dots to make the programs work.

CSR can, without a doubt, provide companies the double bottomline – profitability and good reputation. It continues to be a good-deed, good-deal proposition.

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E-mail bongo@vasia.com or bongo@campaignsandgrey.net for comments, questions or suggestions. Thank you for communicating.