Milton Freedman was right
It took EBBF’s Representative to EU Institutions Daniel Schaubacher to be invited to represent EBBF On December 6, at a selective gathering and luncheon organized by Edelman PR European office at a Brusssels hotel to discuss voluntary vs. regulatory CSR practices.
Edelman’s Brussels staff thanked EBBF for its “yet another interesting perspective to the topic”. Edelman distributed a new publication on “CSR & Sustainability in the Blogosphere” which describes blogger interest in CSR-related issues, and indicates how to engage in conversation with CSR influencers and NGO’s campaigning in the blogosphere.
There we found a link to an interesting article on a separate blog run by Daniel Q. Kelley, President, Global Work-Ethic Fund, that gives an answer to whether Corporate Responsibility should or should not be regulated by law.
The article, that also appeared on the Wall Stree Journal, is by Mr. Manne, dean emeritus of the George Mason University School of Law.
This entire blog has other interesting articles, you may want to click on the Multinational Corporate Responsibility category for more articles.
January 5th, 2007 at 05:20
Unfortunately today you do need the encouragement of law to provide the minimal boundaries for CSR. View it as a Stimulus Package but it is not enough. The governments need to also put policies in place that provide incentives (carrot & stick). The two combined are like a petrie dish and nutrient. Nice package but again not enough.
The seed is really born out of capitalism nurtured in a free society. Out of this free society is born the ultimate in “people power”. People vote constantly with their wallets. Here in the United States, many businesses are waking up to the reality that consumers (Power has shifted from citizens) are choosing companies that are making a difference in the world. Of course they still want price and quality but all things being the same, many are choosing purpose driven organizations or purpose driven initiatives supported by companies. An excellent example is RED.
With modern transparency enablers (e.g. video cell phones, Youtube.com, bloggers like us…), consumers are savvy enough to identify authentic ones and are armed against the violators and those that use CSR as a marketing gimmick. If the conditions are right, the conversation of CSR will be a moot one in a few years as the balance switches from those that view CSR as a regulation and cost vs. those that are going beyond CSR and beyond the Triple Bottom Line.
The companies that have a huge head start are those that do not look to minimize their footprint on the environment but look to give back more than they take (e.g. Interface, Inc). They are also companies that do not look to meet gov’t mandated human resource requirements but exceed them (Patagonia, Inc), not just with generous yet sustainable benefit packages but also inspire the associates to go beyond (“it is not my job”). This inspiration is what is attracting consumers to become more conscious…one dollar at a time (Sorry Euros are good too:-)
Thank you for reading.
September 15th, 2009 at 12:21
Sunny, thedailyhug.com…
Lifewords at work in Africa ” SGM Lifewords – Connect: Blog is an excellent post….