Firms stoke CSR flame to tame global protests

Published by rudy Date posted on October 19, 2011

BUSINESS executives and the academe are urging companies to practice sustainable corporate social responsibility that will create shared value for the broader community amid global protests against financial inequality and corporate greed.

In a briefing, Dr. Edilberto de Jesus, president of the Asian Institute of Management, said corporations must integrate their systems and create products and services to fit the needs of the public.

“Corporations are now more active in addressing the needs they see in the community and are looking at the resources of the corporation to address those needs in a sustainable way, which also help the companies to grow,” said de Jesus during the Asian Forum on Corporate Social Responsibility.

Maximizing profit must not be enough for companies and they must make their CSR programs sustainable by fostering viable linkages with the community, said Dr. Anjan Ghosh, Intel Asia-Pacific regional director of corporate affairs.

A movement called Occupy Wall Street that began last month with a thousand protesters marching through New York’s financial district has spread to as far as Rome and Hong Kong over the weekend.

“All these rallies approve that corporations are to be blamed for all social events. If a corporation is practicing and creating shared value, it does not ignore the problem,” said Edita de Leon, Nestle Philippines Inc. senior vice president and head of corporate affairs.

“Through communication they understand the needs of society that the corporation can and is ready to address. With the mindset of creating shared value, corporations can now ask what is your problem and how can we work together,” de Leon said.

Felipe Alfonso, vice chairman of the AIM Board of Trustees, said CSR remains an evolving concept and practice, adding that it will take time for companies to master it.

“Through time, as companies succeed, there will be less and less reason to take to the streets the way they are,” said Alfonso. –KRISTA ANGELA M. MONTEALEGRE, Manila Times

April 2025

World Day for Safety and Health at Work
“Safety and health at work every day!”

Invoke Article 33 of the ILO constitution
against the military junta in Myanmar to carry out the 2021 ILO Commission of Inquiry recommendations against serious violations of Forced Labour and Freedom of Association protocols.
Accept National Unity Government
(NUG) of Myanmar.
Reject Military!
#WearMask #WashHands #Distancing #TakePicturesVideos

Time to support & empower survivors. Time to spark a global conversation. Time for #GenerationEquality to #orangetheworld!

Monthly Observances:

March – Women’s Role in History Month
April – Month of Planet Earth

Weekly Observances:
Last Week of March: Protection and Gender Fair Treatment of the Girl Child Week
Last Week of April – World Immunization Week

Daily Observances:
Mar 25 – International Day of Remembrance of the Victims of Slavery and the Transallantic Slave Trade
Mar 27– Earth Hour
Apr 21 – Civil Service Day
Apr 22 – World Earth Day
Apr 28 – World Day for Safety and Health at Work

Trade Union Solidarity Campaigns

No to Trafficking

Jobs! Jobs! Jobs!

Categories