Firms stoke CSR flame to tame global protests

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