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Johannesburg, August (GRYP) – Imagine a group of young managers of the future, totally un-phased by a crisis of confidence in accountability following the revelation of Enron-type corporate shenanigans.
Why? Because they see it as a real opportunity to bring corporate social responsibility (CSR) into the mainstream.
Managers and youth representatives from NGOs took part in a workshop here on Corporate Social Responsibility as a side event of the World Summit: “Our future: evolution of the sustainable enterprise.” Their ideas on how to make this evolution happen varied – but they were firmly agreed on one thing. That change is needed, is possible, and that they will be a part of it.
They drew up a vision of the role of CSR in the year 2012. Companies should see CSR as second nature, part of business as usual. They should be empowering organisations and each have a panel of youth employees that is consulted regularly on CSR issues. And they should define, communicate and operate by a clear set of values.
“For me, CSR is a personal thing,” said Vanessa Guthrie, Environment Heath and Safety Restructure Manager at Alcoa. “One of the challenges is to convert a personal agenda to one a company can agree on and take forward.”
That’s the tricky part. Personal agendas for change don’t always sit snugly with the short-termism of economic and financial pressures, which make it difficult to convince the movers and shakers to re-think the way they operate. But the participants agreed that the recent exposure of financing and accounting scandals has raised awareness of corporate responsibility. This will feed into reflections at high levels, that will not only cover governance, but also the way companies are perceived by society at large.
“Corporate social responsibility” is never an easy term to pin down. It has been pounced on by companies to smooth over the more uncomfortable aspects of their operations and targeted by pressure groups as a PR-puff cover-up. But whatever your definition it involves companies creeping out of the black boxes in which they have traditionally operated.
“CSR is merely a tool, an instrument we need to master,” said Andrea Avolio of Columbia University and the Greenpeace Youth Delegation to the WSSD. “The final goal is social change. We have to start with the paradigm that we have a world out there, not a market.” This will involve opening out to the world, but also listening to it, allowing it in.
James Moody, President of the International Young Professionals Foundation and Managing Director of an environmental resources company in Australia, has a more business-oriented approach. “CSR is having a values-driven organisation from company down to personal values – ultimately it’s about the bottom line. I believe there are five things you need for a successful company. Vision, capital, market, human resources and technology. CSR can help you achieve all those things.”
Fine words about reaching out to society and internalising CSR have yet to ring true for many companies in the developed world, and even more so in the developing world, where there is a long way to go until companies feel under pressure to act responsibly.
“Youth in Peru are more concerned about fulfilling their basic needs than worrying about how to hold companies to account,” said Mariela Cánepa Montalvo from Grupo Saywite, a Peruvian environmental NGO. “The global ethic is not the same in developed and developing countries.”
Considering that 85% of the world’s youth population is in developing countries clearly this is where today’s young managers need to direct their energy.
© Global Youth Reporters Programme 2002
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