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In Good Company: Singh on CSR

~ Connecting the dots between Business, Society & the Environment

Tag Archives: brand management

Brewing a Better Future [#BaBF] with Heineken: Examining the Many Flavors of Local Sourcing

18 Monday Aug 2014

Posted by Aman Singh in CSR, ESG, Stakeholder Engagement, Sustainability

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#babf, aman singh, brand management, corporate social responsibility, CSR, CSR communications, Disclosure & Transparency, heineken, nick aster, Social Impact, Social Media, Stakeholder Engagement, supply chain, supply chain management, Sustainability, triplepundit, Twitter, Twitter chat


Earlier this year, TriplePundit‘s Nick Aster and I chatted with the Heineken team to discuss what “Brewing a Better Future” meant for the company. It coincided with the Heineken's sustainability teamrelease of its latest CSR Report and the chat, which began with a selfie of the Heineken team, was both engaging and active.

It also revealed an area that deserved more digging than we could get to in the allotted hour: the company’s sourcing practices.

So we decided to team up with the experts for Round 2! This time we’ll chat with Heineken’s sustainability leadership team including:

  • Michael Dickstein (MD) – Director, Global Sustainable Development
  • Paul Stanger (PS) – Local Sourcing Director, Africa & Middle East Region
  • Edwin Zuidema (EZ) – Global Category Director, Raw Materials

Here’s what you need to know:

Date: August 27, 2014

Time: 11am ET

Hashtag: #BaBF

Speakers: @HEINEKENCorp

Moderators: @AmanSinghCSR @NickAster @TriplePundit

To RSVP, send out the following tweet:

I will join @HEINEKENCorp @AmanSinghCSR @NickAster & @TriplePundit to discuss local #sourcing on 08/27 http://bit.ly/BaBFchat #BaBF

Got a question? Include it in the comments section below or send it to contact@triplepundit.com. Talk soon!

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From Conflict to Collaboration: Kimberly-Clark and Greenpeace Participate in LIVE Twitter Chat

06 Wednesday Aug 2014

Posted by Aman Singh in CSR, ESG, Stakeholder Engagement, Sustainability

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Accountability, activism, aman singh, aman singh das, brand management, corporate social responsibility, Disclosure & Transparency, forestsolutions, greenpeace, kimberly-clark, kleenex, kleercut, peggy ward, reforestation, richard brooks, rolf skar, Social Media, Stakeholder Engagement, supply chain, Sustainability, triplepundit


When two adversaries decide to cut across their divides to work together toward a bigger cause, Kleercutchances are there’s a story – or two – to be told, learned from and examined for replicable tips.

Five years ago, Greenpeace launched a nationwide campaign aptly titled #Kleercut to invoke consumer products giant Kimberly-Clark to reexamine its fiber sourcing standards. K-C responded by inviting Greenpeace to a meeting.

What emerged from a series of meetings that followed that initial, tense meet up was a collaborative framework that has shifted K-C’s sourcing standards and helped offer both greenpeace and kimberly clarkorganizations a tangible way to move forward on protecting and conserving forests worldwide.

Today, K-C reports a significant increase in its FSC-certified fiber use and notes higher sales across its Kleenex and Scott tissue brands.

Marking their “wood” anniversary, K-C’s Sustainability Strategy Leader Peggy Ward along with Greenpeace’s Richard Brooks and Rolf Skar, decided to participate in a live Twitter chat facilitated by TriplePundit’s Nick Aster and me on August 5, 2014.

The questions were flying in even before we started keeping the panelists busy through the hour and more: from a behind-the-scenes story about how the two began collaborating five years ago to the future of alternative fibers and how the organizations are working on connecting consumers with sustainability, we covered a lot of ground.

Tweetbinder KC-GP tweets stats

Here are the stats: http://www.tweetbinder.com/rs/db6u3eRDv67

For highlights, grab the #Storify version. And to also grab our audience’s perspectives, search for #ForestSolutions on Twitter!

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Fighting for the Sustainable Consumer: A Conversation on Branding, Economic Growth, Risk & Value Propositions

11 Friday Jul 2014

Posted by Aman Singh in CSRwire

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advertising, Apple, books, brand management, Brand Management, brands with purpose, Business, consumer behavior, CSR, CSRwire, doshorts, Edelman, gap, henk campher, Innovation, Leadership, levis, marketing, Marketing, PR, seventh generation, social media, Sustainability, sustainability, sustainable consumption, tesla, toms shoes, transparency


Do consumers care about sustainability or the sustainable attributes of products and services? Would you book a “greener” hotel if the prices were comparative? Did you start paying more attention to labels after the Rana Plaza fire?

When the discussion turns to issues like purpose, risk and connecting consumers with sustainability, Henk Campher becomes fidgety. The Senior Vice President for Business + Social Purpose with Edelman has been at this for a while. Between working with brands like Starbucks, Levi’s, Best Buy, Abbott Labs and REI and leading the Oxfam International Coffee Campaign, Campher has built a reputation for challenging the status quo while operating within the trenches of corporate corridors.

Recently, he wrote a DoShorts book titled Creating a Sustainable Brand: A Guide to Growing the Sustainability Top Line [get 15% off by using Campher15 in the voucher section] to put some of his strategies and ideas on paper. We sat down for a conversation on the ideas he presents in the book, why he believes that consumers have bought into sustainability, where he sees the PR industry headed as well as his thoughts on separating the chaff from the substance of sustainability claims [Full disclosure: I was one of the reviewers of the book].

Henk_Campher Excerpts:

You write that the problem is not that consumers don’t want to purchase sustainable products, it’s that brands are unable to bring sustainability to life for consumers. Tips?

The most common mistake companies make is to lean too far to either the sustainability of the product or focus too much on how it comes to life for the consumer. The sustainability of a product is only one part of the story – the what part of a sustainable brand. To bring it to life for the consumer, you have to balance this with how this relates to them.

It is a delicate balance but extremely important. Think of the what part as showing the consumer the arms, legs, etc. of the product. It only tells them what it is but it doesn’t create a connection. To bring it to life we should show the personality and all the quirkiness of the brand – the how – to help them connect and care about the product.

Sustainable branding is very much like dating – you don’t go on a date because the other person breathes and resembles a human being. No, you go beyond that to try to make a connection with how that person relates to you and how you can build a relationship. It will be nothing more than a brief fling if you don’t have that connection.

The same for a product – you need to become a sustainable brand or else you will remain a cheap date and/or brief fling. The model described in the book is meant to be a guide on how to build this long-term relationship AND an insider’s guide on how to keep the relationship fresh.


 

Materiality matrices don’t matter to consumers but they’re proving important in helping companies focus. How can they use these to also engage their consumers?

Start balancing your materiality assessments a bit more. Too often the voices of stakeholders heard in materiality assessments are the loudest and not necessarily the most important voices. Activists, NGOs and sustainability influencers are the ones measured and engaged to inform the materiality assessment. But consumer and customer voices are almost completely absent.

Yet, they remain the most important stakeholder – they bring in the money and add to your business top line! Bringing in their voices will help you determine what areas are truly most material to your company and your most important stakeholders. It will tell you where your major threats and opportunities are as it relates to consumers.

Of course materiality assessments suffer from only focusing on the impact of the product on the supply chain. However, that is only part of the story.

As I argue in the book, you can create the most sustainable cigarette but it is still a cigarette. You have to give equal weight to the impact of the product itself. This will help you determine the weaknesses in how something is made as well as the actual impact of the product itself and help you dodge the dreaded claim of greenwashing.

But how sustainable the product itself is only tells you one side of the story.

It tells us what we should focus on when we engage the consumer but not how we should engage them. The next step will vary from brand to brand – determining how sustainability comes to life in the brand. What is the unique value proposition of sustainability in the brand? How deeply is sustainability embedded in the brand identity? How does it show itself to the consumer? Is it disruptive in engaging the consumer or more reserved?

That’s the model I develop in the book – merging the what and how to create a sustainable brand that resonates with the consumer.

Campher_tips

Getting used to failure is tough – you offer a healthy dose of how the best of brands have gone through it. Some tips for our risk-averse private sector?

Failure isn’t tough – it is part of being in business.

Companies who say they are risk averse are doomed to fail. They will still be making the same boring product that increasingly fewer people buy in the future. It was a risk to create the first iPod. It was a risk to create Tesla. It was a risk to create TOMS. It was a risk to take Dove to where it is today. Sustainability folks are risk averse because they are selling sustainability instead of selling a business opportunity.

And I don’t mean improving the bottom line. That has been done and there is no risk left there. Sustainability folks need to step out of their box and become part of business from a product and brand perspective and deliver against the consumer opportunity.

But it’s not just the sustainability people. It is also the communications and marketing people. They think throwing more money at advertising, PR, social media, etc. will create the breakthrough they need to survive. That isn’t risk. That is table stakes and nothing different from what your competitors are doing. At best you can hope for a better campaign.

We need these groups to understand how sustainability can add to the simple question people ask when they buy a product or service – why should I give a damn?

The answer is more complex than a pure sustainability story but sustainability is absolutely part of the answer. Communication and marketing people speak a different language than sustainability people and in the book I try to bridge that gap to get them to both speak “business.” And business is all about calculated risk taking.


 

“We’ve embedded sustainability into the very core of our business.” We’ve heard this classic line or a similar version of it a million times by now. It’s classic PR speak – but is there any organization out there that could truly say that and demonstrate it?

Lies, damn lies and sustainability PR.

My other favorite line is “sustainability is in our DNA.” No it is not. Making money is in your DNA.

Jokes aside, the simple answer is yes there are companies with sustainability at the core of their business. Method, Seventh Generation, Tesla, etc. were created with a specific sustainability goal in mind. They aren’t perfect but it is absolutely at the core of who they are. But a true answer is a bit more complex than that.

In the book I create a framework to show how sustainability can come to life in a brand. Sometimes it is truly at the core but in most cases it comes to life in very different ways. I identify eight ways in the framework– from ignored to designed. Method is an example of a brand that was designed with a sustainability goal in mind – absolutely at the core of their business. A brand like TOMS was inspired by a sustainability challenge while a brand like Dove aligned itself with a sustainability challenge.

In short, sustainability isn’t a simple black and white world and it constantly changes. And sustainability isn’t perfect.

The only cliché that might be right is the “journey” bit. But it is crucial that we acknowledge and show the different ways that sustainability is part of a brand, as it will direct the kind of engagement we should have with the consumer. You can’t just go out and hit the consumer (or anyone) over the head with a “sustainability is core to our business” baloney. No one will believe it. Know how it is part of you and then find a way to express it in a way that is relevant to both the consumer as well as the brand itself.

A few weeks ago, you participated in a Twitter chat we hosted on the confluence of business sustainability and economic growth. How would a “sustainable brand” approach the conundrum?

I think the “conundrum” is a bit of a red herring.

We can absolutely not consume the way we consume at the moment and we have to understand how to create sustainable economic growth. However, economic growth isn’t a problem when it comes to sustainability. The problem is that the way the economy is growing currently is unsustainable. For instance, in the U.S. you have an ever-growing gap between the rich and the poor. A more equal distribution of the wealth created by economic growth needs to happen.

It can be done – look at Germany, gap between CEO pay and average worker pay is much lower, they have a much higher minimum wage, outgrow the U.S. economy with higher taxes, more social benefits for the poor, a balance of trade in favor of them, etc. Everything that pundits say will undermine economic growth is flipped on its head in Germany – and it’s working.

It is only a “conundrum” because of a lack of political and economic will to address the unsustainable elements of the economy.

On the consumption side, the world will be fine if people consume more of the sustainable stuff. TOMS and Timberland instead of cheap knock-offs on the streets. Levi’s and GAP instead of fast fashion. Fresh fruit and vegetables locally grown instead of fast food. A Tesla or Leaf instead of a gas guzzler. Renewable energy instead of coal. Method or Seventh Generation instead of high pollutant chemicals.

There’s no problem if growth is based on more sustainable choices. How do we get consumers to do this? Well, like I say in the book… more sustainable brands that look at product and brand!

You’ve worked with numerous companies on brand development over the last two decades. What has shifted?

Firstly, social media and the connected world have redefined how brands interact with consumers. Twenty years ago, companies owned brands and sold that to the consumer. Today, they are merely custodians of the brand and consumers own it. The more agile businesses realize that the easier it will be for them to be trusted as the custodians of the brand – the more consumers will give them their loyalty.

Secondly, price Campher_LRand quality have become increasingly meaningless parts of a brand. Companies know that it is almost impossible to compete on price and have brand value. They would love to think that there is a huge quality difference between them and their major competitors but there isn’t. For instance, the difference between most cars in the same category is almost meaningless. So how do consumers make their choices? According to the value proposition offered by the brand.

Finally, the ways in which brand value proposition comes to life for the consumer has shifted. The days of the big advertising campaign is gone. Today they want you to not only be part of their lives but also do things that are unexpected and disruptive. Consumers are flooded with information and visual stimuli each day. How you break through all of that clutter is key. And that goes beyond simple shiny objects. You have to build it into your brand identity and value proposition – so it is as much strategic as tactical.


 

What remains as challenging?

The single biggest remaining challenge is how most companies remain paralyzed by fear without them even knowing it. Companies’ inability to think outside of their walls and being frozen inside those walls are their biggest failures. They are still navel gazing and seeing the world from only their perspective instead of truly understanding the world.

It comes back to the risk question you asked before – you won’t win if you don’t take risks. But so often companies will say they want to win but don’t really have the guts to do it. This is the difference between good brands and winning brands. Like an athlete – Dick Fosbury (go look it up!) changed the world of high jumping because he was willing to by-pass conventional thinking. Apple and TOMS did the same.

Yes you can point out all their faults but they kicked your backside because they weren’t afraid. Why? Because they didn’t look at what you were doing but rather looked at the problem and the consumer and created something to fill that void.

The other major challenge is how shareholders continue to drive company leaders instead of customers. This problem is too obvious to even state but they are so focused on the next quarter and shareholders that they forgot why they even exist. Imagine if they put as much attention to what their consumers truly want.

You work at the unique cusp between classic public relations and responsible brand development. Where do you see the PR sector headed in the next 20 years?

Sustainability will be like digital skills. It will be part of every single part of the PR sector. It won’t be a separate practice anymore but we are still a very long way from achieving that. Too many PR hacks think they can just make it up as they go. Create a cause here and a consumer campaign there. They will get burnt so many times until they move on and the industry really starts to up-skill all of their people.

Remember, agencies are as vulnerable as any of their clients. The hyper transparent world means that any consumer and activist can look at what agency is behind the greenwashing. No one expects perfection but they better start waking up before they are hit by their own BP-style disaster.

My biggest fear is that PR agencies don’t realize that their people are highly under skilled to handle the shifting world and impact of creating a sustainable brand. The industry will be caught out if they don’t start relooking at what they do and whether their people are geared towards the changing world.

And, of course, for them to be a sustainable PR brand, they will need to start asking what the impact of their service is. The model created in this book goes beyond products – it covers services, software, social media and everything else in between.

A main question remains – do you have a sustainable brand?

The answer for the PR sector is the same as with most other sectors – simply, no. But follow the model and you can start creating your sustainable brand. [Grab a copy of Creating a Sustainable Brand: A Guide to Growing the Sustainability Top Line – get 15% off by using Campher15 in the voucher section.]

Originally written for and published on CSRwire’s Commentary section Talkback on May 8, 2014.

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The Unruliness of Corporate Responsibility & Hyper Transparency: Quotable Quotes from Net Impact & BSR 2011

09 Wednesday Nov 2011

Posted by Aman Singh in CSR, CSR reporting

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aman singh, aman singh das, Autodesk, Bea Perez, brand management, Brian Dunn, BSR, BSR 2011, Business for Social Responsibility, Carol Cone, cause marketing, Chris Jochnick, corporate citizenship, corporate social responsibility, CSR, CSR reporting, Deloitte, Edelman, Events, Gregory Unruh, hyper trasnparency, integrated reporting, Jessica Fries, Kate Heiny, Leadership, LinkedIn, Lynelle Cameron, Management, Meg Garlinghouse, Net Impact, Occupy Wall Street, Ofra Strauss, Social Responsibility, Stakeholder Engagement, Sustainability, sustainability reporting


I spent the last two weeks attending and speaking at the Net Impact and BSR conferences. As is typical at both conferences there is always too much to choose from and a lot to absorb. Since I cannot offer you a summary of each and every panel I attended/spoke at, here are some of the top line quotes heard at the conferences:

CSR: Always a Difference in Opinions

“CSR used to be about doing the right thing. Now it’s all about how it makes business sense.” – Campbell Soup’s VP for CSR Dave Stangis

“I hate the term CSR. It has slowed the movement and in many ways ensured that it is not built into systems, accounting, etc. I prefer [the term] sustainability although that’s not a big favorite either.” – Lynelle Cameron, Director of Sustainability, Autodesk

“We think CSR is good business.” – Suzanne Keel-Eckmann, National Director for Corporate Responsibility and Sustainability, Deloitte

A bag of sweet potato fries at Burgerville in Portland, Oregon: Social messaging done right?

“CSR should be led by charity and employee engagement, not CSR departments.” – Meg Garlinghouse, Head of Employment Branding and Community, LinkedIn

“Our CEO still believes that he is the company’s chief sustainability officer. But he realized that we need to be more organized and structured in our efforts because there is a lot to be done.” – Bea Perez, Chief Sustainability Officer, Coca-Cola in response to Reverse Cause Marketing: Coca Cola’s Pursuits in the Middle East

The Role of Business in Social Enterprise

“We must see social problems as business opportunities.” – Carol Cone, EVP, Edelman

“I worked on Wall Street, driven by greed. Regardless of what anyone says, greed is not good. You get so immersed in the system you forget what all you can do with your life.” – Charles Kane, Former CEO and Board Member, One Laptop Per Child

“A lot of charities are beginning to worry that a lot of the problems they have been trying to solve are not going away. Business still tends to be more sustainable.” – Steve Andrews, CEO, SolarAid

“In the last few years, business has lost tremendous trust in the marketplace. That we are GOOD now rests on us.” – Ofra Strauss, Chairperson and former CEO, The Strauss Group 

Personal Responsibility

“When you know what you’re doing is helping thousands, the payback is so much more fulfilling than any number of stock options and bonuses.” – Charles Kane, Former CEO and Board Member, One Laptop Per Child

“We need to change without giving up who we are. There are no riots against business that are profitable. We need to talk with them, not talk to them.” – Ofra Strauss, Chairperson and former CEO, The Strauss Group

“The more you peel the onion, the more you realize there is to be done. You just need to be constantly excited about peeling the onion.” – Brian Dunn, CEO, Best Buy

The Role of an MBA

“No profession exists to make the practitioners rich. There is always a higher purpose.” – Gregory Unruh, Director, Lincoln Center for Ethics, Thunderbird School of Global Management

“I don’t know if its [The MBA Oath] is going to work. But it is in the right direction and symbolizes a complete shift in mentality.” – Max Anderson, President and Cofounder, The MBA Oath

“I’m waiting to see the day when a new employee tells me they attended a class in college called Change Agent 101.” – Anonymous 

Transparency

“We’re from the Midwest. We don’t advertise our initiatives. But lately there has been a shift in this thinking and our communication style. Transparency is a journey and we are in the early stages of that.” – Kate Heiny, Group Manager of Sustainability, Target

“The priority should always be why not disclose instead of why disclose.” – Chris Jochnick, Director, Oxfam America

“When you are increasingly naked, fitness is not optional.” – Quoted by yours truly during a BSR panel on hyper-transparency. Citation: Macrowikinomics

Integrated Reporting

“For us, integrated reporting starts with the thinking within the company on how they will sustain their value in the future. Integrated reporting starts with integrated thinking.” – Jessica Fries, Director, International Integrated Reporting Committee

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PepsiCo’s Sustainability Communications Manager: “Want to Work in CSR? Focus on Service”

08 Tuesday Nov 2011

Posted by Aman Singh in CSR, Guest Author

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Americorps, brand management, Career advice, corporate social responsibility, CSR, CSR communications, CSR jobs, CSR strategy, daniel pellegrom, Job search, job search in CSR, Jobs in CSR, jobs in CSR, jobs in sustainability, marketing, Netflix, Peace Corps, PepsiCo, PR, Reed Hastings, Social Responsibility, Teach for America


Earlier this year I had the pleasure of joining a variety of leaders in CSR for a roundtable luncheon. Aman Singh chaired the conversation and people from Edelman, Best Buy, Humana, Boeing and Northern Trust discussed some of the CSR issues our companies face today.

But this blog is not about the roundtable. It’s about the question Singh asked at the end of our lunch: What advice would I give to aspiring students and professionals who want to work in CSR?

Here’s what I said:

I believe students should not focus so much on getting the right job in CSR right away; rather they should focus on getting diverse experiences that will serve them well should they go into business later.

It’s these diverse experiences that bring fresh perspective and will help exponentially in defining and driving CSR, sustainability and corporate citizenship in the future.

My answer stems from personal experience.

After college, I joined the Peace Corps and worked on providing water, sanitation and heath care in Ghana.

Then, it didn’t seem like living without electricity, bathing in river water, and building schools and rain catchment systems would lead to much of a career in business.

But today as a senior manager for sustainability communications at PepsiCo, I work with partners like water.org and recently attended World Water Week in Stockholm, where PepsiCo launched a report on positive water impact with The Nature Conservancy. I believe coming to a job via a less traveled route, and having learned about important global issues makes one more effective within their company.

There are lots of people in politics, media and business who have benefited from the perspectives only a service program can provide.

In fact, one of my favorite quotes is from Reed Hastings, the founder of Netflix who was a Peace Corps volunteer in the early 80’s in Swaziland. He said:

Once you’ve hitchhiked across Africa with 10 bucks in your pocket, starting a business doesn’t seem too intimidating.

While I am most familiar with Peace Corps, there are many other service programs like Teach for America and Americorps that provide the same depth of realistic perspective. I am a believer in service, but there are other options too – work for an NGO, travel, teach — just get out there so you can bring something new to the discussion.

— By Daniel Pellegrom

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Net Impact and BSR 2011: 7 Days, 2 Conferences, 5 Trends in CSR & Sustainability

07 Monday Nov 2011

Posted by Aman Singh in CSR

≈ 7 Comments

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Al Gore, aman singh, aman singh das, Anheuser Busch, Bea Perez, brand management, Brand Management, Brian Dunn, BSR 2011, Business, Carlos Brito, cause marketing, Coca Cola, corporate citizenship, corporate social responsibility, CSR, CSR communications, CSR reporting, CSR strategy, ethical leadership, Events, Hanna Jones, hyper transparency, Liz Maw, Management, net impact 2011, Nike, Occupy Wall Street, Ofra Strauss, PR, radical transparency, risk management, Scott Wicker, shared value, Social Enterprise, Social Responsibility, Sustainability, sustainability, sustainable business practices, transparency, UPS, Vail Horton


There couldn’t have been a better way to end 2011 than the ambitious and cheerful Net Impact conference followed by Business for Social Responsibility‘s (BSR) annual conference.

Last year marked the inaugural year for my participation in both conferences. I came back encouraged, informed and enthused about the work ahead of us. [See: Can MBA Students be Taught Humility? and The Sustainability Jobs Debate] This year – perhaps because I have been deeply immersed in the CSR space – I feel a bit bereft, despite invigorating conversations and inspiring keynotes.

Don’t get me wrong.

While the Net Impact panels once again illustrated an incredibly knowledgeable student body set to graduate in coming years, BSR attendees and speakers showcased high aspirations and a deep understanding of the complexity of issues that face us today.

Throughout the seven days, I was continually questioned: Did you learn something new? What trends have you identified from all that you have heard? And each time I thought, what’s missing? Why am I not coming up with any articulate answers? Is my brain fried or is it something else?

On Friday, finally, sitting through a six-hour flight back to the east coast, it hit me. The CSR sector had grown up.

As a receiver of information, I was among familiarity, maturity. While last year the conferences motivated and inspired, this year the conversations focused on strategies, case studies, examples, successes and failures.

As Dave Stangis, VP of CSR for Campbell Soup articulated at a panel on Blue Sky Thinking during NI11, “CSR is no longer about identifying the business case. Today, we have evolved from questioning why to answering how.”

The Net Impact panels focused on nuts and bolts, dos and don’ts, a far cry from years past. The BSR roundtables featured honest evaluations, admittance of failure, collaborative statements of success and practical tips for newcomers.

Here then, are the top five trends I observed at two of the year’s most well-attended conferences on corporate social responsibility, innovation and sustainability:

1. We LOVE Shared Value:

Michael Porter’s “creating shared value” has appealed to the corporate sector like no other concept in recent years. Not corporate social responsibility or corporate sustainability, citizenship or conscious capitalism. There seems something so potent about shared value that CSR and sustainability executives cannot stop talking about it! A year ago, they would tell me “CSR is embedded in our DNA.” Now that statement has evolved to “Our culture has always been about creating shared value.”

Point is, CSV offers us nothing more radically new than the concept of CSR. It dictates the same concept of stakeholder engagement, mutual benefits, holistic bottom lines. But it has resonated by removing the morality that responsibility instantly dictates. For CSR and sustainability executives who have to make the business case to their C-suite, creating shared value provides them with their business case.

2. Familiarity breeds contempt

I found several attendees tell me how repetitive some of the sessions were, that they didn’t learn too much that was new or revolutionary. Perhaps it was because the same folks were attending the conferences every year? Earlier this year I wrote on Forbes’ CSR blog that instead of attending the conferences every year, we should send a colleague the following year so that we can actually widen the net of information and inspiration.

This continues to hold true: Chances are, every year there will be some common denominator at these conferences. With issues like energy conservation, water scarcity, poverty, community relations and employee engagement remaining the overarching topics, why not let one of the non-converted/uneducated learn next year?

Lesser chance of you suffering from conference fatigue.

3. Where are the CSOs?

In September, Ellen Weinreb, a prominent CSR and sustainability recruiter, released a report titled CSO Back Story*. Essentially, the report tracks every executive with the title of chief sustainability officer among the U.S.’s publicly traded companies. Her research points to 29 such individuals. While it omits the many hundreds of officers holding a wide breadth of titles ranging from CSR director to VP for sustainability and social responsibility, the report pinpointed several best practices and the continuing lack of standardization on how companies define, prioritize and implement corporate responsibility.

But I digress. [See what Corporate Secretary had to say about the report or download the complete report here.]*

Point is: Only two of the 29 CSOs Weinreb identified were in attendance at BSR: Coca-Cola’s Beatrice Perez and UPS’ Scott Wicker. Both were named CSO sometime this year. Where were the others? Wasn’t the conference meant for CSR and sustainability executives to come together for three days of knowledge sharing and benchmarking? What happened this year?

4. The Emotional Quotient

Both conferences featured wonderfully articulate keynote speakers, including KaBoom’s Darryl Hammond, Keen Mobility’ Vail Horton, Nike’s Hannah Jones, Al Gore, Strauss Group’s Ofra Strauss, Anheuser Busch’ Carlos Brito and Best Buy’s Brian Dunn.

While they discussed CSR and sustainability from their unique pedestal, the common denominator was the emotional connection they demonstrated with their cause, their brand, and their philosophy.

Hammond discussed how his childhood taught him the importance of play in a kid’s life. Strauss emphasized how her consumers and conflict-ridden Israel continues to teach her the right way of conducting business, of stakeholder engagement, of business being the real power in solving social problems.

Dunn on the other hand, focused on humility, responsible leadership and the importance of connecting with employees and consumers.

While last year’s speakers evinced more pragmatism, a businessman’s stoicism, this year the air held tension, an unspoken worry that things were going wrong too quickly, that we all needed to wake up. Quickly. The speakers were talking of soft – un-businesslike some would say – attributes: Social responsibility, connecting, respect, and the human condition, even destitution.

What had happened?

Let’s see: A recession that instead of leveling off, seems to be spreading across generations and countries for starters; a growing understanding that each of our actions – and inactions – impact many others in the world; a disastrous lack of trust for business; and a generational divide that seems to be holding the current decision makers accountable for their decades of excess.

Is business leadership finally waking up to their societal stakeholders?

5. Occupy Wall Street: Ignore or Engage?

Almost every keynote brought up this mass of undefined protestors that have continued to expand beyond American borders. Net Impact’s Executive Director Liz Maw opened the 2011 conference by asking attendees to “Occupy Wall Street but from within.”

Al Gore said, “Business must respond,” and that “it wasn’t a question any more.”

Ofra Strauss showed a three-minute video of the protestors equating them to civil unrest and a grassroots movement of discontent that business has to recognize and address.

At my BSR panel on hyper-transparency I brought up this commonality in one of my responses and posed a question for the audience: Will business ever think of these protestors as stakeholders? To my surprise, Jeff Mendelsohn from New Leaf Paper said that he and fellow attendees had, in fact, invited the Occupiers during a recent conference and that “The dialogue proved very productive for business and the protestors.”

Will anyone else follow?

*Full disclaimer: I worked with Weinreb on the report.

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KPMG’s Citizenship Director: Occupy Wall Street Protests Must Drive [Business] Transformation

31 Monday Oct 2011

Posted by Aman Singh in CSR

≈ 2 Comments

Tags

Accountability, aman singh, aman singh das, BBC, brand management, Brand Management, Business, Business Ethics, business strategy, corporate citizenship, corporate social responsibility, CSR, Director of Citizenship, diversity, diversity and inclusion, Ethics, Events, inclusion, KPMG, Leadership, Lord Michael Hastings, Management, Net Impact, Occupy Wall Street, Social Impact, social responsibility, Social Responsibility, transparency, war on terror, Work culture


“The greatest way to change the world is _________.”

That’s how KPMG’s Director of Citizenship and Diversity Lord Michael Hastings started the opening keynote at this year’s Net Impact Conference in Portland, Oregon.

In the next half an hour that followed, the former — and the first ever — CSR director of BBC offered observations that felt alternatively poignant, realistic and perhaps unattainable.

On America’s prison system:

We must recognize that social dysfunction is a critical part of our reality and is perilously expensive.

On 9/11:

I say this with the utmost respect in my heart for the victims of 9/11: It has cost us one trillion dollars and over 6,700 deaths to avenge one event. Within hours, what was supposed to be the war on illiteracy – remember the picture from that day of President Bush reading to a classroom of kids? – became the war on terror.

Today, we are facing the repercussions of that decision. Now, we must switch on our acutest sense: Our intuition and listening power.

On Occupy Wall Street:

[We have to figure out] how do we respond? Because we have to. These protests must drive transformation, which can only come through sacrifice, only by accepting responsibility.

On the answer to changing corporate culture and mindsets:

The answer is cynicism. This is an understanding that I am responsible for the conflicts around me, that I absorb the duty, steel my back and face society to do the unexpected.

On reputation:

We cannot build a reputation on what we are ‘going to do.’ Our moral fiber, clarity of values, past record and leadership contribute to our ultimate reputation.

On the role of people in business growth:

A change in reporting is occurring that will correctly calculate the real assets of a business. Integrated reporting offers this framework for the future. We’re in a time when the idea of responsible capitalism is becoming a part of business strategy. We must continue with it.

And his answer to the earlier question?

“Overcoming cynicism”

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The Story of a Successful Social Entrepreneur: What Is It That You Are Meant To Do?

04 Tuesday Oct 2011

Posted by Aman Singh in CSR

≈ 1 Comment

Tags

alternative energy, aman singh, aman singh das, Ashoka Changemakers, brand management, Business, Consumerism, corporate social responsibility, CSR, eBay Foundation, Free Play Energy, INSEAD, Leadership, leadership, microentrepreneur, microfinance, Netflix, Nuru Light, Sameer Hajee, shared value, social enterprise, Social Enterprise, social entrepreneurship, Social Entrepreneurship, social impact, social responsibility, Social Responsibility, Sustainability, sustainability, sustainable business, sustainable business practices, UNDP, Zip Car


How is a social enterprise born? Is it born out of a recognition that some thing needs to change or is it much more complex than that?

For Sameer Hajee, the decision to give up a lucrative career as a micro-process engineer in Silicon Valley was a simple one. “After working for four years, I needed a change in geography,” he tells me over a recent Skype call. A few months later, he was working for a telecom operator in Afghanistan.

From Silicon Valley to Afghanistan

Six months in the war-torn country offered Hajee a unique perspective on the impact of energy in one of the most impoverished regions of the world. “Afghanistan opened my eyes to how impactful appropriate energy use can be. I decided right then that this is what I would focus on after business school,” he recalls.

Nuru Light: A Winning Solution

Sameer Hajee, Founder and CEO, Nuru LightHajee is the founder and CEO of Nuru Light, one of five winners of this year’s Powering Economic Opportunity: Create a World That Works competition co-hosted by the eBay Foundation and Ashoka Changemakers. Nuru Light is a social enterprise based in East Africa, built on the simple premise of hyper-local economic communities.

But Hajee’s story isn’t as intuitive or linear as it might seem in hindsight. After completing his MBA at INSEAD, Hajee went to work in Kenya as a member of the United Nations Develop Programme (UNDP). Then, in 2005, the social enterprise trend was growing and market-based solutions were becoming the latest tactic for the socially conscious.

In Kenya, my role was of a convener.  A small group based out of the United Nations was trying to work with multinational companies to create pro-poor for-profit businesses and it was my job to see where the opportunities were and to connect the folks.

This not only meant a lot of nuts and bolts groundwork in one of the world’s poorest nations but also skillfully lobbying for regulations, increasing capacity, ensuring quality of local products and much more. “These private public partnerships exposed me to a lot of different business models and industries. I was able to see firsthand what was working and what wasn’t.”

Africa: A Broken Value Chain

Next stop: Free Play Energy. “I was starting to get frustrated with the bureaucracy within the UN. When Free Play approached me to help them market crank radios and other products to the camping market in rural Africa, I decided to jump ship,” he says. Hajee worked for Free Play Energy for two memorable years.

The experience was incredible.

We found out, for example, that these off grid products would be very valuable to the poor but the delivery model was completely ineffective. It was taking $20 to produce something and by the time you got to the consumer, the price had jumped to $50. The value chain is so convoluted in Africa that the end customer is always given a very expensive product.

His team’s solution: A donor model with help from the UNDP. “Free Play became a viable business but we didn’t have control of our products now,” he says.

And he was itching for something new. Again. So in 2008, along with two colleagues, Hajee left Free Play to start Nuru Light.

The Big Idea: Using Energy to Solve Social Problems

“Human power as a hand crank wasn’t going to work for very long. We knew that then, it gets old very quickly.  But the immense power of human energy has been untapped and compared to solar or other alternatives is much more appropriate,” he says.

With initial funding from the World Bank, Hajee spent two months living in Rwanda to understand specifically what “they need energy for what they were currently using.”  “Remember that these are the poorest of the poor populations. Their needs are basic. My research identified four specific needs: Cooking, lighting, mobile phone charging and radio,” he says.

Essentially, what Hajee realized then was that most of us use energy for specific tasks, especially those that don’t have a continual power source. We learn to adapt and make the most of our resources.

“The fact is that the power required to power these things wasn’t a lot. It all came down to tasks: the entire room did not need to be lit up. They just needed enough task light, as long as it was multi-use and multifunctional,” he emphasizes.

What also emerged was a need to pool resources and share. “Some of them said they would like to have room lighting for visitors. So why not have multi-use lights that can be connected for such occasions?”

The Economy of A Sachet

The hyper-local model Hajee discovered has been successful for a long time in India. With a significant percentage of the Indian population still living well below the poverty line, these sachets have gone a long way in helping those with limited disposable income afford basic necessities.

For the African poor, Nuru Light, a basic, rechargeable light, has similar potential and meaning.

But how do you take it to market?

First, you need seed investment. For Nuru Light, this meant a complete initial dependence on grant money to get through the first two-and-a-half years of research and testing. “We were completely funded by grants. It took every penny of the $500,000 we raised to make this work in Africa.”

Africa’s “Green Jobs”

“One of the ways to eradicate poverty is to offer economic opportunity. So we thought, why not put this into the hands of micro entrepreneurs who could set up recharging stations for these single, handheld lights?”

So, a lot like the successful domestic business models like Netflix and Zip Car, the Nuru Light micro entrepreneurship model was born. What made the idea instantly sellable were two factors: Setting up the business required minimal funds and the profits would be significantly steep than what the community was making.

The following months began to show concrete results with most of the micro entrepreneurs paying off their initial setup loans within six months. “They were making $1.50 for 20 minutes of charging. That’s what they made earlier by working the whole day,” he explains.

As for customers, the value proposition presented by Nuru Light was equally attractive. According to Hajee, a recharge costs 30 cents, which typically provides for with about 10 days of lighting.

A whole month’s supply? No more than one dollar for most.

Dissecting a Social Enterprise’s Business Model

While the product was an instant success with customers who really felt that their needs had been understood and the solution affordable, things were not as smooth running internally.

Our revenue model really evolved through those initial months. From low margin and a high volume approach we went to carbon credits. In fact, we are the third registered carbon credit company in Africa.

They also needed to figure out how to ensure that Nuru Light was sustainable for and with their team of micro entrepreneurs. “The fee from the recharging stations was a significant third stream of revenue that we had anticipated early on. But turned out, we were spending much more on fielders doing the rounds to collect the money than was worth it,” he says.

Nuru Light is a social enterprise that sought to invent an affordable and clean off-grid lighting system for the world’s poor.

Nuru Light

Next challenge: Automating the process.  The answer, Hajee realized lay in mobile money. A lot like the rechargeable pay-as-you-go mobile phone system, the micro entrepreneurs were set up with prepaid energy credits that could be refilled, by purchasing 20-digit pin numbers. Now, the flow was corrected, in place, much more easily manageable and yet simple.

Scaling a Social Enterprise

The social inequities and empowerment that Nuru Light has been able to demonstrably address aren’t lost on Hajee.

In fact, what caught my eye on the Nuru Light website is the “Impact” section. I asked Hajee to discuss how he believes Nuru Light is helping the African community besides fixing a basic need for light.

Our product helps reduce the use of kerosene, a significant cause for respiratory diseases. We’re helping the local environment by removing the fumes and toxicity of kerosene from the air. We are creating job opportunities for the community. Plus, for the first time the kids in the community now have the ability to complete schoolwork at their leisure, freeing up for time for play and extracurricular!

As a technology, Nuru Light, of course, presents a win for Hajee who recognized a severe need coupled with crippling factors of few resources and economic underdevelopment.

Next Stop: India

Now with new support – financially and otherwise – from the eBay Foundation, Hajee is ready to work on his next venture: The rural population in India.

In fact, Nuru Light has had ground troops in Mumbai and Delhi doing initial research since 200, he told me.

“It took all of the $500,000 we raised for Nuru Light to work in Africa. We now have the same amount to invest in our model in India. And eBay has shown a real commitment to help us scale our business by offering us their resources way beyond the financial support. Their approach has been starkly different from other donors and we’re lucky to have that,” he says.

If Africa took a few months, why was the Indian market proving such a hard nut to crack? “The reason it is taking us so much longer is that no one is working on provided microfinance opportunities in India. So off grid products like ours end up remaining largely, off grid,” he admits.

But the roadblocks in India are more convoluted and will require a whole new round of rethinking and perhaps, even a regurgitating of Nuru Light.

We have learned a lot in the last two years and now know what can work.

The research is complete and the funding is in. That success story is yet to be written for Hajee and Nuru Light, but his recent accomplishments leave me with little doubt.

Passion, a clear sense of business responsibility and market-based solutions drive Sameer Hajee. What will it take to motivate you?

Connect with me @AmanSinghCSR or leave a comment.

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Sustainability & Social Media: Trends, Challenges, Solutions

30 Friday Sep 2011

Posted by Aman Singh in Uncategorized

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aman singh, aman singh das, brand management, Business, Chris Jarvis, corporate social responsibility, CSR, CSR communications, CSR strategy, employee engagement, Events, leadership, management, prezi, Singh Solutions, Social Media, social media, social media and sustainability, social media trends, Sustainability, sustainability, sustainable business practices, Work culture


On Monday I was at the Conference Board’s Center for Sustainability annual summit to present on sustainability and social media. I decided to try Prezi after having seen Realized Worth’s Chris Jarvis use it with aplomb at the Boston College Center for Corporate Citizenship’s annual conference earlier this year.

Here then is my presentation:

Sustainability and Social Media Trends

And while you’re at, why not take this quick survey on the relationship between brand management and social media?

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Think CSR is None of Your Business?

29 Thursday Sep 2011

Posted by Aman Singh in CSR, HR, Uncategorized

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

aman singh, aman singh das, brand management, Business, campus interview, campus recruitment, candidate sourcing, Career advice, careers, corporate citizenship, corporate social responsibility, CSR, diversity, employee engagement, HR, human resources, IE Business School, inclusion, job interview, jobs, management, Management, Recruitment, recruitment, retention, shared value, social responsibility, Sustainability, talent, talent acquisition, talent management, Uncategorized, Work culture


Think again, especially if you work in recruitment or human resources.

My latest editorial on CSRWire: The Power of Hiring Right: A Value Proposition that Most Recruiters Continue to Ignore

Where Does CSR Fit in with the Recruitment Process?

 

 

 

 

 

 

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