These days there is no room to hide if you’re a company of any magnitude that dares not to be transparent about how you do business right across the value chain.
We are in an era where ‘corporate social responsibility’ (CSR) is paramount in business and there is a growing body of evidence that supports this trend. Last year a poll across 15 countries by the Fairtrade Labelling Organisations International found that half of consumers are ‘active ethical consumers’ demanding companies to act responsibly.
Increasingly, we are migrating to companies that take a proactive approach to putting information out there, showcasing the good and how they are overcoming the bad. It’s a trend gaining traction across different industries and regions of the world as more companies seek to become more transparent as a way of building trust with their customers.
So what is CSR exactly?
Wikipedia has a lengthy definition, but this part seems to hit the nail on the head:
…”the deliberate inclusion of public interest into corporate decision-making, and the honoring of a triple bottom line: People, Planet, Profit.”
CSR is by no means a new trend, not by a long shot. Forward-thinking companies like The Body Shop have put CSR at the core of their business for years. But today there is a clear impetus to focus more on CSR and an even greater need to communicate these corporate intentions in an honest and authentic way.
Some of the factors driving today’s CSR agenda as reported by CSR Asia:
- Growing environmental consciousness in the face of climate change
- The growth in brand and company conversation via the social web
- Government regulations are forcing greater compliance – particularly in relation to climate change
- Corporate governance has become big on the corporate agenda driven by ‘a new breed of socially responsible investor’
- Reduced trust in corporations has also been widely reported following the financial crisis
Communicating the CSR policy
Aside from ensuring that you can actually follow through in your intentions, perhaps one of the most important challenges is how to communicate these CSR values to stakeholders. This has big consequences for the humble corporate website, the traditional ‘go-to’ place for corporate content.
As a researcher I spend a lot of time using company websites, so I’m familiar with the standard format. Over the years, I’ve noticed an obvious transition towards CSR content becoming more centre-stage – either on the home page or on specific microsites – but the social web is propelling further movement.
Last week, Best Buy re-la
unched a new type of corporate site (in beta of course).
As stated on the new site at www.bby.com its pledge is to provide ‘All the news from the brands and operations worldwide of Best Buy Co Inc”. The site is definitely no substitute to its main corporate website, which has product information and investor relations and is very much in beta. But I can see they are trying to create a clearer picture of who Best Buy is, what they are doing, how to communicate with them and the people behind the business.
This seems to be another tool in its social armoury. Best Buy has been proactive in embracing in the social web, introducing its Twelpforce and crowdsourcing ideas with its Idea X platform.
As you may be aware, there’s a growing band of discussion around what some contend as ‘the death of the corporate website’ as we know it. I’ll point you in the direction of Simon Mainwairing who delivers a poignant analysis of how corporate sites will change as they are “replaced by their social equivalents.”
Perhaps the transition has already started? Love to get your thoughts.
