OPINION: What Happened To CSR?

I’m writing a book—The Power of Connectedness—emphasizing what I had long called “the four C’s”: communication, cooperation, collaboration and compassion. A while ago I added courage. Now, given the extremely turbulent times in which we live—socially, politically, technologically and economically—it’s time to add a few more C’s: community, conscience, contribute, curtail, cease, common sense and common decency.

The relative absence of most of these principles in the corporate world makes me believe we urgently need to re-evaluate the principles and practice of corporate social responsibility (CSR).

Ethical Leadership And Common Sense

Martin Luther King Jr. understood this over 50 years ago, saying: “We must rapidly begin the shift from a ‘thing-oriented’ society to a ‘person-oriented’ society. When machines and computers, profit motives and property rights are considered more important than people, the giant triplets of racism, materialism, and militarism are incapable of being conquered.” My earliest mentor, the activist/politician Shirley Chisholm, put it succinctly: “When morality comes up against profit, it is seldom that profit loses.”

Information technology has hugely altered how we think, communicate, seek information and behave with each other. In many ways, a handful of tech titans rule the world. Throw in the globalization of the economy, the monetizing of virtually all human experience and practical needs, the rise of authoritarianism and the challenges of climate change and you’ve got a very concerning, even disturbing, situation.

Let’s review guiding aspects of CSR, which includes—but is not limited to—ethical leadership that protects human rights and the environment, promotes economic and social rights, pushes for diversity and inclusion and provides partnership and philanthropic support. Unfortunately, with few exceptions, I see a dearth of all this in current corporate policy and behavior in much of global commerce.

Fortunately, I also see solutions. Let’s start with common sense. W. Edwards Deming, the business theorist, economist, industrial engineer, management consultant and statistician, put it simply: “Profit comes from repeat customers—those that boast about the product or service.” But there’s a big difference between making a profit and making a killing.

Greed Is Not Good

Think of the famous greed speech in Oliver Stone’s 1987 film Wall Street. “Greed—for lack of a better word—is good.” says the mogul. “Greed is right. Greed works. Greed clarifies, cuts through, and captures the essence of the evolutionary spirit.” Wrong! I believe greed destroys. It literally kills: individuals, communities, cultures, societies, even countries.

Greed is CEOs making 344 times the annual average salary of workers. Greed is the average worker being overworked, underpaid and poorly trained. Greed, to me, is America’s healthcare industry, valued at $808 billion as of 2021, that offers expensive minimal coverage, consolidates hospitals into malfunctioning monoliths, seeks to destroy independent pharmacies in favor of chain stores and promotes high-priced drugs over low-cost healthier living and alternative treatments.

Greed in the U.S. is the constant undermining of safe and healthy working conditions. It’s the privatization of prisons, resulting in abominable conditions that rival internment camps. It’s lopsided taxation, which hinders the government’s ability to provide social services, infrastructure repair and environmental salvation.

Greed is taking without giving back. And ironically, it’s increasingly backfiring, as the current rash of corporate downsizing and bankruptcies demonstrates. A new generation calls for humane behavior by the companies they work for or buy from.

And greed-motivated financial profit is not the only problem. Big Tech, in my view, exemplifies greed for power. These companies have it—and I believe they’re using it to the world’s detriment.

The internet and smartphones are useful tools. I rely on them for my work, and I’m on several social media platforms as they’re so helpful for collaborative positive action and communication. But the internet is so commercialized that you can’t visit a website without being tracked by other sites or without ads popping up everywhere you go.

Social media is great for staying in touch with family, real-life friends and groups with common interests. But it’s also become a severely damaging influence, isolating us into deeply divided echo chambers. Mis- and dis-information are dominant. And, again ironically, because smartphones and social media have become behavioral addictions (like gambling), what was supposed to connect us has resulted in less genuine connection and communication, creating a “loneliness epidemic.”

Where Do We Go From Here?

So what’s the solution? I believe it’s actually simple to implement—if corporations embrace and employ the core values of CSR and all of the C’s of connectedness. Start with common decency, then go down the list of C’s and ask yourself “How can I do more of these things?”

People are more eager to do business with companies that collaborate, communicate, contribute and exhibit a social conscience and common decency. Consumers place value on corporate social responsibility; they even prefer to pay more (subscription required) for products and services offered by a brand that gives back wholeheartedly.

So use your wealth and power for people’s benefit, rather than for greater control over them. And do it now. Because it’s the right thing to do. And you know what? It’ll pay off, too. If the public—your customers—win, so do you.

Forbes