The CSR Newsletters are a freely-available resource generated as a dynamic complement to the textbook, Strategic Corporate Social Responsibility: Sustainable Value Creation.

To sign-up to receive the CSR Newsletters regularly during the fall and spring academic semesters, e-mail author David Chandler at david.chandler@ucdenver.edu.

Friday, October 31, 2008

Strategic CSR - CSR

The article in the url below is one of the most concise and effective arguments for CSR I have read:

“… in our hyperconnected and transparent world, how you do things matters more than ever, because so many more people can now see how you do things, be affected by how you do things and tell others how you do things on the Internet anytime, for no cost and without restraint.”

The focus of the article is the predatory lending practices that led to the current financial crisis, but the same argument can be made in any area of a firm’s operations:

“We got away from these hows. We became more connected than ever in recent years, but the connections were actually very loose. … nobody was really connected in value terms.”

Friedman argues that:

“We need to get back to collaborating the old-fashioned way. That is, people making decisions based on business judgment, experience, prudence, clarity of communications and thinking about how -- not just how much.”

In short, we need to get back to a CSR perspective.

Have a good weekend.
Dave

Bill Werther & David Chandler
Strategic Corporate Social Responsibility
© Sage Publications, 2006
http://www.sagepub.com/Werther

Why How Matters
By THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN
897 words
15 October 2008
The New York Times
Late Edition - Final
35
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/15/opinion/15friedman.html