How and When to Integrate Social Values into a Business

This blog was originally published on the Net Impact Blog as part of its Voices series, featuring Net Impact leaders around the world who are making a difference on their campuses and in their careers.

Expectations of business are shifting. Consumers increasingly choose brands that strive to embed positive social and environmental values and practices into their products, services and workplaces. In particular, millennials, who account for $1.3 trillion in spending power in the U.S., want to interact with and work for companies that not only focus on profit, but also deliver value to people – employees, communities, consumers – and the planet.

So if you are not yet thinking about social impact, when is the right time to start?

From day 1:

If you are a budding entrepreneur with a great idea, embed positive social and environmental values and practices into your company from the start. At the Net Impact Conference 2014 there were a number of highly successful mission-driven companies - Honest Tea, Greyston Bakery, Happy Family, and others - that have been that way from the start. It has not necessarily been an easy ride, however, these companies are demonstrating that is possible to be a successful business while also having a strong commitment to social good - there are many valuable lessons that can be learnt from them.

When you are big:

It is never too late to think about the social impact of your company but, if you leave it too long, it becomes harder and takes longer to change. At the Net Impact Conference, we heard from Paul Polman, CEO of Unilever, who talked about the multi-year journey that the company is on as part of its comprehensive Sustainable Living Plan. The process is highly complex and requires a huge amount of vision and leadership from the business, its partners and suppliers to get there. The same is true of other multinational companies such as Nestle, Pepsico, and P&G that are on similar journeys. While these efforts should be applauded and supported, if you have the choice, why wait?

So that leaves one option...

Act now as you grow:

While your company is smaller and more agile, make the shift today and embed a strong social mission and values into the business, culture and brand. It will not happen overnight but, if done in a strategic way, taking action may benefit the growth and success of the company.

Look at Chipotle. For over a decade, it has worked hard to embed its commitment to “food with integrity” into its business and brand. Earlier this year when it was forced to remove pork supplies from a third of its restaurants due to animal welfare concerns at an estimated cost of around $2 million in sales, there was no question about what action should be taken; the company knew that standing by its values was more important. CEO, Steve Ells told investors “customers are commending us for taking action against the inhumane treatment of animals, and congratulating us for standing by our business values.”

When is the right time to think about social impact? The answer is now. Whether your company or the company you work for is new, growing or more established, the sooner you take action to meet the changing expectations of today and tomorrow’s consumers, the better position the company will be in for long-term growth and success.

Context Goals – Blowing The Smoke Away From The Finish Line

This is a blog was originally published on the Cause Nation blog. 

Over the past 10 years, there has been a significant shift in the way that companies communicate with their stakeholders. In an increasingly connected, ‘open source’ world, company marketing and communications teams no longer have full control of their story and are held up to much higher standards of transparency. For the CSR and Sustainability field, this shift has been highly influential in moving companies – both public and private – away from over-exaggerated claims of changing the world towards more authentic and credible actions and communications.

Now expectations are shifting again.

Since the Sustainable Brands New Metrics Conference in Boston last Fall, I have been reading and feeding my inner impact geek with the latest trends around measurement, storytelling, and in particular, the emerging sphere of ‘context goals.’

Context goals highlight the scope of our entire problem or challenge and a company’s role or impact within it. Instead of companies setting discretionary goals based on what they feel able to achieve and what their competitors are doing; companies will set goals based on scientifically-derived “thresholds” that determine what needs to be done to solve the world’s pressing social and environmental challenges. For example, scientists have the data to show us what GHG emissions reductions are required to prevent the devastating impacts of climate change – this is the threshold that can work back from to set goals for the corporate and other sectors to achieve.

Up until now, organizations have been racing along, edging ahead of their competitors and trying to stay at the front of the pack; context goals finally show us the finish line so that we can all train and prepare ourselves to go the distance. As Bob Willard put it during one of the SB New Metrics panel sessions “the time for incrementalism has passed and we need to act based on the realities.”

The focus of the discussions at the SB New Metrics Conference was on context goals for environmental sustainability efforts rather than social issues as the measurement methodologies are more advanced. This highlights the need to advance our understanding of social issues and viable solutions. Having said that, there is still some way to go to set environmental sustainability context goals. There still needs to be agreement on the science behind the setting of thresholds, and the complicated questions around how accountability is determined i.e. how much one company needs to do vs. another. 

Sustainability frontrunners are already leading the charge around context goals. Ben and Jerry’s is piloting the MultiCapital Scorecard Method, which not only positions social and environmental metrics alongside traditional financial metrics, but also shows progress against third party derived thresholds.

For the Cause Consulting team, the advent of context goals is very exciting. Over the past 10 years, we have been proud to work with many companies striving to make measurable progress against difficult social and environmental challenges. The ‘context era’ will continue to support them to tackle the root causes of these issues and demonstrate their important contribution.

It may also facilitate more collaboration between different organizations – both for-profit and non-profit – because there will be unified goals that everyone can rally behind and work towards. While, it will be important to maintain some competition to drive continuous innovation and improvement, by “blowing the smoke away from the finish line,” it will be clear that no one organization can or should tackle the issues alone.

The transition will not be without its challenges. In the short-term, companies will have to find a new level of comfort in, not only being transparent about their impacts and actions, but also about what this means in terms of the broader issue or challenge. In the short-term, this may continue to widen the gap between CSR/Sustainability leaders and laggards, as companies that are not so advanced in their approach to progressive business, may be concerned about exposing the true impact of their efforts.

Rome wasn’t built in a day nor will context goals be the focus of companies tomorrow; nevertheless, as Allen White, Founder, Global Initiative for Sustainability Ranking (GISR), said at the SB New Metrics Conference, “we have a future ripe for change” and context goals are an exciting tool to get us there.

How to Drive Change Within Your Company

Don't ask people what they can do for you, ask what you can do for them.

This blog was originally published on the Net Impact Blog as part of its Voices series, featuring Net Impact leaders around the world who are making a difference on their campuses and in their careers.

At the 2014 Net Impact Conference, students and professionals from a variety of organizations (and at very different stages of their careers) gathered together. What united us all was and is a strong desire for change: a passion for making our organizations, lives, and the world better. This uniting factor is also one of the biggest challenges when it comes to breaking boundaries.

Affecting change within an organization is an art, not a science; there is no one way to shift attitudes, change behaviors, or reverse bad practices. However, during Friday’s session "Leader of the Pack: What's the Future of CSR Leadership?” the panel shared their experiences of breaking boundaries in their organizations. and there was one insight that seemed to resonate above all others:

Ask people what you can do to help them.

It sounds simple but, in our excitement and sometimes impatience, it is easily forgotten. As Leo Tolstoy put it, “Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself.”

When Tim Mohin joined AMD as Director Corporate Responsibility, he intentionally took time to understand and respond to the passions and pain points of different people across the organization. This approach got a positive response and, to this day, he continues to actively listen and work out how key Corporate Responsibility strategies and activities can support and enhance his colleagues’ priorities.

His fellow panelist, Dave Stangis, Vice President, Public Affairs and Corporate Responsibility Campbell Soup Company, agreed with this advice and encouraged all of us to get curious and take the time to meet with as many people across our organizations as possible. He added that knowledge is also crucial and coached us all to keep learning and evolving our ideas because when the people you need to work with to affect change become more engaged, you need to be prepared.

As a consultant in the CSR/sustainability world, I have always been able to add more value through listening, adapting, and being flexible rather than approaching an assignment with fixed ideas or opinions. The session with Tim Mohin and Dave Stangis confirmed this approach, as well as the importance of building relationships and gaining trust. At the end of the day, you can have a robust business case and brilliant ideas, but they will never fly if you do not have the right relationships to advance them.

Aligning CSR Strategy with Brand

This is a blog I published on Cause Consulting's Blog Cause Nation a few weeks ago. I thought some of you, my lovely blog readers, might be interested to read it too. 

CSR/Sustainability and Marketing professionals have not always been the best of friends.
In fact, recently, Thomas Kolster, Creative Director and Author of Goodvertising, and Founder of Where Good Grows, posted a cartoon showing them at opposite ends of a couple’s therapy couch. However, when they do work together and see the benefits, there is potential for transformative, long-lasting social and environmental change.

So what are the requirements for a successful relationship between CSR/Sustainability and Marketing? This was the topic up for discussion at the Net Impact Boston Career Summit on Friday February 21st. Harriet Henry joined John Rooks, President, The Soap Group, Chris Mann, Vice President of Corporate Partnerships, City Year, Kyle Cahill, Senior Manager, Corporate Citizenship, Blue Cross Blue Shield of MA, and Anne Erhard, SVP and NA Director, Corporate & Brand Citizenship, PurPle to discuss ‘Effective CSR Marketing: Aligning CSR Strategy with Brand Marketing Objectives.’

Here are the top five tips for effective CSR marketing discussed by the panel:

1. Start with a great strategy. An effective CSR strategy aligns closely with core business and brand objectives; the more closely aligned, the more successful it will be, and the more authentic any marketing and communications around your CSR activities will be. Take the time to develop a killer CSR strategy and engage your marketing teams in the process, as they understand your brand and target audiences better than anyone.

2. Engage your employees first. Everyone on the panel agreed that it may take time before you’re ready to communicate your CSR activities externally. Typically, your first audience is your employees; they are the people that will execute and bring the CSR strategy to life.  They are also the strongest brand ambassadors you will ever have. Only once the CSR strategy is embedded and generating wins internally should you start to think about going external.

3. Don’t try and go it alone – talk and listen to your stakeholders: It’s likely that your CSR strategy will deal with some complex social and environmental issues, and it is unlikely that you will have all the necessary expertise in-house. So go out and find subject-matter experts, nonprofits, and other stakeholders who can help you shape your plans. Even if you think you have a winning strategy, it never hurts to validate what you know and, what’s more, seeking support and guidance is respected and may win you essential allies and partners for the future.

4. Don’t preach: When you’re ready to communicate your CSR initiatives to consumers and customers, remember that they already have a long list of worries and don’t want something else to feel bad about. Make them your partners, treat them like humans and be humble. No one has all the answers and no one is perfect, so be honest and tell your consumers this. In the end, they’ll like you more for it!

5. Make it relevant and fun:  As good as it is, your CSR strategy is not what most people want to hear about. Similarly, just because you think something is important or interesting, it doesn’t mean others will. Talk to your consumers and customers, find out what they care about, and then engage them in a fun way that they will remember.

Send them to the Amazon

It’s the age-old question - is it possible for a business to transform itself for the benefit of society and the planet without a visionary, forward-thinking leadership team?

Patagonia's Founder Yvon Chouinard
gets it - how can we help other leaders
see the light?

I recently listened to a Shared Value Initiative webinar, which featured representatives from Kemira and Barclays Bank talking about how their companies are Innovating for Shared Value. Kemira spotted the risks and opportunities inherent in the global water crisis and changed its competitive positioning from chemicals to water quality management, a move that seems to have been beneficial to its bottom line. Barclays Bank is taking a slightly less dramatic and more experimental, though still innovative, approach to shared value, investing £25 million in its Social Innovation Facility, through which it is developing commercial products that deliver social impact.

What do both these examples have in common? New leadership taking the reins and moving the companies in the direction of Shared Value.

Of course, there were other factors that inspired the smarter approach to business – for example, consumer trust in Barclays Bank was at an all-time low following Libor Gate – however, the change of leadership seems to have been the engine behind the transformation. As Valerie Bockstette, Managing Director, FSG, noted at the end of the Shared Value Initiative webinar, “visionary leadership is a key ingredient for creating shared value.”

In some cases, it is not so much a change of leadership, as a mind-set change among the existing leadership. Take former Walmart CEO, Lee Scott, whose trip to see the aftermath of Katrina led to “Walmart mobilizing its tremendous logistics infrastructure to aid disaster victims.” It also inspired him to launch “one of the biggest corporate sustainability initiatives in history.” Coca Cola’s CEO Muhtar Kent was also inspired to take a more sustainable approach to doing business after visiting the Arctic and seeing Polar Bears struggling to find food.

So should all CEOs be sent to the Amazon? Or to the slums in Mumbai? Or anywhere in the world where they can see first-hand the material impacts of the company they lead?

The answer is yes, according to Harvard Psychology Professor, Daniel Gilbert, “when we only learn from the experience of others, this is often insufficient to drive action and behavior change.” 

To add another layer of complexity to the challenge, however visionary and forward-thinking a CEO is, if his shareholders and investors don’t play ball then he’s not going to be able to radically transform the business anyway. Particularly, as many shareholders and investors are still blinded by short term wins. A 2013 McKinsey and Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB) study of more than 1,000 board members and C-suite executives around the world, found that “79% felt especially pressured to demonstrate strong financial performance over a period of just two years or less.”

So it seems true purpose-driven companies must have all its leaders, shareholders, investors, employees and stakeholders unified behind a shared mission to deliver long-lasting, sustainable value to the business, society and the world.

But, in the absence of visionary leaders, there’s still progress that can be made. Jim Collins, author of Good to Great, spent 5 years studying companies that made the leap from good to great and then stayed there. He found that “the real path to greatness…requires simplicity and diligence. It requires clarity, not instant illumination. It demands each of us to focus on what is vital—and to eliminate all of the extraneous distractions.”

So his response, in answer to the question “But how do I persuade my CEO to get it?” is “don't worry about that. Focus instead on results…within your own span of responsibility.”

And this is the message we need to remember. The circumstances won’t always be perfect but those of us who get it need to keep educating and raising awareness of the long-term, global, shared benefits that can be achieved.

#Giving Tuesday - From Good to Great!

#GivingTuesday is the ‘antidote’ to overspending, but shouldn't we be diluting the poison?

'Lovely Bird!'

Last Thursday was my first Thanksgiving in the States. I followed advice from US friends and colleagues and spent the day eating, drinking and watching football – it’s a holiday I will be happy to adopt long term!

However, considering it’s a time of year for reflection and gratitude, it’s ironic that this is totally overshadowed by the retail advertising onslaught surrounding Black Friday and Cyber Monday. The message to consumers is not 'be thankful for what you've got,' but 'go on a spending frenzy and fill your lives with a whole lot more stuff.'

I’m not the first person to notice this. In 2012, New York’s 92nd Street YMHA, a non-profit cultural and community center, launched #GivingTuesday, a campaign to create a day of giving at the beginning of the holiday season. #GivingTuesday is a platform and a moment in time for community organizations and non-profits to raise awareness and funds for their programs and projects.

One of thousands of emails that
overtook my inbox yesterday

"The 2012 debut of #GivingTuesday saw 2,500 partners signed on and a 53% hike in charitable donations over the same day the year prior." It’s not just individuals involved; companies are also making and matching donations, and facilitating and incentivizing employee volunteering.

On the one hand, I really like the concept of #GivingTuesday; it helps non-profits maximize revenue generation in the build-up to Christmas and, as Aaron Sherinian, Vice President for Communications and Public Relations at the United Nations Foundation puts it, break through the retail noise and "offer an opening day for people to talk more loudly about what they're doing." Philanthropy is such an important part of US culture that it seems right for it to be celebrated during the holiday period. As Co-founder Henry Timms, Deputy Executive Director of New York’s 92nd Street YMHA, explains "We have two days that are good for the economy. Here's a new day good for the soul."

However, there’s a part of me that can’t help but feel like the concept of #GivingTuesday simply perpetuates the 'offset mentality' – in other words, spend now and atone for it (in a slightly removed way) later. It’s even marketed as "the antidote to overspending this holiday season".

I would also question whether #GivingTuesday really engages existing donors or reaches anyone who does not already make donations. Going to the Facebook page, you are confronted with endless petitions for support from a multitude of non-profit partners. Just like the Black Friday and Cyber Monday deals, it’s hard to work out what is worthy of your money and what isn't, so if you don’t already have an organization or cause in mind then where do you start? Is #GivingTuesday missing the opportunity to engage existing donors in a meaningful way to build long-term, sustainable relationships, as well as reaching out to those who wouldn't normally think to support a non-profit?

To take it a step further - what if #GivingTuesday was not something separate? What if, retailers donated a small percentage of every purchase made on Black Friday or Cyber Monday to support a strategic non-profit partner and make a big impact on a challenging social issue, or better yet but even more wishful, pledged to invest in making their businesses better for consumers, employees, suppliers, and the wider world. That would be something worth celebrating!

It's Complicated But It Doesn't Have to Be

Consumers need clarity to help them make the right choices and live more sustainable lifestyles

Bike schemes are now a common feature of most major cities. The front runner was Paris with its Velib; London has its Boris Bikes; Boston has its Hubway; and now New York City has Citi Bikes. The Citi Bikes first appeared in May and since then ‘NYC bikers have collectively pedaled 9.4M miles and taken over 4.7M trips’ – the scheme has been a great success. What I was interested to read is that the launch of the bike scheme coincides with a ‘12-point increase’ in the number of consumers who believe that Citi Bank is a ‘socially responsible company’. This is a huge jump considering the high level of consumer mistrust in the banking sector - poor Barclays must be kicking themselves for letting Boris Johnson get all the credit for the London scheme!

The extent to which positive perceptions of Citi Bank as a responsible citizen can be attributed to the company’s support for the bike scheme is unclear; however, it does raise questions about how consumers judge companies and brands.

Almost every week there are new survey results claiming that consumers increasingly believe that it’s important to factor social and environmental factors into their purchase decisions. Last month, BBMG, GlobeScan and SustainAbility released the 2013 Aspirational Consumer Index. According to the results, 92% of ‘aspirational’ consumers (36.4% of consumers globally) ‘desire for responsible consumption’ and 58% ‘trust in brands to act in the best interest of society’. What’s more, a staggering 90% ‘of them are even willing to pay more for products produced in a socially and environmentally responsible way’. Bear in mind that it is very easy to make these claims in a survey without actually doing the action in real life. This aside, the question for me is how consumers feel able to make these decisions when they are surrounded by so many conflicting messages.

A recent interview with Mark Crumpacker, Chief Marketing Officer at Chipotle, highlights the predicament of the consumer trying to make informed decisions. He cites the example of a competitor restaurant that lists grilled chicken that is ‘cage-free, skinless with no hormones added’ on its menu. Sold? The reality is that boiler chickens are never raised in cages and there are no Food and Drug Administration-approved hormones for use in chickens. The important consideration when it comes to chicken is whether or not antibiotics are used but this gets no mention. The restaurant in question seems to be intentionally misleading its customers.

It is not always so intentional. Just the other week Good Morning America featured a story about a woman in the UK who claimed that drinking 6 bottles of water a day had made her look 10 years younger. I’m not going to go into the validity of the claim – let’s just say that the light was significantly more flattering in the after image! What worried me was that the presenters were telling viewers how important it was to drink plenty of water, while sipping from plastic bottles. Not once did anyone think to refer to drinking from re-usable water bottles or glasses. Why should they? The story was not about recycling or sustainability right?

My instinct is to call on companies and brands to make it easy for consumers; reward consumer trust in brands to act in the best interests of society by actually acting in the best interests of society. After all, the task of educating consumers to make the right decisions feels like a daunting prospect.

However, as Tim Brown, CEO of IDEO, writes in his book Change by Design, in reality it has to be a ‘two-way process’. ‘If people do not wish companies to treat them like passive consumers, they must step up to the controls and assume their fair share of responsibility. This means that we cannot sit back and wait for new choices to emerge from the inner sanctum of corporate marketing departments, R&D labs, and design studios.’

In order to help consumers live up to their side of the contract, at the very least, there needs to be transparency so that consumers who want it, have the necessary information to make informed decisions. This is vital to help us all, as a global society, move further along the path to more sustainable consumption.