450 Posts Found

I believe we in the business world need to be more offensive. Right now we are apologizing for the company. We are defensive, and businesses are engaging in corporate philanthropy to avoid scandals and to be liked. That is a dangerous route. Companies need to move away from defensive actions into a proactive integration of social initiatives into business competitive strategy. Basically I think that … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Author: Michael E. Porter | Source: European Business Forum (EBF) | Subject: Social Responsibility (ESG)

Sustainability can drive innovation by introducing new design constraints that shape how key resources are used in products and processes. It can suggest areas where innovation can pay off especially well. How a company attempts to overcome these new design constraints, delivering similar levels of performance and cost at lower levels of resource usage, may be key to its prospects.

Content: Article | Authors: Peter Capozucca, William Sarni | Source: Deloitte Review | Subjects: Innovation, Social Responsibility (ESG)

In the finance community, shareholder value has long been the performance metric of choice. But, is it possible to reconcile shareholder value with SEERS, a business perspective which aims to integrate social, environmental, economic responsibility, and sustainability factors into decision making? From a financial vantage point, the answer is a qualified yes.

Editor’s Note: nothing really new in this article for those already familiar with … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Author: Richard T. Bliss | Source: Babson Insight | Subject: Social Responsibility (ESG)

When companies are first asked to be transparent by investors or major customers, they often start the journey somewhat begrudgingly. But as they become more transparent, they discover all sorts of things about their business. So the most interesting gem of transparency is that it leads to new insights, which leads to innovation.

Content: Quotation | Source: Accenture | Subjects: Communication, Social Responsibility (ESG)

One of the greatest gifts to the corporate world that sustainability provides is a mechanism to engage employees.

Content: Quotation | Source: Accenture | Subjects: Human Resources, Social Responsibility (ESG)

Over the past few years, CEOs have been paying increasing attention to corporate social responsibility, sustainability, and ethics. In a recent global survey of business executives conducted by BCG and MIT Sloan Management Review, more than two-thirds of the 4,700 respondents agreed that sustainability is essential to competitiveness. Moreover, nearly three-quarters said that it is permanently on their agenda and that their commitment will increase … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Authors: Claire Love, Knut Haanæs, Martin Reeves, Wendy Woods | Source: Boston Consulting Group (BCG) | Subject: Social Responsibility (ESG)

Companies are incorporating sustainability into management agendas more than ever before, according to the results of a Sustainability & Innovation study conducted by BCG and MIT Sloan Management Review. And while not all organizations have found ways to profit from these efforts, those that have share some interesting characteristics.

Content: Article | Authors: David Kiron, Ingrid von Streng Velken, Knut Haanæs, Nina Kruschwitz | Sources: Boston Consulting Group (BCG), Sloan Management Review (MIT) | Subject: Social Responsibility (ESG)

It is as if we saw in the markets, in recent years, an attitude develop that if I have got a contract and a product that has got a market, and it is legal, then I don’t have to ask any other questions about rightness or suitability. I would suggest that simply won’t do, and indeed I think we all know that it won’t do.

It … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Author: Stephen Green | Source: Deloitte Review | Subjects: Economics, Social Responsibility (ESG)

In an increasingly turbulent world, a company must continuously adapt its business model to changes in the ecological, social, and economic spheres over both short and long time horizons. We call the ability to do this “ecosocial advantage.”

Content: Quotation | Authors: Claire Love, Knut Haanæs, Martin Reeves, Wendy Woods | Source: Boston Consulting Group (BCG) | Subject: Social Responsibility (ESG)

Patagonia’s founder still loves to blaze a trail. He takes copious time off, lets employees manage themselves, and tells customers not to buy his products.

Content: Thought Leader | Authors: Liz Welch, Yvon Chouinard | Source: Inc. Magazine | Subjects: Management, Social Responsibility (ESG)

If we truly had efficient markets in which there were no externalities, in which there was no despoiling of public goods, in which there was perfect information and people weren’t allowed to deceive and cheat, then I think the Friedman argument would work. I believe Friedman is very aware of that and wasn’t saying, “Oh, just maximize shareholder, value no matter what the situation.” … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Author: Jonathan Haidt | Source: Knowledge@Wharton | Subjects: Economics, Social Responsibility (ESG)

CSR can drive economic and reputational value in targeted circumstances and, improve a company’s bottom line. To make CSR a value-generating strategy executives must understand the contexts in which responsible practices are more likely to pay off and implementing the practices with specific principles, including competence, in mind. In this sense CSR works like other dimensions of strategic positioning, such as the quality of products … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Author: Daniel Diermeier | Source: Kellogg Insight | Subject: Social Responsibility (ESG)

A professor of organizational behavior argues that “human sustainability” may pay off too.

Content: Article | Author: Jeffrey Pfeffer | Source: Stanford University | Subjects: Human Resources, Social Responsibility (ESG)

Proponents of corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives tend to justify their position by arguing that these expenditures improve a company’s economic performance―allowing it to earn higher profits through enhanced brand reputation, more-productive employees, and insulation from regulatory penalties. In other words, executives promote the company’s own interests by pursuing a strategy of “doing well by doing good.”

In contrast, economist Milton Friedman proclaimed in 1970 (the … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Authors: Clare Wang, James Naughton, Thomas Lys | Source: Kellogg Insight | Subject: Social Responsibility (ESG)

Knowing which assessment criteria are being applied to grade your firm’s CSR performance will help it achieve a higher rating. As well, knowing which firms your company is being compared against will help it achieve a higher ranking. These authors describe how to translate good intentions into real results and improve your firm’s CSR performance.

Content: Article | Authors: Cara Maurer, Pratima Bansal, Tima Bansal | Source: Ivey Business Journal | Subject: Social Responsibility (ESG)

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Any consumer goods company trying to reduce its environmental impact faces this challenge: your footprint is largely determined by what customers do with your products, not what you do directly. Brands can be more powerful agents for change when we understand exactly how people use products, and what values, habits or motivations influence this use. We synthesized our own knowledge and experience as a marketing … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Author: Keith Weed | Source: Harvard Business Review | Subject: Social Responsibility (ESG)

Manufacturers can generate new value, minimize costs, and increase operational stability by focusing on four broad areas: production, product design, value recovery, and supply-circle management.

Content: Article | Authors: Helga Vanthournout, Ken Somers, Stephan Mohr, Steven Swartz | Source: McKinsey Quarterly | Subjects: Operations, Social Responsibility (ESG)

my guess is that organizational traits may not be the most relevant factor in determining why or how some profitable companies do good things while others don’t (instead, such traits may be a result of doing good, what social scientists call dependent variables). Instead, I am now inclined to believe that having a dedicated, courageous leader is the key factor in determining the extent to … [ Read more ]

Content: Quotation | Author: James O’Toole | Source: strategy+business | Subject: Social Responsibility (ESG)

“It doesn’t fit the business case,” or “How are we supposed to measure the impact?” are just two of the most common excuses corporations offer for not drawing up and implementing sustainability initiatives in all aspects of their operations. These authors met with some of the leading practitioners of sustainability and identified how organizations can stop making excuses and start building sustainability into everything from … [ Read more ]

Content: Article | Authors: Pamela Laughland, Tima Bansal | Source: Ivey Business Journal | Subject: Social Responsibility (ESG)