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May 20

Philosophy

CSR Leadership Philosophy

Over the last several months my company has had the privilege of working with leaders from major multinational corporation, aspiring major national companies, leading social and environmental NGOs, the World Bank, the United Nations and various stakeholder groups.

We have worked in teams of various configurations, employing a range of traditional, creative and developed-on-the-fly processes and procedures.

Have we learned  much? You can’t imagine. Or maybe you can –  maybe you too have experienced an amazing run of intense-lively-fun-boring but necessary-scary-noisy-excited-exciting- much successful- some not so successful but never, never uninteresting work.

Well that what’s been going on around ES Global Consulting these days, and here is what I have learned (now applying it consistently is the next task!) Read more

May 3

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Wal-Mart’s Response Week One

Last week I noted that the next week or so is most important in the growing Wal-Mart saga, particularly its response to the Mexican bribery Bentonville cover up allegations.

I suggested that there would have to be four key areas of action:

  • Embrace the Problem!
  • Be Sincere, Concrete, Serious and Comprehensive
  • Do Something Tangible and do it Right NOW!
  • Anything Less than the CEO will not Do!

Let’s see how they did so far.

Read more

Apr 23

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Crisis WalMart: CSR Brand Value and Its Stage Setting First Response

Today was one of the best and one of the worst days for the corporate sustainability.

With the publication in the New York Times article about widespread bribery at Wal-Mart Mexico including an alleged corporate cover up, best practice CSR was vindicated. Specifically — follow your ethical code of conduct and nothing bad will happen: don’t and it will.

At the same moment, however, we lost one of the best sustainability business cases models in WalMart which turned its labor union/community busting reputation into a sustainability leader position in less than a decade.

Billions Lost

As of positing, we estimate WalMart has lost between $3 and $5 billion USD in CSR Brand Value (the monetary contribution of CSR to the company’s brand value). Gaining this value back will be difficult at best (if at all possible) and big CSR lessons will be learned in the days and months ahead (look for coming blogs here at CSR Counts).

In the near term, however, the company’s immediate response to the crisis is critical.  Here some things we should be watching for. Read more

Apr 20

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Lies, Damned Lies, Statistics and Voltonomics: GM acts on Sustainability Risk, Not its Uncertainty

As I read an article by Jim Kenzie of the Toronto Star Wheels Section, responding to Eric Bolling’s laughable arithmetic slamming Chevy Volt’s economics (on Fox Business Channel no less!), I recalled what my statistics professor used to say:  “Statistics are unconvincing enough as it is, so if you want the right answer you have to include all the right variables.” (see http://www.wheels.ca/article/806266 for Kenzie’s story).

In the article, Kenzie corrects Bolling’s estimate of 18.5 cents a kilometer for the Volt to a more precise number of 2.5 cents.  Still, Kenize – no fan of electric cars – Read more

Apr 13

blog-blogging

What Seems Hot and What Seems Not: CSR Counts after Eight Months on line….

What would you expect if you started a blog on CSR value to companies?

I suspect one rarely knows what they might get when they start a first blog. Will it attract readers? Will it be compelling? Interesting? Catchy?

I know I didn’t really know, but I did have some ideas as to what might be more popular than not. Turns out after 8 months, I mostly didn’t know!

Read more

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