“So, you are a Customer Service Representative (CSR)”? – It happened in 2008, and I still remember when one of my seniors at the University asked me this question upon our introduction. I was working with the CSR Centre then, and the person who asked me was working for one of the leading telecoms in the country.
I was not embarrassed as I knew that CSR was an incipient concept for many, and even I was clueless about its vast use before I joined that Centre. CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility), also known as Corporate Responsibility (CR) or Social Responsibility (SR), is no longer a catchphrase; instead, it’s good that companies are now relatively staid about highlighting their CSR performances in Bangladesh.
Competing with the MNCs, many local firms and conglomerates are also widely awakened about their CSR, but at the same time, one has to be very observant about the possible paradox of the broader aspect of “Responsibility” bespoken with CSR.
Corporate Social Responsibility is yet to have a solitary definition. Google it, and you will go through thousands of illustrations, concepts, and guidelines about CSR, which brings the fundamental impediment to getting a good grasp on the subject matter. Many of my good old friends still mock that while the sales and marketing team works hard to generate revenues and the finance team often scuffles to manage the flow of funds, the CSR team spends the company’s earnings at liberty, spoiling resources without bringing any significant tangible benefit to the company! Unfortunately, this is a general perception of CSR in most cases.
The basis of CSR is straightforward – “doing good for the entire society by doing your business well.” In a broader aspect, CSR can be explained as the sense of Responsibility perceived by an organization (as an individual entity), and the adaptation largely depends on how the organisation foresees its responsibilities toward its stakeholders (the society at large) who have control and impacts on the core business of the organisation. Reputed corporates are renowned for being good at CSR. As long as a company remains operative, its responsibilities emerge more extensive and significant, and as the company performs on its obligations and acts on them, its business is expected to improve daily performance.
To date, many organisations need help identifying where to start to plan and strategise their CSR while one hardly realises that when an enterprise is legally born, it has already been in progress to fulfilling its responsibilities.
The basic requirements of starting a business, besides due registration and obtaining the operation license (which belongs to the compliance part), are — Capital, People, Process, and Products/Services. To keep the new business competitive in the market (with an inborn sense of Responsibility—SR), enterprises need to make sure that the capital funds are not illegal (no black money) and that their sources are disclosable; capital machinery is of good qualities and that they are sourced from a reputed vendor that provides extensive after-sales services; the operational process is designed cost-effectively and that it is efficient; and the products/services the company offers in the market are compatible with public demand, uniquely featured, price sensitive, and above all are in conformity with its customers’ perceived values. All these features comprise responsible entrepreneurship, the first step towards being a good corporate citizen, indicating smooth progression towards sustainability.
A business must have a vision, a mission, and some objectives even before it is planned to be launched. These are not just mere statements but reflections on how the business is supposed to survive in the long run with a good reputation, signifying business sustainability – fulfilling the corporate responsibility part.
A vision is how the company sees the impact of its business over a more extended period (can be under a 5 to 20 years frame); a mission is a statement that expresses the reason for its very existence and the mileage of success it aims to achieve through its vision; objectives, principles or purposes are the supporting mechanism of running the business aligning with its vision and mission statement. It is the business’s Responsibility (CSR) to work to achieve its vision by accomplishing its mission, designing its objectives and policies to cope with the business dynamics, and progressing towards sustainability (the impact of CSR). Realising the Corporate Social Responsibility aspect will smooth the journey of a business toward its long-term aimed growth.
Corporate Social Responsibility is not a dormant junction of the business, neither a sole obligation of the CSR department or CSR managers nor a business annex to spend the company’s money for public benefits and end up getting tax benefits.
In 1991, Carroll first presented his CSR model as a 4 part pyramid dividing the responsibility aspect into philanthropic, ethical, and legal, with economic responsibility at the bottom. CSR should ideally be the harvest of a cross-functional effort across all departments and all functional wings of an organisation where teams, for example, who oversee the legal, company secretariat, corporate affairs, and corporate governance functions can join the CSR team to act and contribute in fulfilling the legal part of CSR; marketing, finance, operations teams can join hands with the CSR team to contribute in satisfying the philanthropic portion; human resources, compliance, ethics office, supply chain, procurement – they all can support to justify the ethical aspect; and all the efforts help accomplish the organisation’s economic responsibility, capitalising on which the company redeems its resources for future and sustainable investment.
One essential feature of CSR is ensuring a business’s constancy in external communications and disclosures to ensure transparency. In today’s world, Annual Reports with traditional financial statements and audit reports need to be revised to build trust among stakeholders on a company’s overall performance; neither can they address and convince all its stakeholders that the company is doing well. A responsible organisation communicates through different approaches and media, including but not limited to sustainability reports, interactive webpages and e-reports, e-/newsletters, pamphlets, press conferences, stakeholder engagement projects, community development projects, and building partnerships. All these external communications can also be a great platform, from a marketing perspective, to enrich the business’s brand image.
To conclude, CSR is a combination of business-driven efforts focusing on the betterment of its beneficiaries (i.e., consumers, investors, government, public, and regulators). It can have some philanthropic components (i.e., donation, sponsorship, and scholarship), but these have to be aligned with the future capacity of the business strategically embedded.
CSR is not just a few activities businesses often try to promote; it goes far beyond that. By quoting “CSR Activities” in communications, a business devalues its responsibilities and the concept among its stakeholders. CSR is simple, but the application is quite vast. No one can justify whether a company’s CSR is good or bad, for the results and impact of the CSR initiatives will reveal whether they were effective. One can only appreciate if the company is doing its business responsibly, but for a responsible company, it’s the company itself who can identify whether its approach is good (practical) or not good (not impactful).
Shafiq Bhuiyan is senior manager, Internal Communication and CSR, BRAC Bank Limited.