In advance of the upcoming United Nations Climate Change Conference , I recently gave a presentation at Copenhagen Business School on Business Schools, Society and Climate Change. Here is a short video overview of my presentation: [...]

Earlier this week I came across this interesting article in the FT from Michael Skapinker about corporate social responsibility. Skapinker argues that one reason companies focus on CSR (instead of solely focusing on shareholder value, as capitalism suggests companies should behave) is that it makes executives “feel better”–it is a way for them to give something back when they can’t afford to act personally philanthropically in the way that Bill Gates can. [...]

Recently both Andrew and I appeared (on different nights) on Phillip Adams’s Australian radio programme ‘ Late Night Live .’ Andrew discussed the financial crisis and our book The Elephant Hunters (you can download the podcast here ), while I was part of a panel discussing corporate social responsibility (available here ).
We both think that CSR in theory is a good thing, but often it manifests itself as government absolving itself of responsibiliy and foisting it on the private sector. The sentiment behind the Caux Principles at the beginning of the CSR movement was “Let’s do something socially responsible as businesses before government intervenes and forces us to do something.” Businesses do need to show that they’re sufficiently capable of acting responsibly (and if they want to be successful with their CSR, they need to entwine it in their company’s [...]

Turbulent times in my mother-country.  Recent discussions with Russian and Americans as well as Georgians confirm the suspicion the Georgia’s turbulent relationship with Russia has little to do with democracy but a great deal to do with ensuring that former USSR territories are kept in Western hands, so that natural resources, particularly oil, flow freely to the West without paying any duty to the Russians.
Looked at closely it’s evident that the current Georgian President, Saakashvili has behaved like an autocrat not a democrat.  He has closed down newspapers, bullied  the media, locked up many dissidents who are  supporters of democracy and has now even imprisoned the son of Gamsakhurdia, the very first president of Georgia after the break  up of the Soviet Union.  In point of fact, his attack on South Ossetia is just one of a series of similar attacks.
The Russians had little [...]

Tesco’s shareholders recently voted   not to raise the minimum standards for the chickens it purchases from farms to sell at its stores, even after a high-profile campaign by celebrity chef and Tesco shareholder Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall in which he said chicken were living in appalling conditions in some farms. Fearnley-Whittingstall’s plan got less than 10% of votes-it would have needed 75% to pass.
It’s a classic dilemma-does Tesco raise the standards and then force higher prices on customers, or does it act in a way that could look irresponsible to an increasing number of aware people? Tesco seems to be somewhere in the middle-they say they are raising standards, but are doing so gradually to not shock the market.
That seems like a sensible decision to me. More and more consumers are becoming aware of issues like these-Tesco will have to continue down the [...]