Whether organisations are at the point of finding a new role at the senior level, namely the Chief Sustainability Officer, depends on how CSR and sustainability are being interpreted. In other words, ‘sustainability of what?’ Unfortunately, for too many Anglo-American corporations, CSR and sustainability is a marketing ploy. So in the Anglo-American model, I do not see any movement that will make real space for the CSO officer. However, not all societies approach CSR and sustainability from this same philanthropic platform, and I expect the role of this officer to be stronger in other countries that hold a different view of CSR.
The office of a CSO is unlikely to have the same meaning for an Anglo-American corporation against a major Danish firm, to a German firm, like BMW. The sustainability concern of Anglo-Americans is to identify the charities that basically add to commercial advantage or at [...]

The article by Ian Wylie in the Financial Times, entitled “ From charity to teacher, Oxfam sets sights on MBAs ”, is indicative of the trend where business school training is now setting its sights on meeting some of the needs, challenges and concerns of third sector organisations. At the School for Leadership at Exeter University, a third sector MBA has virtually been created which tries to hit the whole of this sector in terms of providing business discipline application but with a stakeholder philosophy. The internships that MBA programmes traditionally try to pursue, particularly in financial services, are being balanced by offering work experience in third sector organisations with Oxfam being just one of them. The idea behind this is to see whether a more sustainable, green way of living and operating can be the way of the future.
I have mixed views on this. The [...]

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 [...]