Corporate Social Responsibility - an overview

This is the old view. Today CSR is a far more holistic phenomenon. Specifically, it is a company's obligation to be accountable to all of its stakeholders in all its activities, to try and achieve sustainable development: economically, socially and environmentally. Stakeholders include everyone from shareholders and staff to customers, suppliers, local neighbourhoods and the environment.

So what drives CSR? It is more than simple good will or philanthropy. Consumers are becoming increasingly ethically aware about the companies they buy products and services from. Governments are tightening regulations regarding environmental and social issues. Issues including third world labour exploitation and pollution have long since crossed over from minority, activist publications to the mainstream media.

As Body Shop founder Anita Roddick warned at a recent summit in the UAE, businesses ignore ethics-driven consumers at their peril. They can and will vote with their hard-earned cash, diverting profits from companies whose ethics they despise to those they admire.

CSR is already a well-established concept in the West. There are specialist agencies dealing solely with CSR: consulting, marketing, strategy. There are specialist websites, specialist publications, a myriad of books on CSR. Google has 1.6 million hits for 'corporate social responsibility.' The UK has even appointed a government minister for CSR. It sees CSR as 'the business contribution to our sustainable development goals.'

'Essentially it is about how business takes account of its economic, social and environmental impacts in the way it operates - maximising the benefits and minimising the downsides.'

Among local and regional companies CSR remains embryonic, but there is a growing awareness of it. Many Middle East CSR summits and conferences are now in their second year, bringing together government and business leaders in open debate. With AME Info's new corporate social responsibility section, we hope to further encourage the sharing of ideas, opinions and practices from executives, public relations professionals, journalists and the wider community.

Good CSR should not be seen as a burden: it should benefit both businesses and the community. The key is to see it as an investment in a strategic asset or distinctive capability, rather than an expense. At the end of the day, corporate social responsibility is the character of a company. Its ethics are the measure by which it will increasingly be judged.