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Executive Interviews: Interview with Michael Hopkins on Corporate Social Responsibility
September 2007
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By Dr. Nagendra V Chowdary
Dr. Michael Hopkins CEO and Chairman of MHC International Ltd. (London & Geneva). He is a part-time Professor of Corporate Responsibilty Business Performance (VRBP) at Middlesex University Business School Visitng Professor at Brunel and Geneva Universities. 
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What is Corporate Social
Responsibility? What are the
different ways/forms through which
CSR manifests?
I wrote at length on this in my recent
book CSR and International
Development (Earthscan, 2006).
Briefly, a definition that I have used
for some years is: CSR is concerned with treating
the stakeholders of the firm ethically
or in a responsible manner.
"Ethically or responsible" means
treating stakeholders in a manner
deemed acceptable in civilized
societies. Social includes economic
and environmental responsibility.
Stakeholders exist both within a firm
and outside.
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The wider aim of social
responsibility is to create higher and
higher standards of living, while
preserving the profitability of the
corporation, for peoples both within
and outside the corporation1.This definition is easier to
criticize than to revise. Indeed, I am
not sure that any definition of social
phenomena ever reaches widespread
agreement and I would be surprised
if my lengthy definition would,
anyway, be the definition of choice
especially because of its length. Wordiness aside, the definition
still does not cover all the key issues
and there are at least ten concerns
that are not elaborated in my
definition. These are:
- Who are the stakeholders?
- Why include the word social in
the definition of a corporation's
responsibility?
- What is meant by 'ethical'?
- Does "treating stakeholders in a
manner deemed acceptable in
civilized societies" help
elaborate the word "ethical"?
- What is meant by a civilized
society? Do any exist these days
or did they ever?
- What does responsible actually
mean?
- Is "ethically" the same as
"responsible"?
- Does social include economics
and environment?
- Why should a firm worry about
outside stakeholders?
- Why should CSR care about
creating higher standards of
living for people outside the
corporations?
CSR manifest itself in a variety of
ways we see corporate citizenship,
corporate sustainability, the ethical
company, corporate responsibility
(without the "social"), the social
enterprise, etc. Businesses struggle to find the
right concept to hold the attention of
their managers and owners. Bad
press for an unpopular phrase leads
to a new phrase even if the
underlying sentiment is the same. It
is important to know what you are
talking about and why I always try
and lead my discussions with a
definition of CSR. On the other hand,
better the concept is embedded in an
organization than worry about a
phrase that may raise hackles
decisions in companies are not
always taken dispassionately and
objectively. The cigar smoking CEO
based in Dallas or Mumbai and
taking rapid decisions is a caricature
that may not be far from the truth in
many cases! A closely related concept is the
notion of "corporate sustainability"
with its strong overtones of
environmental correctness. Its not
surprising since the word
sustainable arose, in 1987, from the
World Commission on Environment
and Development (the Brundtland
Commission). Its definition of
sustainable development that is
widely quoted is: Sustainable development is
development that meets the needs of
the present without compromising
the ability of future generations to
meet their own needs. So, this definition was closely
concerned with the longer-term
issues of environment but has
gradually come to be concerned with
wider issues as well. In particular,
many companies, not liking the
implications of the word "social" in
CSR tend to use the notion of
corporate sustainability which, in
turn, is defined as: Corporate Sustainability aligns
an organizations products and
services with the stakeholder's
expectations, thereby adding
economic, environmental and social
value (PricewaterhouseCoopers). Many companies have taken on
board the notion of corporate
sustainability 2 and many are now
producing "sustainability reports".
For instance, the Dow Jones
Sustainability rankings put ABB as
number one in the Dow Jones on its
"'sustainability" index and notes that
there is mounting evidence that the
financial performance of good performing sustainable companies is
superior to that of companies that are
ranked lower. So, should Corporate Social
Responsibility (CSR) now read
Corporate Sustainability (CSu)?
There is strong semantic attraction
for that since it is clear that the
notion of sustainability has an
attractive ring about it to hardpressed
CEOs trying to keep, and
raise, shareholder value as well as
keeping an eye on a plethora of social
concerns. While responsibility
appears, on face value, to do with the
'nice' things a company should do
rather than keep in business and
work on shareholder value.
1.
Corporate Social Responsibility Case Study
2. ICMR
Case Collection
3.
Case Study Volumes
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