Forget corporate social responsibility: just do a proper job

A theme of this autumn has been conversations about corporate reputation and how it is guarded or lost. To name but three, I have kicked this around at a ‘Trust Forum’ sponsored by the lawyers DLA Piper at Oxford’s Said Business School, at a lunch hosted by the wealth managers McInroy & Wood, and in an interview with Lord (Stuart) Rose, former Marks & Spencer chief, at last week’s York Business Conference. The essence is that most big companies feel their reputations are increasingly fragile, and that public trust is now routinely and unfairly denied to them.

Non-banks blame banks for letting the side down. All companies blame the media for failing to report good news, and social media for spreading false or subversive rumours. The media blames PR for hiding the truth and the boardroom fraternity for failing to see themselves as others see them. The left blames executives for paying themselves too much; the right blames government for regulating as though business always behave badly if left to itself.

One frequently asked question is ‘Why doesn’t anyone give us credit for all the CSR (corporate social responsibility) stuff we do these days?’ To which my answer is that CSR is more likely to look authentic and attract brownie points if it contains elements of enlightened self-interest. Thus ‘support for literacy and IT training in schools close to the factories from which we draw our apprentices’ is a progressive use of resources; ‘support for local community projects chosen by our staff’ is good for motivation and teamwork. But wider social programmes funded by companies that are otherwise known for cheating customers, bullying suppliers, screwing workers and enriching bosses? That looks like, and probably is, cynical window-dressing.