Consumers have changed. They want to participate in making our world better and generally want to engage with businesses that care about the world rather than those that blithely conduct business without caring how they affect their environment or the struggles that their consumers live with daily.
The voice of the people drives the call for change in society and with it the need for organizations to build sustainable Corporate Social Responsibility programs into their core work to be competitive.
The risk of ignoring this call is being ostracized by consumers, suppliers and the general public all of which could very well propel your business into negative growth. Customers engage quickly and easily online and want to deal with companies that care about the future of the planet and therefore their future.
Edged Out by the Competition
Business competition is fierce and margins are becoming smaller. Customers are getting turned off by companies that don’t care and are demonstrating their feelings by not purchasing goods and services from the offending organizations. This is why fairtrade and ethical organizations are showing strong growth in the current environment.
If your competition is socially responsible and you haven’t even started, before products are even considered by consumers competitors have a considerable edge over you when it comes to attracting and retaining loyal customers.
Social Media Suicide
Information travels very quickly through social media channels. People are very vocal about responsible companies but they are equally vocal about those doing nothing or worse, causing harm. Every business needs to not only be connected to their social media network, they need to pay careful attention to what is being said and take action before irreparable damage is incurred.
Peer to peer referral is a key method of attracting customers to your business and can quickly drive them away if there you have a record of bad labor practices, damage to the environment or other undesirable association.
There is even a boycotting app that encourages people to only deal with ethical companies.
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Buycott.com app iPhone screenshot
Top Talent Bypass
If you want to attract and retain top talent in your organization you must be able to offer more to prospective candidates. According to a report by Net Impact, working with companies that want contribute to the community is important for workers and a strong CSR program helps you attract the workers that you want.
The talent that you want working for you may just pass on your offer if your competitor has a strong environmental program or encourages staff to volunteer once a month.
Final Thoughts
Ignoring social responsibility is no longer an acceptable business practice. Whilst there are still many companies that are yet to get on board in a serious way, it is the leaders in CSR that are really demonstrating how big a difference that CSR can really make to the community.
India has now built compulsory CSR into their legislation in an historic move. How long will it be until over countries follow their lead?
ChangeU: For your independent study...
Ethical Consumer http://bit.ly/1nZZ8uB Net Impact and the Heldrich Center for Workforce Development at Rutgers University partnered to conduct a survey on the career priorities around sustainability and making a positive impact at work, or “impact jobs.”
Why Companies Can No Longer Afford to Ignore Their Social Responsibilities http://ti.me/1vRymFv Today, amid a lingering recession that has dented corporate profits and intensified pressure from shareholders, companies are devising new CSR models.
How the Voice of the People Is Driving Corporate Social Responsibility http://bit.ly/1BTgKcp The business case for corporate social responsibility (CSR) is becoming easier and easier to make. You can argue that it boosts a company’s brand, manages risk, and just plain saves money
