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I wanted to communicate to business and brand leaders just what a business value-multiplier a true, strategic commitment to social responsibility and sustainability could become - but I was hitting the “word wall.” There simply was no baggage-free language to describe “holistic” CSR and Sustainability. People were inventing new descriptors, but that just added to the confusion in this complex, multi-faceted, emergent discipline. The issue wasn’t with the people who “got it” but in conveying it’s power to the ones who didn’t. How can you attract their attention, interest and ultimately commitment if the words are a turn-off, or can’t be translated easily into business value? And CSR and Sustainability are not simple concepts. They are an amalgam of many fields of expertise, usually distributed across a company – but very seldom central to it’s core activities. The good news is that as a discipline is well on it’s way to greater maturation as it seeps into the university system, is embraced by more empowered and connected stakeholders – and most of all because more massively powerful companies are grabbing it and moving into the very heart of their business sand brand strategies – not through altruism but as a business imperative. For the Unilevers, P&Gs, Coca-Colas, Santanders, Interfaces and Toyotas of this world, it doesn’t matter what words they use, because it is now so embedded in how they work – it’s simply what they do every day. Yes, thousands of companies were being left behind. They were leaving money on the table. Failing to keep track of the morphing values and behaviours of their consumers and stakeholder, simply because they didn’t understand the potential of “this thing called CSR and Sustainability” So, I decided to stop worrying about the words, and like any good communicator, just focus on the story. I moved back towards more digestible brand-speak, promoting purposeful brands, albeit through this more socially responsible lens, but focusing more on articulating the value creation, the business case, the shared benefits and bottom line improvements. Sometimes you just have to let go in order to move forward. For purposeful brands that want to make their profits, and make their mark. Honey co is the author of this article. For further detail about Employee Involvement and Corporate CSR please visit the website.
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