The value of a drink
It’s Friday afternoon here in sunny London and as usual a barrage of emails about grabbing a few beers has hit my inbox. I thought I’d share the best with you, a quote I believe from Jack Handey:
“The Value of a Drink”
“Sometimes when I reflect back on all the wine I drink I feel shame. Then I look into the glass and think about the workers in the vineyards and all of their hopes and dreams. If I didn’t drink this wine, they might be out of work and their dreams would be shattered. Then I say to myself, “It is better that I drink this wine and let their dreams come true than be selfish and worry about my liver.”
So, when you think of all the money we’re going to poor into the coffers of all the bars in London this evening, think of the good we’re doing for all those hard workers in the vineyards all over the world.
Could this be corporate social responsibility…?
Tag:CSR
“Poor CSR ‘will not deter’ shoppers”
New research by Millward Brown (a research agency) and published in PR Week suggests consumers are unlikely to boycott a company’s products if it is perceived to have a poor social responsibility record. What a blow-out, considering 87% of Brits said they thought businesses should behave responsibly. The figures are much the same in the US.
Does this mean then that us small businesses should forget about any corporate responsibility initiatives we are taking on then? Certainly not in my opinion!
Being socially responsible with our business practices is essential for the long term health of our planet. Whether that’s recycling your waste paper, allowing your staff to do some charity work during office hours, or providing work experience for disadvantaged kids, whatever really. Not only is this good for the communities in which we live and work, it’s also seen to have a positive impact of recruitment and retention, staff motivation and it should also provide you with great public relations opportunities.
Abandon your CSR practices at your peril. If every small business makes even a small effort, the impact will be huge!
Tag:CSRCorporate social responsibility
Are you a professional services business? Do you want to make a profit but also benefit your local community?
If so, I suggest you look into ProHelp. A division of Business in the Community, it helps professional services firms to provide their services for free to local community groups and voluntary organisations. ( see www.prohelp.org.uk).
So why would you want to give your services away for free? Research has shown that businesses that take a lead on being socially responsible benefit from:
* attracting, retaining and developing motivated and committed employees (”78% of employees would rather work for an ethical company than receive higher pay”)
* winning and retaining clients (”88% of consumers said they would more likely to buy from a company that engages in activities to improve society”)
* increased networking and business development, (”2 in 3 businesses believe environmental responsibility contributes to a more successful business”)
* greater PR and improved reputation amongst the local community and target audiences,
And many more benefits.
If you don’t already have a community or CSR programme, have a think about what you can do to impact your local community. If you want to make an impact, I suggest you put a thorough plan together. Think about why you want to do it, what you want to achieve and how you will measure success.
You could also do a lot worse than simply contacting your local ProHelp office to find out what you can do.
** Stats taken form the Better Business Journey initiative from Business in the Community
Corporate Social Responsibility - what is it?
To answer this question I refer you to the Business in the community website (www.bitc.org.uk) and in particular their guide to how small businesses can engage in responsible business practices (www.smallbusinessjourney.com/output/page407.asp).
Here CSR is defined as “Responsible business is achieving commercial success in ways that honour ethical values and respect people, communities and the natural environment. These businesses minimise any negative environmental and social impacts and maximise positive ones.”
That makes it fairly straight forward. In other words, CSR is about being successful in business but not forgetting your impact on society and the environment. You can take action at a base level by preventing any negative impact on environmental and social concerns, but increasingly you should be looking to add extra value as well.
Why? For the long term health of the planet and it’s societies. But also for commercial success. You can build PR campaigns around your work, improve staff satisfaction, reduce your overheads, improve you network and many many more benefits. Some large companies now require suppliers to have their CSR in order before they will conduct business with you - B&Q is just one great example here.
I strongly recommend downloading BITC’s Better business journey guide for how SMEs can improve their profitability through responsibility.
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