THE RIGHT PRIORITIES

Irish businesses need to do more to face up to their social corporate responsibilities, according to a recent conference

IRELAND IS lagging behind other countries in its implementation of corporate social responsibility (CSR), a major conference heard earlier this month.

Tina Roche, the chief executive of Business in the Community Ireland, said "very few" indigenous Irish businesses report on their corporate social responsibility (CSR) obligations, in contrast to multinationals like Vodafone, Dell and IBM.

She contrasted the laissez-faire approach in Ireland to the UK - where CSR has been a feature of business life there since the urban riots of the 1980s.

"After the Toxteth riots, businesses looked around and asked what can we do about it? That's reflected now in the fact that the UK has a minister who deals with CSR, Jim Murphy, and a department of government which monitors it," she said.

Roche was speaking at a conference organised by Concern Worldwide, in association with the British Embassy and Business in the Community Ireland.

Among those addressing the meeting were Stuart Purdy, group chief executive with the Hibernian group who recently announced plans to transfer 590 jobs from Ireland to India; Peter Gaynor, the executive director of Fairtrade Mark Ireland; Jim Corbett the managing director of Bewley's Ltd; and John Curran the group environmental executive of the Musgrave Group.

Purdy conceded that there would always be tensions between a company's bid to do good and its necessity to make profits, but he said he had looked his staff in the eyes and explained to them why it was the best thing to do to secure the long-term future of the 1,600 jobs that will be left after outsourcing.

He said that Hibernian had a major volunteering programme with 11 different projects and involving almost 500 staff at the insurer, the majority of whom gave their time for voluntary work outside office hours. As a result, Hibernian helped 2,600 different people through various community initiatives.

"Why do we do it?" he said. "It is the right thing to do. It generates a huge sense of comradeship and team building and it is good for the company and good for society as a whole."

Curran said we are "coming into an era where there will be a regulatory requirement for CSR and from a business point of view, you have to start at the top of the organisation. Businesses need to think of what impact they will have socially."

He said that Musgraves has 60 different criteria to cover its CSR, which deals with everything from community relations to waste management and personnel development.

Roche said Musgraves, which has several awards for its CSR programmes, is one of the few major indigenous companies which take the issue seriously.

Others include Diageo, which has a long history of looking after its employees, Irish Life and Permanent and the major banks. She said there was an absence of major business leaders in Ireland speaking out about social issues, unlike their counterparts in the UK who include Stuart Rose of Marks & Spencer, Virgin boss Richard Branson and Lord Sainsbury.

Roche also said France is another example of very good corporate governance. It has legislation around reporting on the non-financial aspects and companies have a "wonderful" approach to triple-bottom line reporting - judging the impact that businesses have, not only on their profit margins, but on people and the planet.

"The days when business was only about business and the nine-to-five are long gone," says Roche.

"The key issue is that business is made up of people and people don't lose their values at the front door. They don't leave them at home.

"The discussion needs to switch from whether corporate social responsibility should be implemented in an organisation as to how and where it adds value to a company and its competitiveness."

Caroline Hickson from Concern Worldwide said that companies which get involved in the complex area of international development, had to realise that there was a long-term commitment involved and she said short-term initiatives which seek to boost the profile of companies are often useless in the long-term.

"Perhaps, I'm a little cynical, but there is more to CSR than nice photographs of employees building clinics and schools.

"I've travelled in Africa and I can tell you about the many school buildings that have fallen into disrepair and disuse. If you want to help education in Africa, building schools is only the half of it.

"Companies who come to us that think they can just twin with an NGO and come and go. The companies who come to us and share our values and genuinely want to create change are the ones who will succeed in the long-term. Concern works with the poorest people in some of the most remote and fragile areas. It takes a long time with many false starts."

She said there is now a worldwide movement among major corporations, with Microsoft the leader, to do a lot more to address the inequalities in the world.

"We already know that the private sector has enormous resources and a worldwide profile. Of the 100 largest economies in the world, 51 are corporations and only 49 are countries," she said.

"What a tragedy it would be that a sector which has so much power to influence change in the world, decides to sidestep that responsibility and turn its back on its opportunities.

"Luckily, that is not happening. Leading companies in the world are realising their potential to aid social progress.

"CSR has to be more than a buzzword. To truly succeed, it must be underpinned by values that are strong enough to keep it going, even through difficult times."