CSR: Between concept and reality

Wednesday, April 05, 2006
Hera Diani, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The Body Shop founder Anita Roddick was exasperated when asked about the likely motives behind Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) activities carried out by companies.

The woman behind a company credited for trail-blazing notions of social change in business, including respect for human rights, animal welfare, fair trade and the environment, said journalists were often cynical, but cynicism was not necessarily knowledge.

"There is a motive (behind CSR), that is to make business nicer!" Roddick said here Monday after delivering a speech on the importance of CSR.

In an ideal world, a company was not just about making a big profit, but also about doing its best for the community, she said.

She and other activists are in agreement when they say the world's corporate experience is dotted with big businesses selling tobacco to young people, dumping toxic waste, or exploiting their workers.

However, activists here are often suspicious when these same companies often try and come clean; by giving out scholarships, creating schools or making other contributions to society.

The percentage of these companies' contributions are often dwarfed by their huge profits, they say.

National Commission on Violence Against Women chairwoman Kamala Chandrakirana said her organization had frequently received CSR offers from the private sector.

"But we know they have polluted the environment, and made women ill because of that. We need companies not just giving us money, but we look for partnerships with firms that share a vision with us," she told the same seminar.

This is why the commission was happy to accept money from The Body Shop for its campaign against violence against women.

However, despite her image as a "renegade business leader, activist and agitator", who has called irresponsible multinationals "bloodsucking dinosaurs" and "monsters" -- as The Body Shop press release describes Roddick -- the worldwide franchise is currently being bought out by an international cosmetics giant, L'Oreal.

Food multinational Nestle, which has been criticized for its corporate record in the past, owns a significant share in L'Oreal. The deal is reportedly worth 652.3 million pounds sterling.

Is this something to do with "keep your friends close and your enemies closer"?
"Oh, relax. 'Enemies' can become your supporters. I'm so happy that a company come to me and says 'teach us how to do community trade.' "If there is a way to eliminate poverty, I will cheer them on. I'm very confident about it," Roddick said.

She said L'Oreal acted as an independent company despite its ownership.

Campaigning that its products help give women self-esteem, The Body Shop here has launched a new skin-whitening product.

These creams have been criticized by feminists here for being part of a "brown is bad, white is beautiful" beauty culture, which discriminates against darker women.
Asked about the whitener, Roddick replied with a business answer: "That's what the community wants".

So is CSR a utopian, unrealistic concept as some business cynics would have it? Or a mere whitewashing over business excesses, as some activists believe?
Noted economist Faisal Basri believes business has always had an important element of social responsibility. While most Indonesians thought that morality and business were separate, the history of economic thought had always inserted morality into the economic equation, he said.

"Companies can actually create greater profits by reaching out to people."
State telecommunication company PT Telkom was helping people by merely improving its market capitalization, without ever talking about CSR, he said.

"Only 4 percent of Indonesians currently have access to telephones. By reaching out more (and providing people with affordable phones), the company profits more."

Labels: social affairs

Posted by hera at Wednesday, April 5, 2006 8:41 PM | Permalinks