A Creative Metaphor for Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)

The role of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is gaining an ever-increasing attention by businesses. A great reference on CSR and its role on impacting businesses is thoroughly covered by IBM e-book on subject matter.

The great challenge is to turn the attitude to CSR as being a cost into a stream of revenues. This shall require positive and creative thinking to achieve. However; it pays dividends to do so.

One way to arrive at creative solutions is re-consider the PEST diagram (Political, Economic, Social, Technological) interactions.

The great challenge is to turn the attitude to CSR as being a cost into a stream of revenues. This shall require positive and creative thinking to achieve. However; it pays dividends to do so.

One way to arrive at creative solutions is re-consider the PEST diagram (Political, Economic, Social, Technological) interactions.

We tend to study these four blocs in isolation; in reality they feedback to each other. For example, the advancement of telecom technologies has affected the widespread of mobile phones. This in turn has allowed individuals to connect and raise their voices on a political issue causing politicians to yield to social pressure. If not, social disruption occurs and the Arab Spring is a recent case to explain this trend.

The question now pertains to how to use overlapping of the four PEST blocs to serve CSR strategies. How can an organization benefit from such interactions to gain the satisfaction of its customers, the approval of authorities and social pressure groups such as environmentalists with the simultaneity of generating constant streams of revenues? At first sight this task seems a false promise; in reality it could turn into a huge lasting asset for a business.

I find the metaphor of seeds growing in arid lands quite useful. The seeds of few plants have adapted to germinating in desert areas. These seeds are the seeds that we are looking for the seeds of ideas that we wish them to germinate in the arid lands of CSR. As plants have developed different strategies to cope with the severe requirements of arid zones, so are ideas. The seeds of ideas that grow in difficult soils. This is a great way of differentiation and the paradox is it is in these difficult conditions that we may find the pearly ideas. Best explanation is offered by life examples.

One example that struck me is how the seeds of a rare plant growing in South Africa could be the future shrub for the wide deserts in Australia. An Australian researcher, John Howieson, of Murdoch University pioneered the idea of scouting for a plant that grows anywhere in the world that could germinate in the deserts of Australia. If successful, the grass would become the pastor for sheep and the sheep in turn would be a viable source for wool. The researcher identified the seeds of a plant in South Africa known as Lebeckia (background image). He did research to improve the germination of these seeds in the Australian desert. The development has taken years of trials to ensure the plant is suited to Australia, will not spread like a weed, is palatable and not toxic to sheep and not vulnerable to existing local pests or diseases. Now, there is agreement that farmers shall be rewarded financially for the seeds grown in Australia by ensuring royalties from the sale of domesticated lebeckia seeds partly flow back to South Africa.

The seeds of idea have germinated after few years of trial. CSR ideas might require time to germinate, but once they do the rewards can be fantastic. Foreign-aid-funded Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research funded this research. Imagine if it were a commercial bank that did. Its reputation capital would have exploded globally. The project is scalable, the beneficiary are many (Farmers in South Africa and Australia), the wool industry, the land arid land in Australia by being a source of seeds for the grass, the environment and all parties involved.

It is the connection of ideas that has become possible that allowed for germinating seeds of ideas into political, economic, social and more technological advancements. CSR could be a great way to differentiate socially-responsible corporations and making them stand out in the crowd.