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Business in Community: Partnering for Success 2-2-05 |
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Written by David Batstone
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Business is a powerful force in our society. It impacts our children, our health, our environment and our social welfare. For that reason, it is not sufficient to measure business by goals of profit, efficiency and market share alone. We must also ask how business contributes to standards of sustainability, justice, and values.
Around the globe, companies are partnering with non-profit organizations to build stronger communities and integrate a commitment to civic activism into their corporate culture. A new World Economic Forum report says it's no more a question of "if" but "how" business can contribute to beating social challenges. Called "Partnering for Success," the report urges companies to partner with inter-governmental organizations and civil society groups to address the development challenges that they face in emerging markets.
"Community engagement" refers to a broad range of actions that a company can take to maximize the impact of donated funds, employee volunteer time, products, services, influence, and management knowledge on the communities where they operate. All the same, consumers are somewhat cynical about the motives behind corporate charity. In a Hill & Knowlton survey of American consumers, three out of four people suspect that companies participate in philanthropic activities merely to gain good publicity. Less than a quarter of those surveyed believe that companies make charitable gifts because they are truly committed to a community cause.
So how does a company develop authentic community relations? Here are six important steps:
1) First develop a community relations mission strategy. Focus this commitment on issues that relate to the company?s business goals and services. Doing so enables community concerns to become an essential part of the company's corporate culture.
2) Human and financial resources must be allocated ? it works best when a community relations project is given departmental status, and involves employees at all levels of the corporate ladder. Employee involvement is key to making the strategy a success. Volunteerism on the part of employees must be rewarded in some significant way, thereby acknowledging the value of their participation within the company culture.
3) Establish the primary goals of community relations, and measure how well the company does in meeting those goals. If a company does not know its destination, then just about any road will get it there. Lots of different players will then ascribe an agenda to the project that may or may not match the firm's intention. But a clearly defined and measured destination will set the appropriate expectations both inside and outside of the company. One additional clue: you can tell what's most valuable to a firm by looking at what gets measured.
4) A community relations strategy will only work if there is significant buy in at the top of the firm. The chief executive and/or other key officers must be in consistent contact with the community via speeches and by memo to employees to demonstrate the company's commitment to the community.
5) All information regarding a company's community involvement should be published in both internal and external sources. This action ensures that employees and the local community understand the impact of the firm's community relations efforts.
6) Finally ? and this final step applies whether or not a firm intentionally designs a community relations strategy - a company must conduct its business operations with integrity.
Too many corporations use their organizational structure to squeeze the humanity out of their collective life. I deeply believe that a corporation is most vital when it puts its organizational structure at the service of the people it employs, and the people its business serves.
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