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BUSINESS RESPECT
The free email newsletter on Corporate Social Responsibility
The current edition: In this issue, we review a new toolkit for marketers on CSR.
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Arguments against CSR and some answers
Definitions of Corporate Social Responsibility
Discussion
The Global Reporting Initiative - is it fit for purpose?
Translations
Companies in the News
Case studies of managing a crisis
Odwalla
Johnson & Johnson
and Tylenol
Exxon Valdez
Snow Brand Milk
Products
Emerging Issues
Drugs companies and AIDS
When to quit a bad country
Beginning the blame game - 27 Jun 2008
Newsflash - everything and nothing has changed - 27 Jun 2008
Ford goes for smaller vehicles too late - 21 Jun 2008
Following in the footsteps of the little green fella - 18 Jun 2008
Dissent is the CEO's friend - 13 Jun 2008
Did you want a smoothie with that? - 4 Jun 2008
When is big profit too much profit? - 2 Jun 2008
Another success for the blog critic - 23 May 2008
A puzzle - 23 May 2008
Will you give or deny? - 20 May 2008
Food companies - hear the sound of the oncoming train and get out of the way! - 6 May 2008
Don't rush to legislate - 21 Apr 2008
Welcome to the real world - but which one? - 21 Apr 2008
Celebrating a sustainability leader - 18 Apr 2008
Success as superior planning, or try-it-and-see dumb luck? - 15 Apr 2008
Speaking another language - 8 Apr 2008
Patagonia's product footprint - 28 Mar 2008
Dealing in responsibility - 19 Mar 2008
Danone learns how far expectations have moved - 12 Mar 2008
Ladies and gentlemen, when does communication fall short of information? - 10 Mar 2008
27 Jun 2008
James Hansen, leading climate scientist, has told the US House Select Committee on Global Warming that the CEOs of fossil fuel energy companies should be tried for high crimes against humanity. If pointing fingers and casting blame could save the world, I guess this would be a great step forward. But it is the very opposite.
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Newsflash - everything and nothing has changed
27 Jun 2008
A new study has confirmed the obvious - people are not yet changing behaviour in spite of concerns over climate change.
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Ford goes for smaller vehicles too late
21 Jun 2008
Ford has announced that it is to shift its focus to smaller vehicles and away from the big gas guzzlers. It is a real shame. Nobody will particularly celebrate this move. Nobody will use if for case studies. Nobody will give credit for it. It is followership. Making the move now is simply bowing to the inevitable, not leading the market.
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Following in the footsteps of the little green fella
18 Jun 2008
Last night, I took part in a debate at the Oxford Union on the motion "corporate social responsibility will not survive a recession". I was slightly discomfited by the fact that speaking at the Oxford Union puts you in a line of speakers with the pedigree of Winston Churchill and even Mother Theresa. I was reassured, however, by the news that the line also includes Kermit the Frog. Since the key message of the evening was that 'it's not easy being green' I guess that was very much on the right note.
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Dissent is the CEO's friend
13 Jun 2008
I heard today a fascinating reflection on the financial companies that have really struggled with the sub-prime crisis, and those that have ridden the storm well.
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Did you want a smoothie with that?
4 Jun 2008
It's a tricky old thing, being an ethical niche brand. Ask Richard Reed, at Innocent Drinks.
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When is big profit too much profit?
2 Jun 2008
It's always fun, if a little bewildering, trying to work out attitudes towards profit. On the one hand, profit is good. Our pension funds and savings largely depend on profitable businesses doing well. On the other, well, we seem to think that there is a limit to what is reasonable profit. We can't quite define where the line is, but we think we know when we see 'excessive profits'.
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Another success for the blog critic
23 May 2008
By the way, I note that Air France are in some difficulty now. They have all sorts of explanations, of course, but can it be coincidence that it is only weeks since I launched my caustic but satirical attack on their competence? I think not.
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A puzzle
23 May 2008
OK - I have an interesting parable on measurement. Last night, I went to bed moderately fit. This morning I woke up and I was very fit, with nothing having happened during the night other than a good's night sleep and having aged a few hours. What's more, if I tell the truth, things are all wrong. If I want to make them right again, I have to tell a lie. The explanation?
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Will you give or deny?
20 May 2008
I heard this tonight at a discussion at the Social Marketing Network meeting - I can't find a separate reference for it, so it is offered here as a second hand, but fascinating snippet. According to one well informed source at that discussion, when Americans are asked whether or not illegal immigrants should be given access to emergency health care, a majority say 'no'. On the other hand, when Americans are asked whether or not illegal immigrants should be denied access to emergency health care ... the answer again is 'no'.
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Food companies - hear the sound of the oncoming train and get out of the way!
6 May 2008
A few years ago, I remember hearing the reaction of certain food companies to the suggestion that rising levels of obesity in the population were going to be an issue for them. That reaction was abrupt, aggressive and fearful - as though the mere suggestion might bring it to pass. I fear that the same reaction might come about with the inevitable focus that will come onto them with the growing global food crisis.
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Don't rush to legislate
21 Apr 2008
The New York Times carried a great lesson for all those that, as soon as they see a problem with corporate behaviour (or indeed anything) believe that the way to respond is to rush into legislation without pausing to consider consequences. In this case, it is the new rules around corporate lobbying.
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Welcome to the real world - but which one?
21 Apr 2008
I've just had a go at playing BT's 'Better Business Choices Game'. It's a scenario planning game, to get the visitor to their society and environment website into the mindset of starting a new business, but doing so on the basis of a number of potential scenarios of how the world may turn out, and the different choices those scenarios may imply for choices over products, target customers, suppliers, energy etc.
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Celebrating a sustainability leader
18 Apr 2008
I occasionally get into arguments on platforms about how, and to what extent, flying will be constrained in the future by the requirements of climate change policy. The argument is never about whether it will happen, only about how. My position is that it will be done through the price mechanism, which always attracts strong reactions from those who say that it is unfair to penalise poorer people from enjoying what has come to be seen as a staple, rather than a luxury. However, I've changed my mind about the best way to discourage people from flying.
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Success as superior planning, or try-it-and-see dumb luck?
15 Apr 2008
I just did a 2000 word essay on the Business Case for CSR for Ethical Corporation, and I was trying to find a quote about how decisions really get made in business. I looked high, I looked low, and just couldn't turn it up. Then wouldn't you know it, right after I've submitted the piece, there it is. So I thought I should at least put it here.
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Speaking another language
8 Apr 2008
Some of the arguments for corporate social responsibility only make sense within a specific cultural context. In other cases, some would have you believe this was the case, but it is really another flavour of denial. The trick is to tell the difference.
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Patagonia's product footprint
28 Mar 2008
I am a great fan of the feature on Patagonia's website where they map out the headline product journey, and impact, for a number of their key products.
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Dealing in responsibility
19 Mar 2008
I attended the launch of the UK main opposition party's policy proposals on CSR yesterday, a press conference with party leader David Cameron as the star turn. It had at least one interesting idea that bears further consideration (so ahead of most party policy documents), and provided further insight into the wretched state of the political process generally.
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Danone learns how far expectations have moved
12 Mar 2008
The UK's Advertising Standards Agency has just upheld a complaint against an advert for Danone's Actimel pro-biotic drink. Interestingly, the case doesn't hinge on whether the product is proven to have a benefit - that is undisputed. Instead it is ab
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Ladies and gentlemen, when does communication fall short of information?
10 Mar 2008
We are all in favour of communication, aren't we? Communicating often with stakeholders, and particularly with customers, is good practice. But as ever, quality counts. I was reflecting on this again today - as I nearly always do when I travel on Lon
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