Standards Schemes and Certificates

confused manJohn Comana sat at his desk, headache pumping and a queasy feeling in his stomach. “I’ll take responsibility!” he’d volunteered. Now it didn’t seem such a smart move.

He, like many other corporate officers, has discovered that there are many different facets to environmental and social responsibility and although John Comana may be fictional, the headache is a very real one for many businesses.

No firm guidance exists on what corporate responsibility is, which activities should be measured or how data should be presented.

Instead there is the simple regulatory requirement that there must be analysis of “environmental … social and community issues”, including an appropriate measure of the company’s performance.
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Posted on April 28, 2008 by Chris Milton and filed under Corporate social responsibility, Guides | Leave a Comment

Are you blanking your customers?

Is it difficult for customers to understand what you’re trying to communicate on your website? Are you showing them a blank screen, or hiding key sections of your site from them? It can happen to the best of companies without them realising …

lack of communicationI can think of a couple of reasons why you might decline somebody’s custom: but only people that you no longer wanted to have as customers. You surely wouldn’t refuse to serve those people you do want to retain or exclude them from your corporate communications.
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Posted on April 25, 2008 by Lucy and filed under Best Practices, Customer, Financials | 3 Comments

How not to market CSR content

Often it takes something quite awful to highlight how important it is to do things properly. Clashing colours in an outfit, for instance, or the hamfisted throwing together of herbs and spices in a recipe.

French Connection CSRFrench Connection

So it is with French Connection’s CSR content.

Social Responsibility is all about showing a company is accountable and conscientious in its pursuit of business. This must shine through if the CSR information is to play an effective part in the company’s marketing strategy.

French Connection’s CSR content stands as a useful example of how to do this … by doing the exact opposite.
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Posted on April 22, 2008 by Chris Milton and filed under Best Practices, Consumer goods, Corporate social responsibility | Leave a Comment

Search the FTSE 100 - if you can

Do you think that having a search facility on your site is a fairly standard best practice these days?

I do.

And yet 17% of the FTSE 100 do not have a search box (or link to a search page) on their home page. Why is this?
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Posted on April 3, 2008 by Lucy and filed under All stakeholders, Basic materials, Best Practices, Consumer goods, Consumer services, Financials, Ideas and Trends, Technology | Leave a Comment