{"id":37165,"date":"2011-03-15T11:10:51","date_gmt":"2011-03-15T11:10:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/blog\/?p=37165"},"modified":"2011-03-15T11:10:51","modified_gmt":"2011-03-15T11:10:51","slug":"3-tips-develop-csr-redwood","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/3-tips-develop-csr-redwood\/","title":{"rendered":"Three tips to develop CSR Redwood"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n<\/embed><\/object>\n<\/p>\n

Once in a while you come across a company name which is just sooooo apposite for their business you find it hard to believe some kind of legal name change hasn’t been involved.<\/p>\n

The best example of this I’ve ever come across dates back to my early childhood and travelling into Oxford on the Park & Ride.\u00a0 As the double decker rattled its way along the Abingdon Road we passed by a funeral directors, called Reeves and Pain.\u00a0 I kid you not, and so far as I know the company is still going to this day.<\/p>\n

You may have already come across an interesting little video from The Big Think<\/a> project entitled “Companies Can’t Be Parasites Anymore”; it was released last month but I’ve only just watched it.<\/p>\n

The video is of a brief interview with Stephen Miles, VC of Heidrick and Struggles<\/a>, one of the oldest executive consulting firms in the US.\u00a0 A video with that title from a company called “Struggles” .. I’m sorry, it somehow seems apposite once again.<\/p>\n

All that aside though, the video is well worth watching.\u00a0 It’s only three minutes long and in a quiet yet forceful way Stephen Miles outlines exactly the changes needed in corporate culture post-financial crisis.<\/p>\n

Here are some bullet points I’ve taken out of it as tips to enhance the approach to communicating corporate CSR.\u00a0 The redwood reference comes from this quote at the start of the interview:<\/p>\n

\n

“[corporate statements on CSR can’t be a veneer] You can\u2019t just sort of poke through the veneer and find out that actually what you\u2019re talking about is not what your company is really about, so there has to be this redwood behind all the statements that you make around your corporate image.”<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

    \n
  • create value for all stakeholders, not just shareholders<\/strong>.\u00a0 Sounds like an old mantra, but understanding this is key.\u00a0 It’s not creating shareholder value and then being able to point to the positive stakeholder spin offs.\u00a0 Its about having a business model which creates value for all stakeholders.\u00a0 One is veneer, the other is redwood.<\/li>\n
  • there needs to be a symbiotic relationship between a corporation and all its stakeholders<\/strong>, not a parasitic one.\u00a0 In the parasitic version a corporation exists as a means for shareholders to extract financial value from other stakeholders.\u00a0 In a symbiotic one all extract value from the corporate, shareholders happen to take that away in financial terms.\u00a0 Needless to say, the parasitic relationship is veneer and the symbiotic relationship redwood.<\/li>\n
  • technology has changed how business is done<\/strong>.\u00a0 Everyone is connected, everything is recorded, access is worldwide and often in real time.\u00a0 Companies have to get used to being transparent and examined.\u00a0 This is the new expectation of corporate behaviour, and is the fundamental difference between veneer and redwood.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

    This shouldn’t be mistaken for trying to turn all businesses into social enterprises or charities.\u00a0 Rather, it’s recognising\u00a0 that any corporate body has a number of stakeholders all of whom have a number of inputs and outputs.\u00a0 Certain types of stakeholders measure those inputs and outputs financially, but a business should not allow itself to be defined or directed by these alone.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Once in a while you come across a company name which is just sooooo apposite for their business you find it hard to believe some kind of legal name change hasn’t been involved. The best example of this I’ve ever come across dates back to my early childhood and travelling into Oxford on the Park […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[9,23],"tags":[6949,6951,6950,3911],"class_list":{"0":"post-37165","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-best-practices","7":"category-csr","8":"tag-big-think","9":"tag-heidrick","10":"tag-redwood","11":"tag-video","12":"entry"},"yoast_head":"\nThree Tips for Developing CSR Redwood<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"CSR statements shouldn't be a veneer; there should be redwood behind the statements made about your corporate image.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/3-tips-develop-csr-redwood\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Three Tips for Developing CSR Redwood\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"CSR statements shouldn't be a veneer; there should be redwood behind the statements made about your corporate image.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/3-tips-develop-csr-redwood\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Corporate Eye\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2011-03-15T11:10:51+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/blog\/images\/logo.gif\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Chris Milton\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@lucynixon\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@lucynixon\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Chris Milton\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/3-tips-develop-csr-redwood\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/3-tips-develop-csr-redwood\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Chris Milton\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/#\/schema\/person\/fa3f2a7cc78f97944265f3ef342cc91f\"},\"headline\":\"Three tips to develop CSR Redwood\",\"datePublished\":\"2011-03-15T11:10:51+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/3-tips-develop-csr-redwood\/\"},\"wordCount\":542,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/#organization\"},\"keywords\":[\"big think\",\"heidrick\",\"redwood\",\"video\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Best Practices\",\"Corporate social responsibility\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/3-tips-develop-csr-redwood\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/3-tips-develop-csr-redwood\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/3-tips-develop-csr-redwood\/\",\"name\":\"Three Tips for Developing CSR Redwood\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.corporate-eye.com\/main\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2011-03-15T11:10:51+00:00\",\"description\":\"CSR statements shouldn't be a veneer; 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