UN Global Compact Hosting Conference – Human Rights

On April 28 at the Harvard Business School in Boston, the UN Global Compact U.S. Network's will be hosting its first conference of 2008. The conference will focus on ‘Business and Human Rights’, in recognition of the 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

With disturbing world events such as the issues surrounding the Olympics in China, Darfur, childrens poverty, disease, human trafficking and food shortages, this is a critical time to review the role, responsibilities and impact of businesses.

The UN conference convenes speakers that will address a number of critical humanitarian issues including:

• Understanding business risks associated with human rights
• Setting policy and addressing stakeholder expectations
• Monitoring and reporting progress

Speakers and moderators will include senior managers of companies at the forefront of these issues, as well as thought leaders from civil society and other sectors. Two keynote speakers will include:

• Mrs. Mary Robinson, former President of Ireland and current Chair of the Council of Women World Leaders
• Mr. John Ruggie, Harvard Professor and UN Special Representative on Human Rights and Transnational Corporations.

The meeting will also feature the launch of the Case Study Report by the UN Global Compact Office and the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.

The event coincides with the Ceres annual conference also taking place in Boston this week.

Reputation Dynamics next blog will address opinions about corporations marketing challenges addressing CSR for a major current event.

Watch this space.

CSR Champions Need To Take It To The Top - Perspectives about The CRO Conference

Intel's Chief Administration Officer Andy Bryant, during his keynote speech at the CRO conference, addressed how a multi-year journey led Intel to be nominated #1 on the CRO Magazines 100 Best Corporate Citizens list.

The conference, held in New York, convened experts and more than 200 corporate responsibility practitioners, professional service providers and non-profit influencers to address financial governance issues, stakeholder communications, and sustainability best practices.

Intel's success can be attributed to making corporate responsibility a competitive imperative.

"Our efforts started at the top and we focused on all key areas including governance, human rights, environment, climate change, finance and assigned accountabilities throughout the organization," said Bryant.

Eaton Corporation has also enjoyed success deploying world-class environmental, health and safety (EHS) practices utilizing the Eaton Business System.

"We aligned our efforts with our brand and business strategy from the outset," said Joey Wolfsberger, Vice President of EHS.

Bryant advocated for public companies to seek leadership from their top officers in raising their level of corporate responsibility.

However, there are still major gaps advocating and properly integrating CSR strategies within corporations - from top to bottom. For example:

• Reputation Dynamics recently led a CSR survey for The Marketing Executives Networking Group (MENG) among 1,700 VP-level or above marketing executives in their organizations. The survey uncovered that 62.5% of those who participated work for companies that are not engaged in corporate social responsibility programs due to a lack of interest or priority

These results were at odds with the fact that 60% of respondents think that corporate social responsibility programs have or will have a positive impact on profitability and overall performance of the company.

• The survey respondents identified opportunities such as employee motivation (71%), influencing customer behaviors (54%), growth and innovation (54%), and increased profits (25%)
• A recent IBM survey conducted among senior executives and directors of strategy at 250 corporations uncovered another major gap - 76% of businesses surveyed admit they don't truly understand their customers' CSR concerns

Internal CSR champions need help educating and convincing their senior management to make CSR a priority and integrated throughout the organization, rather than a 'nice to have' or a side job.

Even in a down economy, they need to be reminded they are missing out on tremendous business opportunities that not only directly impacts the bottom line, but also offers financial incentives when employees are more motivated and loyal, and positively influencing customer behaviors for the long term.

CSR champions shout louder.

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Information about Intel and Eaton CSR efforts can be located at http://www.intel.com/ and http://www.eaton.com/.