The company executive directors and senior managers sat around the conference room of the five-star hotel. It was day three of the business planning workshop. “So, are we in agreement that we apportion 10% of our budget to social responsibility activities?” the chairman asked. Some heads nodded while some barely audible grunts were heard around the table. Either way, they were all in agreement.
Some agreed because, after all, building homes for the poor was the Chairman’s personal interest; his wife also had a lot of time in her hands and loved the concept of seeing poor girls go through formal education. In the minds of many, the bottom-line was that all important photo opportunity in the press, dummy cheques, smiling albeit disoriented kids in the background and a lucky one on the boss’s lap and the works.
Is CSR equal to Charity?
In the corporate world, they first called it what it was; “helping the poor”, then with input from the philanthropic individuals and in an era of politically correct statements, it changed to charity work. But even that did not sound sexy enough for photograph captions and neither did it sound corporate enough for their strategic corporate plans. Corporate social responsibility sounded more befitting and hence it became their term of reference. They said it is 'corporate' since it is being done by a legal entity that has to pay taxes and file financial statements. 'Social' because the recipients are not on their pay rolls and as for 'responsibility', well, it is being done by 'we' the employees but in the capacity of our corporate employer's obligations to the stakeholders.
We have not stopped at that. CSR concepts are still evolving. We in the corporate world do not only take up the responsibility of helping the communities that surround us but also want to manipulate them into giving us business in return. A brief look at the most successful Companies in the region will testify to this. In fact, it is the ordinary Kenyan or East African for that matter, behind this success. Imagine the brewery without locally affordable beer, a telecommunication provider without the small denomination scratch cards, or a cellular network limited to the upmarket suburbs. How would it be if the nationwide supermarket chain does not stock bread, flour and milk? The conclusion is that the top tax payers sell products and services to the majority low income earners and in reciprocity target them in their CSR activities. It is not charity but rather a strategy to sustain their present market share and in generations to come.
The Advertising and Photo Opportunity
Suppose a company builds toilets and houses in the slum areas, don't they build a unique relationship with the residents? They make a mark in their daily lives by helping them meet this basic necessity. Further, they leave their logos and company colours on the walls as a reminder of their benevolent work. Since in Africa these benevolent companies are not registered charities but are profit making companies, it would be imperative to ask what the anticipated benefits from their giving are. Either way there is nothing wrong with their efforts as long as they are helping someone in need and hold the recipient under no obligation of whatever nature.
So, why the photo opportunity? Photographs do fade anyway but the effect of the corporate giving could have tangible and long lasting effect. Philanthropy work if undertaken by any institution should go beyond smiles for the press photo to encompass a greater role for business in the society. It should reveal a position other than one with some tears and emotions in an image caption. Where a company’s social profile reveals nothing but a public relations affair, it implies a selfish intention on the side of the corporate giver.
The Lobbying Technique
In developed countries, CSR has taken a new dimension. It is a means to lobby for policies and regulations that eventually favour the business directly and indirectly. Take for example Mary Kay, the famous USA based company that is a direct seller of women’s beauty products. In June 15, 2005, its sales executives, who usually drive pink Cadillacs, drove up to the US Capitol when congress was debating on whether to re-authorise the Violence Against Women Act. The sales executives then talked to the legislators about the importance of renewing the act. You see, Mary Kay had in the past contributed a lot of money towards stemming out violence against women. But donations were not enough now. They wanted to influence the law makers by owning up their role in a better society; one that makes the world a safer place for women, their core consumer.
I wonder if we in East Africa are anywhere near this level of CSR. From what we have seen, companies such as those in the alcohol and cigarette industries would lobby hard to ensure that laws affecting their businesses negatively are not passed. Ironically, the lobbying seems to be limited to spoiling the law makers rotten with short lived entertainment in the name of ‘workshops’. One wonders why these workshops have to be held in our coastal resorts.
Beyond corporate giving
The CSR 'pie' is no longer limited to the 'charity' slice it is associated with. It reaches beyond this response to the immediate needs of a society. Imagine corporate executives on a visit to the city slums on a CSR trip. Each of their suits has a monetary value equivalent to building a couple of the type of houses found here. Their employees follow closely like obedient disciples, full of excitement in attire branded in corporate colours. For most of them, it is a life experience to help the poor of the slum but for others, this is just a public relations affair. So how does this exercise build employee character and contribute to their personal development? Does this experience impact on their passion for people as employees? Indeed it does. As CSR slowly becomes a strategic way of doing business, a holistic approach towards it should have value for employees. Here are some reasons why:
Staying inTouch
How much does a loaf of bread cost at the local kiosk? If you don’t know, it is possibly because for you, bread is one of the 20 items in your grocery shopping trolley. The only thought you give to bread is the variety you want to buy on that particular day. So, how can you manage your junior level employees when you have no clue how that minimum salary affects them. Community work brings you back to the real world. A world you may have long forgotten and lost touch with.
Volunteerism and leadership
Most well known leaders and whom books have been written about sacrificed their comfort and at times their lives so that others could have a better life. Martin Luther King, Nelson Mandela and Mahatma Gandhi are a few examples. There is an obvious relationship between volunteerism and leadership. Leaders without this quality tend to be autocratic; a leadership style that belongs to bygone centuries.
“See and forget, do and you remember”
This is a Chinese saying illustrating that you can easily forget something you hear and not learn much, when you witness the same event, you are likely to remember something but when you participate by doing, you learn a lot more.
A favourite saying of mine is one told by my grandmother years ago; strength of character is planting a tree under whose shade you will never sit under because by the time the tree is all grown and shady, you will be long gone. Another elder from my community once told me “The higher you go up the leadership hierarchy, the smaller and humbler you become!” I guess what he meant is that the higher the social standing you hold, the more you need others to hold onto you. Community service and our social status is more like this.
The Interview
The job candidate sat across the well polished board table. His personal grooming and dress code was the perfect image of a progressive career driven person. He sat there, back straight on the interview chair, his nails well manicured, his professional looking briefcase leaning against his fashionable and polished shoes. He had to nail this job!
The panel of three looked at him from across the polished board table. So far they were impressed with the young man. He seemed the kind who could fit into the role they were recruiting for. He also seemed like one who would fit well within the organisation culture. The young man could read this from their body language. This job was a major career move for him and this potential employer was a dream comes true.
The young man smiled back at the panel, all made of his career role models. “I sure have nailed this”, he silently mused as he gathered air in his chest, ready to expel it in a sigh of relief. “Mr Kamau, tell us, how many hours have you put into community service in the last, say three years?”
Kamau chocked. The air now gathered and on its way out of the chest cavity for the awaited sigh of relief, terminated its journey upwards like a car on an emergency break screech. He coughed, splattered and his perfect image collapsed.
“Ati what?” Amidst the trapped air in his airways, heavy tongue and a racing heart, his heavy accent suddenly found him. What followed was an incomprehensible stutter of an explanation. He had been caught unaware.
A time has come when community service takes an important paragraph in your well tailored résumé. We the recruiters are looking for it. We want to know that in your efforts to make a career for yourself, you have not built yourself a cocoon, remaining oblivious of the world around you. There are many employees who seclude themselves in their passion for work and need to prove that they are better than their colleagues, living like ostracised members of a community. They end up having a unique expertise in issues to do with their work, but go lacking in common sense. This is due to lack of interaction with the ordinary people who comprise the wider society.
CSR for career investment
Do you want to be a brand? Do you want to create a great reputation for you and your employer? Well, community service will do this for you. In full participation you are investing in your career. We are living in a century where community work takes you beyond the ‘feel good’ factor. It is a three pronged fork where you feel good about yourself, help a person in need and build your own reputation. That reputation has long term rewards as you progress in your career. An employee with high CSR involvement knows how to reach out and share his or her gifts. That’s a good manager; he is likely to work at developing his own staff by sharing his competencies and experience.
No matter how hard and well we work, we cannot reach the entire community to let them know how good we are. Community service helps you reach out to wider circles. More people would know of you and your work and thus your brand takes root.
CSR work gives the individual and the company a value that is bigger than the entity. It helps expand business and personal interests. Today, networking is crucial to business growth and personal advancement. Community service will give you this.
Is CSR exploitation?
As an African community, in our traditional way of life, living and working with and for your community is expected of you. You are born in a social community and you belong to the community. This still works in some rural African settings.
Africa is quickly becoming more urbanised. Individualism is quickly replacing community living. It would seem in our city communities, we get together to plan strategies on how to keep the robbers from our neighbourhood. We team up and neighbours offer free legal services when others try to grab our land etc. Community work has been redefined. It is people with a lot in common meeting to fight common enemies. Is this CSR? It would seem a lot like pulling together common resources for self protection.
However, when you feed a hungry community, have you exploited them? If you, after feeding them get a good reputation and they sing of you and your company’s praise which eventually bring business growth, have you been self centred?
Well you haven’t. It is the simple evolution of community service. In this 21st Century, we have moved from giving handouts to developing relationships with people whom normally we are not likely to meet in the course of our work. You help them and in so doing enhance your brand.
From an African and maybe religious perspective, some would say that this is manipulative and immoral. Well, if corporate entities went out there helping just to caress their egos and have something to put in their CSR profiles, then there would be doubts on their motives. But if their actions save or improves a destitute person’s life, is it still wrong?
In Africa, the divide between the 'have' and 'have not' is large and quickly widening. Most of our political leaders and legislators have failed us again and again. Laws need to be amended to give equal opportunities to all. But with the current immature level of leadership coupled with self centeredness, we have a long way to go in sorting out the current ills in our society.
This is where CSR takes a different dimension. Companies need to do more. And that more should be more than taking foodstuff and toys to an orphanage over Christmas. Time is ripe for companies to use their CSR funds in investing for better country governance. They should invest in lobbying for laws and legislations that create the appropriate work and living environment for the citizens. Digging a borehole here, sponsoring a bright but poor student there and building latrines in the slums are mostly superficial things done for photo opportunities. However, while companies are engaged with this level of activity, they should also partner with other corporates, NGOs etc to lobby for national issues.
At an individual level, participation in CSR is an investment in one’s resume. A time has come when companies include CSR in the core competencies to be appraised on during the annual performance appraisal. Indeed, a few companies have a system of clocking your CSR hours. Volunteerism and awareness of the plight of those around you is a leadership quality. Initiating and following up CSR projects over a span of time is a reflection of initiative taking, project management skills and a show of strong conscientiousness. These are the attributes that define corporate board members.
CSR is no longer charity. It is an investment in the community you belong to, for career advancement and definitely a company’s fundamental investment in the community that sustains its business.
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Njoki Muhoho