Has Corporate Responsibility Reached a Plateau?

If we believe the recent results of an IBM annual survey, it would appear that corporate responsibility in practice may have reached a plateau.

In a recent article in Forbes, two IBM execs point out that across the globe, managers are committed to sustainable practices, but don't always do the necessary follow-through. I've re-published the salient comments and advise you to read the findings for yourself.

"IBM recently completed its second annual survey of senior executives around the world asking them how they are handling green and sustainability issues in their corporate strategies. The results are encouraging in some respects, but they show how very far businesses still need to go to truly be on the road to sustainability.

"The overwhelming majority of the 224 respondents said they are committed to incorporating principles of corporate social responsibility into their business strategies--despite the global recession--as a way to improve their business performance, their contribution to society and their reputation. Some 60% said this was more important to them than a year ago; only 6% said it was less."

"And businesses, for the most part, are no longer just paying lip service to sustainability. They're trying to optimize their operations to reduce environmental impact and improve social effects while also improving business performance.

"But our survey shows a significant gap between the business and sustainability goals companies are setting for themselves and what they are actually doing to attain them. And information is at the heart of the problem.

"Specifically, our survey findings show that:

--Companies aren't collecting and analyzing the information they really need or aggregating it often enough. Because of that, they can't implement real changes to fundamentally increase efficiency, lower costs, reduce environmental impact and improve their reputations with key stakeholders.

--Few are collecting enough data from their global supply chain partners, so they're missing major opportunities to reduce the inconsistency, inefficiency, waste and risk that can ripple through a global supply network.

--Most still don't understand the concerns of their key stakeholders, particularly customers, and they're not actively engaging them to find out. That means they're missing out on knowledge that could improve their businesses and lead to new opportunities."

I suppose that means there's still a long way to go.

(c) 2009