CSR Programs in the News

CSR and Mission and Vision Statements One of the strategic management decisions that has become increasingly important for organizations is how to operate sustainably based on environmental and social concerns. Much of the literature groups these concerns together in a concept known as corporate social responsibility (CSR). The trend seems to be growing as an increasingly large proportion of the consumer market considers whether products and services are produced under ethical business models.

Furthermore, consumers are now more capable of researching such factors quickly and easily with the use of technology and can find relevant information directly on their smartphones while actually shopping. Thus it is likely that this trend will grow even stronger and evolve faster and it behooves management to consider implementing an effective CSR platform now if they have not done so already. This research will look into some of the current events regarding this trend.

CSR in the News One company, Unilever, has made tremendous progress towards creating a sustainability strategy and has benefited from a trove of positive publicity for doing so. One study by creative agency, Radley Yeldar, indicates that Unilever's 'Bight Future' sustainability strategy made the biggest impact of all the companies listed in the FT 500 and the FTSE Eurofirst 100, having achieved the goals set out in its 'making sustainable life commonplace' mission statement (Net Imperative, 2015).

Unilever has successfully been able to leverage its CSR program to help differentiate itself from its competitors which has translated into value from the perspective of both its customers as well as its investors. The success of Unilever's Bright Future project has been the foundation for the company's CSR platform. The ongoing initiative is a partnership with the WWF and promotes sustainable manufacturing of its products and a pledge of zero deforestation in doing so (Net Imperative, 2015).

The company's successful CSR program has been largely a result of building a culture of CSR throughout the entire organization. Paul Polman, Unilever's chief executive, said: "we can no longer pretend that business can immunise itself from the rising tide of environmental challenges. We see this as the best long-term way for us to grow and bring benefits to all our stakeholders.

To succeed in this goal, we need to change the way we do business and to scale up the impact on the issues that matter most (Net Imperative, 2015)." Another company, SAP, who provides many enterprise resource management (ERP) solutions to companies of various sizes, also serves as an example of providing innovative CSR implementations to solve social and environmental problems in the world. One of SAP's fascinating opportunities to meet these challenges, is that it can actually use the software solutions it creates for the purpose of tackling these problems.

For example, a small company that recently received a grant to use SAP ERP software is Edesia. Edesia produces ready-to-use therapeutic and supplementary foods in portable foil packets -- enough to improve the lives of over 800,000 malnourished children each year (Newfactor Business Report, 2015).

SAP, with the assistance of one of its partners, agreed to cover all of the costs of helping the company implement a project that created a robust ERP solution to manage the non-profits supply chain and be able to more effectively meet the needs of vulnerable populations in Africa. A combination of SAP Business One and Softengine's Food One extension added complete traceability of raw materials from vendor to finished product, another essential requirement of the new system (Newfactor Business Report, 2015).

The nonprofit can now ensure the quality of its ingredients and also effectively use the software to ensure that all measurements are precise in the production of their foods. While these companies have benefited from successful CSR strategy implementation, others have taken an exact opposite approach and can also be used as examples. For instance, Volkswagen has recently been involved in a scandal that resulted in the company using software that was intended to circumvent exhaust standards set by many countries including the U.S. (Cohen, 2015 ).

Volkswagen represents a large corporation that employs 270,000 people in its domestic country, a third of all Germans working in the automotive industry, and also 600,000 people worldwide (Cohen, 2015 ). It isn't clear exactly how badly the recent scandal will affect Volkswagen's brand image, but it is reasonable to suspect that the company will largely suffer from the wave of negative publicity that this scandal has created.

It is somewhat ironic that the company has created such a public backlash for its CSR violations because Volkswagen does in fact have a well-developed CSR platform in which is supposedly operated. For example, Volkswagen Group of America's boasted a commitment towards the environment and social responsibility to the communities in which it operated as evident in company statements such as this (Cohen, 2015 ): "In.