I couldn’t agree more with your comment about the separation of the immediate business interests from the society’s interests – in an ideal world where companies practice strategic CC (or CSR), that would be the case. Unfortunately, we often find (particularly in publicly held companies) that the pressures to deliver to shareholders each quarter take much greater priority over social and environmental issues of longer-term timeframe. A recent study by MIT/Sloan and Boston Consulting Group also arrived at a similar finding.

We hope through our courses, webinars, convenings and research reports we can move business further along in realizing the importance of considering societal interests in their day-to-day business decisions.

Thank you again for your message and hope this helps address your concern.

Of particular value is the easy access to findings through simple charts and diagrams as well as succinct summaries. What’s more, the comparisons between large and small to mid-size companies offers a useful dissection to understand constraints and opportunities unique to each group.

It is precisely because of the high value of this report that I do want to offer a critical observation. Throughout the report, and certainly as the future of corporate citizenship is considered, the idea of an holistic approach to corporate citizenship is advocated. I couldn’t agree more fervently with the statement that in order to address social challenges business leaders must “move well beyond traditional notions and models of corporate citizenship based primarily on philanthropy to look holistically at the role and impact of business on society and engage actively in bringing their assets to bear on addressing society’s challenges” (pg 43).

Yet I was confused to read on the page previous ‘The challenge for companies as they engage in the public policy arena will be to separate their immediate self interest and interest of their shareholders from the broader interests of society and their role as corporate citizens” (pg 42). Is this separation possible? If it was possible, would it be a good thing? Probably not. Creating an either-or conversation around the board room table on the topic of Corporate Citizenship is not a good approach. In fact, it isn’t even the approach of Boston College. An integrated, or both-and approach guarantees the success of Corporate Social Responsibility by tying the self interests of the company to the interests of the broader community. Once these concepts are inextricably linked, companies are able to make good strategic choices without wondering about priorities.

Again, thanks so much for producing reports with essential information such as this. We are huge advocates of BCCCC and the important leadership role you are playing in this field.