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Many companies striving to be good corporate citizens today face an internal tug of war between giving attention to community initiatives that address social problems and the growing demand to make environmental issues paramount.
Who will take up the torch of corporate citizenship?
By Sylvia Kinnicutt, Research Associate, Boston College Center
As the 2010 Winter Olympic Games came to a close in Vancouver, the proverbial torch was passed on to Russia for the 2014 Olympics in Sochi. This process has been efficiently carried out for so many years, that planning is down to a science. We already know which city will take up the torch for both the summer and winter Olympics in 2012, 2014 and even in 2016. But, in the professional field of corporate citizenship, most do not know who will take the torch next, let alone three iterations into the future.
Corporate citizenship as a field has gone through great change even in the past few years. Some years back it would be difficult to find anyone in a company with full-time responsibility for citizenship issues. Now there are new announcements of executive level positions created nearly every week. As time has progressed, and citizenship has become a more serious business concern, the types of leaders recruited have changed. While once specialized outside expertise was needed to manage stakeholder relationships and emerging social and environmental issues, today a career of built-up corporate expertise and internal relationships may be of higher value.
What will be the next trend? Will citizenship become an increasingly senior executive position? Will leadership in citizenship become a critical rung on the career ladder of budding CEOs? Or will more companies opt to make corporate citizenship leaders out of all of their managers, or all of their staff?
There are many factors that will affect the answer to this question. A new kind of young employee is entering the business world today. Several studies have shown millennials to be more interested and engaged in societal issues and challenges. Another trend of the day is known as “social intrapreneurship.” Intrapreneurs are employees within companies who voluntarily go beyond their job requirements to introduce new ideas, processes or products that contribute to the overall goal of corporate citizenship and sustainability. New “CROs” – corporate responsibility officers as they are becoming known – could be drawn from these ranks.
Whether it is ambitious new millennials, or seasoned corporate managers who will take up the torch, we need to consider how to prepare the next cohort of leaders for their critical role in advancing corporate citizenship goals. The Center has identified a set of unique competencies that are required to lead in this area, from enhanced passion and optimism, to savvy systems thinking and influence skills. Universities and business schools in particular are beginning to incorporate some citizenship topics and necessary skills but can we rely on these institutions alone? Some companies have created internal training and awareness programs to bring everyone to a common understanding while turning on light bulbs in the heads of those potential future leaders.
These ideas will be framed from multiple perspectives at our upcoming International Corporate Citizenship Conference in April. Come hear the viewpoint of Maggie McArthur, deputy director of Net Impact, a pioneering nonprofit that is changing business schools and MBAs worldwide. Armed with a fresh MBA and a new CSR role with Mitsubishi International Corporation, Joe Reganato will share his view from a millennial perspective. Also new to her role, Kathy Hopinkah Hannan, managing partner for Diversity and CSR at KPMG, will share a senior perspective as one who has come in to lead CSR from various other leadership positions and industry expertise. Dave Stangis, Campbell Soup’s vice president, CSR, will moderate this panel, guiding the audience toward developing new perspectives on the future of corporate citizenship leadership.
Don’t miss the chance to get in on this conversation about the corporate citizenship leaders of tomorrow and what they’ll need to carry the torch into the future. Learn more about the conference here.
