Our 2012 conference was a terrific opportunity to hear many points of view on the practice of corporate citizenship. Terrific committed leaders of corporate citizenship practice from around the world representing some of the most well-respected companies of our time shared their insights. A couple of thoughts presented by our main stage speakers have stuck with me. Read the rest of this entry »

Our 2012 International Corporate Citizenship Conference was a rich source of important insights, and learning. Thanks to all of our conference sponsors, speakers, and attendees who brought such tremendous energy, curiosity, and collegiality! Read the rest of this entry »

We are just days away from the start of our 2012 International Corporate Citizenship Conference and joining more than 500 professionals in Phoenix.

With the support of our hosts from Arizona Public Service and our many conference sponsors, we will explore ideas and share experiences that can inform good corporate citizenship. I anticipate that our time in the Valley of the Sun will provide opportunities to both learn and re-energize. Read the rest of this entry »

I grew up near Amish country in Northeastern Ohio, where you are as likely to get stuck behind a buggy or tractor on the road as you are a school bus.  In my childhood we visited and bought from these farms and learned from our neighbors about the necessity of seed crops – the best part of the harvest that is put aside for future plantings. To ensure future yields, our neighbors deferred some of what they could have taken for profit in any given year and devoted effort and resources to future productivity.  They rotated crop fields, and sometimes devoted entire growing seasons to planting soil-enhancing cover crops.

Amish country is a long way from Davos, but it seems like the World Economic Forum discussions focused on sustainable economies might benefit from an infusion of farm wisdom.  For those who missed it, the theme Read the rest of this entry »

Our members who are involved in managing corporate giving programs may be getting very busy with grantees as we approach the end of the calendar year. I wanted to pause and thank you for all of the important causes you support and the good work that you do in our communities all over the world. Read the rest of this entry »

While in New York recently, I encountered firsthand the early stages of the protest occupation of Wall Street. The protest against “the 1 percent” who have the most is conducted on behalf of “the 99 percent” who have less and less. OccupyWallStreet.org is an ostensibly leaderless movement that seems to have been conceived by the nonprofit creative collective, Adbusters. The one thing participants claim to have in common is that they “are the 99 percent that will no longer tolerate the greed and corruption of the 1 percent.”

Among the images that present the contrasts between these percentages, one of the most widely reported was of the group of affluent citizens attending a cocktail party on the balcony of the legendarily exclusive Cipriani’s during the first week of the protest (now into its third week). Attendees were filmed sipping champagne, looking down on the thousands of protesters, and even snapping photos of the throng with their smartphones. That moment has been compared in the press to the Roman circuses and the comparison is sobering given how apt the analogy seems and how the Roman era ended. Read the rest of this entry »

As the Fourth of July holiday approached, discussions of our national heritage and celebration of the American spirit were ubiquitous. Among the many inspired quotes that I heard over the weekend was one from Robert F. Kennedy who was paraphrasing the playwright George Bernard Shaw. “There are those who look at things the way they are, and ask why … I dream of things that never were, and ask why not?”

Corporate citizenship professionals are often asked why their firms should make investments in the community and environment – and there is then often a scramble to find a financial return justification. It is neatest when we can do well by doing good, but that is not always possible. Sometimes the return on community investments is not immediately quantifiable (on the quarter) and sometimes returns are purely social. They may create a more welcoming or more manageable environment in which the business can operate, but the firm might be just as profitable without having made them. Read the rest of this entry »

“How could this happen?”

It is a question that is asked usually in tones of dismay, despair, disbelief – and it has been asked often in the last year about events that might confound our optimism about human intentions.

In a knowledge economy, human capital is part of the equation. Employees can be a firm’s greatest asset and most valuable resource – and its greatest liability. It is not the monolithic corporate entity that has failed in our most notable recent crises, but people within them. I am not judging. All of us have the capacity for failures as great and consequential, and for triumphs of even greater magnitude. Read the rest of this entry »