The origins of Target’s corporate responsibility philosophy began many years ago out of a modest-sized department store called Dayton’s Dry Goods. At that time, our founder, George Draper Dayton, proclaimed that our business must maintain “the higher ground of stewardship.” It was at that moment when Target’s reputation for dependable merchandise, fair business practices, and a generous spirit of giving was born. Ever since then, we’ve taken that philosophy and expanded on it—we not only believe we must maintain “the higher ground of stewardship,” but we also believe we are Here for Good.

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There are an endless number of gadgets and devices available to help professionals in every field perform more efficiently, more effectively and with more information at their disposal. But from the point of view of Andy Boynton, dean of the Carroll School of Management at Boston College, none of those things is as powerful as what brought each of them into being – a great idea. Read the rest of this entry »

This 2010 conference breakout session was called “Star Search: Where will tomorrow’s corporate citizenship leaders come from?”and the panel itself was packed with stars, from Dave Stangis, VP of CSR at Campbell’s Soup who has been an outspoken leader in this profession, to Katherine Hopinkah Hannan, national managing partner and Chief Responsibility/Diversity Officer at KPMG, who has led several areas of the company before raising the bar of corporate citizenship at the Big 4 firm. Alongside them were rising stars Joseph Reganato, a corporate communications manager who also works with the foundation of Mitsubishi International corporation, and Maggie McArthur, Deputy Director of Net Impact, who spends her days inspiring, equipping and engaging MBAs to make a social impact. Read the rest of this entry »

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. Read the rest of this entry »

You don’t have to be a half-empty type of guy to feel that clouds of doubt and uncertainty and the fear of the future are starting to descend all around us like a dense fog. There doesn’t seem to be any safe harbor for either our investments or our frayed nerves.

This is starting to feel a little bit like my visit to Argentina in the spring of 2002, right after the unthinkable happened. One of the most prosperous countries on the globe – a can’t-miss poster child for the glories of globalization that at one time fed much of the world – suddenly imploded. Read the rest of this entry »

by Bradley K. Googins, Ph.D., Executive Director, Boston College Center for Corporate Citizenship

Just when I begin to think that I am getting a solid handle on corporate citizenship I have some new experience and gain fresh perspective that humbly reminds me we are still looking at citizenship through a glass darkly.

Last week I spent four days in Kingston, Jamaica, working as a volunteer at a group of centers that serve as home for society’s castaways. One center houses a group of 40 severely retarded and disfigured children abandoned at birth. In another live a group of men dying of AIDS and in yet another, a group of older men covered with bed sores who will spend their final days without any family to comfort them. Tough to take, but real in a city where within a two-block area of these centers some 15 people were killed in gunfights during the past month.

In the midst of this gritty environment I reflected on the vast disconnect this has with my life in corporate citizenship. Much of what I – and most who toil in the corporate citizenship arena – do is search for new strategic approaches and new “sustainabilities.” This is a world of strategy and leverage, usually conducted in company headquarters typically located in a community considerably upstream in terms of education, safety, health and job readiness. Read the rest of this entry »