Following the launch this week of Ogilvy PR Worldwide’s guide to Communicating Corporate Responsibility: “Building Trust and Communicating CR Effectively,” Ogilvy PR London’s senior director Ross Cathcart, comments on the news that Aviva will become the first British company to put its ethical policy to a shareholder vote today.
He said: “Aviva has to be applauded for putting stakeholder value alongside shareholder value and making corporate responsibility an issue at its AGM. By doing so it has set a benchmark that other FTSE companieswill find themselves under pressure to match.
“However despite Aviva’s pioneering act, big business in general still faces a deficit in consumer trust. A recent Ogilvy Public Relations report found that only a third of the general public trust companies to remain committed to their social and environmental promises, as they recover from the recession. This erosion of trust matters as without trust everything about doing business becomes more difficult; brand value deflates, it becomes harder to attract talent and transaction costs rise and in many sectors companies also expose themselves to greater regulatory and compliance pressures.
“By moving CR up the agenda, Aviva has taken an important first step in rebalancing this trust deficit. I hope that other companies will follow its example.”
