Our EMEA managing director Ash Coleman-Smith recently spoke to the The Times journalist Carly Chynoweth on how to make pro bono work for UK companies. Along with other communications industry experts, Ash gives so very useful top tips. In short, pro bono has to be right for your company’s line of business and has to sit in well with your company’s long-term plans. Last but not least, it has to be an organised process.
In 2010, businesses will come under pressure like never before. COP15 has unleashed a barrage of debate about the environment, encompassing scientific claims, political pressure, economic arguments, challenges and promises. The media, governments, NGOs and expert consumers will be demanding evidence of CSR principles.
In fact, the easiest target for politicians and regulators will be big business. If a business wishes to portray itself as a responsible citizen, it shouldn’t wait to see what happens when pressure comes bearing down at thunderous speed. It should act now, and move ahead of compliance.
With that goes the fact that consumers’ trust in business is also fading at a frightening rate, which is having a negative impact on the bottom line. There could be a major reappraisal of business’ CSR commitments by everyone from employees to unions, governments, consumers and pressure groups. Big businesses could prove to be the ideal scapegoat for the lack of action on environmental issues.
In the post-COP15 era two big shifts need to be taken into account. Firstly, the conversation has changed from a general, large-scale discussion of what has to change to one that centres on making a profit while behaving in a way that sustains the environment. The second major trend is the growing realisation that CEOs generally perceive one-off, feel-good CSR / environmental projects as a cost. Instead, the focus should be on how sustainable business practices can save money and improve the bottom line.
To demonstrate that companies are embracing sustainability it must be hard wired into the business. As a result, corporate communication teams are likely to be spending much more time with R&D and finance teams, looking at supply chains and working with partners. The relationship with NGOs must shift from the 80s model. Now NGOs should become serious business partners who can help you achieve sustainable objectives and advise on making responsible business decisions.
It will be crucial to understand the cycles, shifts and changes in influences in the global conversation between those three major pressure points of business and money, geo-politics, and the environment and science. Companies will need to recognize their own timelines in terms of how they reinvent their business and products to be more sustainable, and to anticipate the moments when they are most likely to come under pressure. It would be wise only to promote or talk about achievements when they are based on hard, measurable evidence.
As a matter of fact, comms directors should be ready to experience the same type of pressure felt by compliance officers in the world of financial services. It means to be aligned with the organisation’s lawyer and the finance director, and being on the board. It also means helping the organisation to monitor, adapt and shape itself around a new swathe of regulation, and ensuring that communications are moving at the same pace as all these developments.
The global discussion is now so broad and quick-moving that the old style approach of trying to monitor and understand the conversation is irrelevant. Organisations need to prove continuously that all the little initiatives are adding up to a move in the right direction, which ultimately starts to rebuild consumers’ trust. Then, instead of being an easy target for politicians, scientists and NGOs, businesses can get back on the front foot and start to have more of an equal engagement in this global conversation.
2010 is the year when corporate communications directors can decide how and where they will invest in sustainable activities. If you can take advantage of this opportunity and hard wire sustainability into your business, you are much more likely to help your organisation maintain its bottom line and also maintain the momentum of communications and reputation in the harsh influencer and media environment of 2010 onwards post COP15.
As heads of states and governments are entering the final stages of negations at the UN conference on climate change COP15 in Copenhagen, people from around the world are recording their messages of hope as part of the global Hopenhagen movement.
Created by our sister sustainability practice OgilvyEarth, Hopenhagen is an empowering platform. It gives voice to global citizens in the climate change dialogue helping to express their opinions to the leaders from 192 countries attending COP15. It sets out to inspire people of the world to share their voice of support for a positive outcome on the climate change agreement.
Six million people have already signed the Hopenhagen petition and become citizens of Hopenhagen. Meanwhile our Ogilvy colleagues in Copenhagen have been working round the clock organising Hopenhagen events, such as concerts at the “Hopenhagen LIVE” stage in Hopenhagen Square and the WWF Earth Hour Hopenhagen in Copenhagen’s City Hall Square this week. To join the six million citizens of Hopenhagen and to see the latest messages of hope visit hopenhagen.org.
You can read more on the background of OgilvyEarth’s Hopenhagen campaign in the recent PR Week Hopenhagen feature.
Hot on the heels of the recent launch of OgilvyEarth, our sister sustainability practice, we’ve commissioned a study about businesses’ and consumers’ current views on CSR commitment. What it shows us is that regardless of the fears in the business community, consumers’ loyalty to ethical and social issues is holding up during the recession. We believe that now is the opportunity for business leaders to prove that they’re sincere and truly committed to CSR promises.
In partnership with research firm Populus we’ve interviewed over 2,000 British opinion formers and consumers. An overwhelming majority of those business leaders (67 per cent to be precise) see trust in companies’ CSR issues as a key aspect for corporate success. At the same time, over a third of business leaders think that companies, which scale back on CSR during the economic downturn, will regret the decision come the recovery.
The survey results also prove that recession has done little to curb consumer demand for products with social and environmental credentials. Nearly 40 per cent of consumers are actually more concerned with environmental and social issues than they were before the recession began. There is also a growing trend to put business under more scrutiny. Some 29 per cent of consumers admit to paying more attention now to a product’s environmental and social credentials compared with 12 months ago.
In our view one possible victim of the recession is consumer trust in businesses’ commitment to sticking to their word on sustainability. Surprisingly enough, only one third of consumers expressed confidence in UK companies to remain committed to their social and environmental promises.
To see what the papers and trade’s have being saying about this check out the Financial Times, The Independent, PR Week or UTalkMarketing.
