Ini's MUSE

These days, the hottest term in Nigeria and in the media seems to have become corporate social responsibility (CSR). Everywhere you turn; there is a CSR consultant, expert, firm, and even event! Quite interestingly, it’s all lone efforts trying to preach the same gospel of sustainability and responsibility to businesses. In as much as I believe this may be not be an entirely unfamiliar territory for the great majority of businesses in Nigeria, and in terms of the real meaning of CSR and how to bring it to life, examples of best practices are few and far between at present. Although the words "corporate social responsibility" have been much bandied about in the media recently, it is harder than one might imagine to truly realize CSR in the day-to-day work of an enterprise, or to integrate it fully into a business strategy. It’s not uncommon in Nigeria to see this kind of band-wagon effect when a new bride comes to town but as usual, time always tells the bride that has come ...

Emilia Asim-Ita writes as a Guest Blogger . In the course of my growing CSR consultancy practice, I have realized that there are two kinds of organizations - those who can be said to be CSR-compliant and those who are not. Of those who are not CSR-compliant; there are also two kinds of organizations – those who are CSR-forward and those who are not. OF those who are not CSR-forward; there are two kinds of organizations – those who really don’t care and those who are tied to supporting initiatives, interests and/or charities that the CEO is inclined to, a sport he/she participates in or a family charity. Back to the crux of the matter, of those who are CSR-forward, there are two similarities; those who do a lot of corporate philanthropy and those who engage in brand-building initiatives in the name of CSR because such initiatives do not tie directly to their core business areas. Being CSR-forward is attaining the perception of a CSR-compliant organisation. Whilst the indices ...

As I check to see the AR-CSR advert on Page 27 of the May 2011 WEF edition of the African Business magazine, I scan through the other pages and lo and behold what I found; “…true corporate success can only be achieved if managers take a more holistic view of their activities and pay equal attention to all interests – not only of shareholders, clients and customers, as was the accepted business philosophy at the time but also those of their employees, the communities within which they operated and government aims and polities. This concept is now widely accepted worldwide and is usually termed ‘corporate social responsibility’. It has taken its time arriving in Africa but it now increasingly becoming de rigueur in most progressive countries” – Klaus Schwab, Founder, World Economic Forum 2011 Another quote I just read from Alice Korngold: "I contend that CSR is becoming such a force, that soon, if a company does not invest in CSR, that company's board and shareholders ...

http://blogs.forbes.com/csr/2011/05/03/how-best-buys-ceo-uses-social-media-to-push-csr