Internal CSR, or being responsible to your own employees is equally important as being responsible externally and communicating it.
Depending on your business, that can mean anything from allowing them to have unions, have fair compensation and benefit systems, growth opportunity, security, but also quite often their own safety.

However, it’s just not good when you overdo it. I bumped into this example at sustainabilityforum.com and found it very disturbing.
I mean, keeping your employees safe is one thing, but having a policy not allowing them to help someone not to be beaten up brutally is something else…

Check it out below. Conclusion is after the video.

The Potential Brutality of CSR

Written By Chris Milton
Published On February 12, 2010

There’s a reason I’ve not put any picture with this post: because there’s a video at the bottom.

I think you should watch this video. It’s just over seven minutes long.

It’s of a news item from CNN in the USA last night.

It shows CCTV footage of a girl getting beaten up and having her head kicked in at a bus station in Seattle, Washington.

Then there’s the three (four? five??) security guards who watch this happen. Clearly within arm’s reach.

This is terrible, says the commentator. Surely as decent human beings, maybe even fathers, they should intervene and stop this brutality?

The attacker even returns for afters and is unhindered.

Why didn’t they intervene? Because there is a policy, apparently, that security guards do not intervene in violent confrontations. Difficult to swallow that one.

So on comes a guest, a Sergent from the local police force, who steps through this policy and explains why it’s there and that, once the fight had finished, over 60 officers attended the scene.

Then at the very end the presenter thanks the Sergent for his time and for explaining it to them.

So that’s OK then.

Now, why am I posting this on a CSR blog?

Simple. The reason these guys didn’t intervene is because they had a policy to follow. Tick boxes, insurance (no doubt) and all of that.

And this has subverted their normal human behaviour.

CSR and sustainability is all about reinventing business: it’s not a standard to acheive, it’s a model to follow on a path of continual improvement.

The tick-boxers and standard acheivers in the CSR world are little better than these security guards: watching disaster happen infront of them “satisfied” that they are following their professional protocols.

No one, not even a member of the public, intervenes. But it’s the security guards who are best placed to do so.

We all want to be on the side of the defenseless, the impoverished, the disadvantaged and the downtrodden. However, we — as people — have to act for that to happen, not just implement a policy and think that’s the best we can do.

Needless to say, those of a sensitive nature may prefer not to watch the video, and please be sensible with minors. The video can also be watched here: http://www.cnn.com/2010/CRIME/02/11/seattle.beating/

Please watch it. Now.

Conclusion:
Personally and as an HR professional, I blame this not only on the company policy, but also on the corporate culture that they obviously have. I mean, this culture has to be very passive-defensive and very strong to change (in my opinion) basic human behavior to react in such circumstances. Or all of these 3 guys are simply bad people…
I hope that the kid is fine…

“Today, the concept of business is to make money. Making money is the name of the business. And profit maximization is the mission of business. And I’m saying this is very narrow interpretation of human being. Human beings are much bigger than just making money. So I said, to be true to the human nature, we should include at least one more type of business, business to do good to people, without an expectation of making any personal gain out of it.”

Mohammad Yunus

cross-posted from www.harjeetkumar.com.

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Microsoft has recently launched its “Click for the Cause” initiative, in which Internet searches performed at http://click4thecause.live.com,
using Microsoft’s Live Search, result in a financial donation to ninemillion.org, a UN Refugee agency-led public and private sector partnership which benefits the 9.3 million refugee children in the world.
The campaign aligns Microsoft’s core competencies with the goal to help provide education programs for refugee youths and will run throughout March 2007.

Given below are some simple steps to make this your default search engine on Internet Explorer 7.

1. Open Internet Explorer and click on the drop down menu next to the search icon and click on “Find more providers”

   

2. In the create your own section copy and paste this link http://search.live.com/results.aspx?q=TEST&mkt=en-gb&FORM=MOHA5L
3. Specify a name for the search engine and click install.

   

4. To make this your default engine again click on the drop down menu next to the search icon, click change default and choose your new search engine.
5. Start searching and helping NineMillion.org at the same time!

*this is an AIESEC traineeship, so if you`re not an AIESEC SN don`t bother bugging me…

So I`m leaving Istanbul soon… and looking for a good candidate to replace me here in Istanbul…

for those who don`t know – it`s a CSR Coordinator position at the regional office of Microsoft for Middle East and Africa… An awesome job I wish I could have back in Belgrade…

And yeah, if you`re in doubt whether you`re good enough or not – do apply… When I was applying for it, I thought it`s “reserved” for hotshots from AI or ex-MCPs… Well, it wasn`t and it`s not… I got it, so can you!

If you need more motivation, then go ahead and read archives of my posts since March last year… and check out my photos at http://nino.ic2003.org/Photo

If you have questions, shoot! Contacts are below…

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This is an ideal AIESEC Internship for anyone who is interested to better understand CSR from a multinational and business perspective. It will also give you a good idea about how public-private partnerships work and the role different players have in its execution. You will also be able to better understand the role of ICT in development globally and in the Middle East and Africa region (MEA). You will be a part of a dynamic multicultural office environment and be able to enjoy independence and set your own routine and working style.

You will report to the Regional CSR Manager and will be based out of Istanbul.

Job role:

The trainee will be working as a Regional Community Affairs Coordinator.He/She will engage with national and international NGOs to create projects focussing on IT skills for employment in Middle East and Africa through public private partnership.

Some of the tasks and responsibilities include:

• Review grants application from national & international NGOs across 35 countries to bridge the digital divide.
• Work closely with CSR managers in Subsidiaries to develop sustainable projects and programs.
• Lead the software donations program in the region and be the power user in the region of the global grants management system (Like AIESEC XP).
• Organize a regional CSR capacity building workshop to train CSR country managers (April 2007 in Jordan) and be part of the EMEA Microsoft CSR meeting to be held in 2007.
• Participate in strategic meetings and reviews with senior management of the company dealing with CSR at a global level.
• Strategize on how the AIESEC & Microsoft relationship can be strengthened in the region. Work closely with AIESEC-MS Global Coordinator in creating national and sub-regional partnerships between MS and AIESEC. Lead a team of AIESEC trainees in the region.
• Manage all communications in the region related to CSR, namely the Community affairs portal, newsletter and presentations.

Who should apply?

Anyone who has held leadership positions in AIESEC and has a passion for CSR, NGOs, development, ICT4D etc. You should in your AIESEC XP have demonstrated it through action based learning. (Organizing conferences, PBOXes, Raising internships, attending conferences, creating networks etc.)

Applications due: January 31st

Start date: Ideally February 15^th, but not later then February 22^nd.

Duration: 12 months (with extension possibility)

Work Place:

State of the art Regional HQ of Microsoft Middle East and Africa located in the heart of Istanbul overlooking the Bosphorus. You will be provided with a laptop, your own office space with a dedicated telephone line, meal coupons and a stipend of USD 700.

For more info, please contact current trainee Nikola Jovanovic at:

e-mail: b-nikolj(at)microsoft.com or nikola.jovanovic(at)gmail.com

msn: nikolajovanovic(at)hotmail.com

From Steve Ballmer`s MS internal intro letter:

Did you know, for example, that we recycle 141 tons of material every month? That employees volunteered more than 76,000 hours last year? That we donated more than $2.5 billion to communities in the past 20 years?

The data and the human stories in the Citizenship Report show how our creativity and our spirit of innovation are making a difference – through our contributions to communities, our responsible business practices and our product innovations. For instance, Windows Vista and Microsoft Office 2007 System include many enhancements that will make positive impacts economically and socially – on children’s online safety, data protection and privacy, accessibility for people with disabilities, energy conservation, interoperability and consumer choice. Our products also build on a strong platform that creates opportunities for innovation around the world, creating new jobs and driving local economic growth.

Last week, we took our citizenship commitment one step further through our endorsement of the United Nations Global Compact, an international public-private initiative to promote responsible corporate citizenship and help realize a more sustainable and inclusive global economy. We’re proud to stand behind the ten principles of this compact, which support universal social issues ranging from human rights to protection of the environment.

Amazing, isn`t it?

Yeah, I know – MS could and should do more… And I agree with that… But let`s forget about that for a moment and just think about how this world would be a much better place if all companies were thinking like this…

Click on a link below and find me on the picture on 5th page (that`s from MS Global CSR Summit 2006)

Microsoft (MSFT) Citizenship Report 2006

Will write more these days about my job in Microsoft and projects that we do in Middle East and Africa…

It`s not the best CSR action I`ve seen, but it`s a job well done and the media attention around it should show corporate sector in Serbia that CSR is an investment, not pure philanthropy…

Telenor Hands Out Free Tickets to Belgrade High Schoolers

Belgrade, Nov. 14, 2006

Telenor handed out 2,000 tickets to Belgrade high-school students for a friendly football match between the national teams of Serbia and Norway, on Wednesday, Nov. 15, at 8.15 p.m. Tickets are valid for the east section of the stadium.

The Secretariat for Education of the City of Belgrade supported the action and recommended it to the principals.

“Our support reflects our belief that the Telenor action is valuable for the promotion of sports among Serbia’s young people,” said Vladimir Todic, head of the Secretariat.

Telenor provided 43 buses to pick up the students outside their schools and take them to the stadium. One bus will collect the protégées of all four Belgrade homes for children without parents in front of Mosa Pijade Home, 19 Ustanicka Street.

Read full press release

Honestly, before I read this text, I never thought of the connection between faith and CSR, regardless of how logical it is… This text I found in the BSR.org`s “Leading Perspective“, which is a quarterly publication. Very very interesting…

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Many in the corporate world would rather not bring religion into the boardroom. Fair enough, especially if the purpose is to misuse religion for selfish or inappropriate purposes. But if advocates of CSR are interested in finding new allies in the quest to encourage businesses to become more ethical and attentive to their responsibilities to a wide range of stakeholders, they should think anew about the role of faith in the workplace.

There are many reasons that leaders interested in CSR might reconsider the role of faith and business. First, if we look carefully at the so-called “big five” — the five main religious traditions and their offshoots (the three Abrahamic faiths of Judaism, Christianity and Islam, and Hinduism and Buddhism) — we quickly discover that each of these traditions and their holy teachings are very interested in the material world and how one takes care of it. Advocates of CSR might be pleasantly surprised to find that, for example, classic Jewish and Christian teachings accentuate a responsible tending of the garden (i.e. environmentalism), the decent treatment of workers (i.e. human rights) and attention
to the nature and purpose of work (i.e. goals other than maximization of shareholder returns).

Second, many adherents of these great traditions consciously or subconsciously ground their ethics — their understanding of right and wrong, good and evil, and beauty and falsehood — and their sense of life purpose in the teachings of their faith. If much of CSR is about going beyond the customs and dynamics of the marketplace, might not faith be a helpful resource to help business leaders and organizations think afresh about their duties to the broader community in which they live and work?

Finally, faith brings a different kind of vision. When one accepts the existence of a transcendent being or higher power, the result is that believers see the world differently. One sees beyond the immediate problem or pressure to meet quarterly returns. One’s sense of time is much more long term or, as theologians would say, eschatological, thinking of the eternal value of one’s work and how one does it. God is interested in what we do and how we do it; God values us doing creative, excellent work. But surely God is also interested in more than just earnings per share.

Of course, intentionally engaging the resources of faith to help business consider its wider responsibilities also brings certain risks that too often seem to accompany religion. Among these questions: What about different views, teachings and historic friction between different traditions? Can these be overcome? Is there more common ground than we think, and if so, how can that be tapped into and used in a business setting? Can faith help organizations rethink such important moral questions facing business today, such as economic development, sustainability, corruption, education and treatment of employees?

As I continue to study and conduct research into these questions, I conclude that faith is indeed a viable and valuable force that ought to be recognized as a legitimate resource for business leaders to draw upon. And while not without its challenges, I believe there are appropriate and respectful ways to draw on one’s faith in a pluralistic marketplace. Authentic faith might be precisely the new dimension needed for tomorrow’s global corporate leaders to succeed responsibly.

David W. Miller, Ph.D. is a former senior executive in international finance and partner in an investment banking firm. He now heads the Yale Center for Faith & Culture and teaches Business Ethics at Yale Divinity School and Yale School of Management, and advises CEOs on questions of values, ethics and faith in the workplace.

NEW YORK – The government of Libya has reached an agreement with an American nonprofit group to provide inexpensive laptop computers for all of the nation’s 1.2 million schoolchildren, The New York Times reported Wednesday.

With the project scheduled to be completed by June 2008, Libya could become the first nation in which all school-age children are connected to the Internet through educational computers, Nicholas Negroponte, chairman of the One Laptop per Child project, told the newspaper.

The computers will run Linux and have wireless access… We`ll finally be able to see if Linux solution is good enough to remove Microsoft from one whole market… I doubt, but let us see…

Full story here

World Bank urges boost for young

Developing countries must invest in young people, promoting education and health and developing essential skills, a major World Bank report says.
The World Development Report says there are now a record 1.3 billion people aged 12-24 living around the world.

Those numbers could create problems in many nations if societies do not adapt, World Bank officials warn.

Although the number of young in primary education is rising, the report says some 130 million cannot read or write.

Young people are thought to make up about half the world’s unemployed, the report says.

It also estimates that about 100 million new jobs need to be created in the Middle East and across North Africa before 2020 to cope with the numbers of young people seeking work.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/5351524.stm

SAN FRANCISCO, Sept. 13 ? The ambitious founders of Google, the popular search engine company, have set up a philanthropy, giving it seed money of about $1 billion and a mandate to tackle poverty, disease and global warming.

But unlike most charities, this one will be for-profit, allowing it to fund start-up companies, form partnerships with venture capitalists and even lobby Congress. It will also pay taxes.

Full text here