Our opinion

There's nothing like an economic downturn to sharpen thinking. Because when times are tough and budgets are being cut, every investment and outlay has to truly count. It's a great way of separating the wheat from the chaff.

And this is exactly what the discipline of corporate responsibility (CR) needs: a little bit of focus and some close examination of its purpose and role within a company. In the current climate, the CR is going to have to work twice as hard to prove its worth and to show that, far from being a cost, it is an asset to the business. Because everything that's done in its name that is poorly thought-through, non-strategic and superficial will be eliminated. It’s the non-core activities, the 'nice-to-haves' that are going to be the first things to go.

The landscape is changing, but consumers still care. Perhaps surprisingly, even in the face of a steep rise in the cost of living, the number that say they factor social, environmental and ethical decisions into their purchasing behaviour is growing. There’s a feeling that irresponsible behaviour got us into this mess, and consumers want to feel that through their shopping decisions they are part of the solution, rather than part of the problem.

Anxieties about issues such as climate change, obesity, labour conditions and marketing practices haven’t gone away – despite a whole lot of new things to worry about, the more established concerns remain. And if you stop focusing on these, even for a minute, no-one’s going to believe you when you start talking about them again when normal service is resumed. If they mattered to you before, they should still matter to you now. And if they don’t matter now, you shouldn’t have been worrying about them in the first place.

What does this mean in practice?

It means focusing on the issues that your stakeholders tell you matter to them, and prioritising those issues that represent real business risks, or offer real business opportunities. Don’t worry about the “nice to haves”, or spend time and money on things that simply aren’t up to you to put right – save them for the boom years. Be ruthless: this is no time for sentiment. This means putting CR at the heart of the way you do business, and assessing business decisions accordingly. It sounds ambitious, but right now, it’s impossible to justify any other way of doing business. CR has to work to support the business strategy.

It means embedding it across the organisation. There is not much point having a magnificent CR strategy if it’s gathering dust on the intranet. You need to communicate it to your employees and, crucially, get them involved in implementing it. Help them understand what you’re trying to achieve and why you’re trying to achieve it.

CR can’t, and shouldn’t, exist in splendid isolation – it’s there to hector, persuade, chivvy and cajole every single person within an organisation to work towards a more sustainable future, not only for the company but also for the society it is part of. The procurement department doesn’t stop purchasing but, by integrating CR factors into their decision making process, each member of the team will have a clearer understanding of the social and environmental implications of their decisions. The facilities management team will have a better understanding of how to minimise the environmental impacts of their activities, because they will have taken time to analyse them. And new products and services will be developed that address the needs and expectations of all your stakeholders, because those responsible for NPD will be listening to what these stakeholders are telling them.

And it means doing rather than telling. Don’t waste money telling consumers how responsible you are - they probably won’t believe you anyway, without some proof points. Launch new products that prove your commitment to reducing your carbon footprint. Develop programmes that demonstrate your commitment to the communities where you operate. Make sure that when people ring you to complain, their complaint is dealt with quickly, effectively and responsibly. Let people draw their own conclusions. It’s cheaper, and more convincing in the long run.

Now more than ever, responsible companies can reap the rewards of investing in responsibility in terms of increased trust and enhanced reputation. But that investment needs to be focused and well thought through.

In the long term, we'll be left with corporate responsibility done right. Left with an effective and ever-increasingly essential business process which enables companies to identify which social and environmental issues are most important, and work out how to address them

When push comes to shove and the crunch hits, the value of real corporate responsibility has never been clearer.