I leave for a two and a half week trip to China tomorrow morning and may not be able to post while abroad. I intend to post daily, but have heard that I may not be able to gain access due to China’s internet censorship. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that I’ll be able to find a way, but if I do not, I look forward to resuming my posts in early July.

My trip to China with my MBA classmates is just around the corner (I suppose they should be called “alumni” now…) and I have another book review to offer. If you are interested in my recommendation regarding Harvard Business Review On Doing Business in China, please feel free to download a PDF of the review.

TAGS: HBR | China | Harvard Business Review | Guo Qing | Book Review

Apparently, doing business in an emerging market makes for good corporate social responsibility…or something like that: Automotive Companies Rated Highly for Corporate Social Responsibility in Emerging Markets. Why, you ask? Fancy this:

“Consumers in emerging markets expect automotive corporations to take an active role in the economic and social development of their country.”

What a novel concept. When do you think US consumers will catch on?

(Sorry if I’m a bit cheeky today—I graduate from Business School in a few hours.)

TAGS: CSR | Corporate Social Responsibility | Auto | Automotive | Emerging Markets

My posting will probably be a bit light for the next few days but I wanted to put up a few CSR-related links that I found interesting:

• Corporate Social Responsibility: An Implementation Guide for Canadian Businesses: I plan on reading this later today, but from my initial skimming of the introduction, it looks to be a very helpful resource. The link provides an html or PDF option for viewing the guide.
• Social Responsibility Is Not A Warm, Fuzzy Fad: This is a great article about CSR and Canadian corporations, however, the content is applicable to corporations from all countries. The article references the guide I linked to above.
• ISO 26000 Press Release: A press release on CSRwire about progress in establishing ISO 26000 guidelines. ISO 26000 is a set of management guidelines for companies implementing social responsibility initiatives.

TAGS: CSR | ISO 26000 | Corporate Social Responsibility

The Business Ethics Blog discusses Sergey Brin’s recent comments regarding Google’s decision to enable censorship in China: Google on Google in China. While his candor is admirable, I’d be curious to hear if anyone feels there are corporate governance issues that may stem from Sergey’s openness.

TAGS: Google | China | Censorship | Business Ethics | CSR | Sergey Brin

Check out a recent post by Jeffrey Hollender at The Inspired Protagonist blog: Smoke & Mirrors?.

In short, Hollender, who will be speaking at a CSR conference that also includes a speaker from Philip Morris, has been asked by an anti-tobacco group to withdraw if the Philip Morris representative does not. While I agree that there is some a lot of discrepancy between a CSR event that includes a company such as Philip Morris, I really like and respect the approach Hollender has chosen in response to the anti-tobacco request:

“While I agree that their position as an official conference speaker sends a mixed message to the world, Philip Morris clearly isn’t going to pack up and go out of business. We need to engage with anyone who wants to sit at the table and be part of the discussion to explore new ways to transform their business and its purpose.

“That’s why I’m suggesting that the format of the event be designed to allow participants to challenge Philip Morris. And – thanks to the challenge from Global Partnerships – when I open the conference with my key note address I will encourage all the attendees of the conference to ask Philip Morris direct and challenging questions about their vision of and commitment to corporate responsibility.”

Hollender is a great leader and continues to surprise me with the approaches he takes to such complex situations. While change may be possible through agressive measures, such as forcing a cigarette company out of a CSR conference, greater change is possible (on average) through active dialog and debate.

Thank you, Mr. Hollender, of reminding us all of the power of dialog and debate.

[Update, 6/6:] A set of fairly passionate responses against Hollender’s plan have cropped up in the post’s comments. Most offer a very good justification for not participating, both as a statement as well as a methodology for change.

TAGS: Philip Morris | CSR | Corporate Social Responsibility | Smoking | Cigarettes | Jeffrey Hollender

Via the New York Post: When Vice is Nice: Sin-vestments Are On A Joyride.

When maximizing returns are the bottom-line for investors, why should they bother with socially responsible investments instead of choosing the investment that provides the highest return? What if they curious SRI investor was presented with the following data:

“Tobacco giants Reynolds American (up 42.8 percent in the last 12 months) and British American Tobacco (up 35.3 percent) are smoking while International Game Technology (up 32.2 percent) and MGM Mirage (up 10 percent) have gamboled higher than the market in general.

“For example, the S&P 500 has risen just 6.1 percent over the past year, a pace similar to that of the Dow Jones industrial average, while the Nasdaq index is up just 5 percent.”

There are are a lot of articles and opinions providing detailed justification for choosing socially responsible investing options (say, ones that average 10% over the long-haul) instead of plopping money into Reynolds American, British American Tobacco, or International Game Technology, however, many investors will care little about justification and simply chase the highest return. I suppose that is okay because it just leaves more room for the rest of us…

TAGS: SRI | Vice Stocks | Investing | Socially Responsible Investing | CSR | Corporate Governance

CFO.com has a great article on the varying global interpretations of “corporate governance”: Governance: It’s a Regional Thing. Here’s an interesting clip:

“…34 percent of U.S. institutional investors say ‘enhanced returns’ are the most significant advantage of good corporate governance, about on par with the global average of 37 percent. In China, however, only 7 percent of institutional investors agree; in Japan, the figure is a whopping 80 percent.”

TAGS: Corporate Governance | China | Japan | Investing | SRI

Image Source: Wikipedia

The New York Times has really been pumping out a considerable number of China-related articles recently, many of which deal with the country’s darker underbelly. Today’s edition offers a very interesting look at the relationship between China and the Catholic church, specifically in relation to the 1989 Tiananmen Square tragedy: Church Official Calls for Review of Tiananmen Killings.

I have done little research into the current state of religious freedom in China, though I find it somewhat surprising that there is any relationship between the Vatican and the PRC. Accordingly, the following statement surprised me even more:

“The criticism by Cardinal Joseph Zen is the latest sign that the Vatican may not be willing to compromise on human rights in order to establish diplomatic relations with mainland China.”

Is the Vatican really balancing human rights and diplomatic relations? Somehow I don’t see how considering diplomatic relations, especially to the detriment of human rights issues, is an option at all. Very interesting.

The author makes a very succinct statement about the dynamic that permits such discrepancies as economic prosperity and rampant abuses to coexist:

“The Chinese Communist Party now bases its legitimacy to a considerable extent on the material prosperity it has brought to many of China’s 1.3 billion people.”

How true. Wealth and an advancement in standard of living can prompt almost anyone to let go of the past.

“‘Yes, the economy has improved and some people have earned lots of money, but corruption abounds, the gap in wealth is huge, mines keep swallowing workers and fake milk powder and fake medicines are flooding the market – is this considered an improvement?’ he asked. ‘If they had listened to the kind advice of the students and workers, would today’s country be a better country?’”

I hope to find an answer, or at least a little insight, to the last question during my travels through China in a few weeks. It should be an interesting trip.

TAGS: China | Tiananmen | June 4 | Democracy | Human Rights | Vatican | Roman Catholic Church

This is not based on scientific method, but the results of his recent attempt to be utilized as an ethics resource has led Shel Horowitz to question a few things. In short, just prior to the Enron verdict, Horowitz sent out a press release offering utility to the media as an expert in ethics. The results were less than stellar and led Horowitz to a very intriguing explanation:

“An email drop to some 700 outlets resulted in *one* radio interview–admittedly, nationally syndicated and for a full hour. PR Web claims 36,997 people saw the press release (which means they saw at least the headline) and 398 media outlets picked it up but none used it.

“…But here’s the really astonishing thing: not only did my carefully crafted press release (vetted with a PR expert before it went out) fall flat, it seems that almost no one was looking for comments on this big, big story.”

Interesting indeed.

TAGS: Ethics | Enron | Jeff Skilling | Ken Lay | Andrew Fastow | Enron Verdict