Michelle Mason
Managing director
American Society for Quality (ASQ)
Milwaukee
Milwaukee-based American Society for Quality (ASQ) is collaborating with IBM on a research study benchmarking how social responsibility investments create value, improve returns and increase cost savings. The study will be released at the Pathways to Social Responsibility: Creating a Framework for a Better Tomorrow Conference in San Francisco, June 16-17. Michelle Mason, managing director at ASQ, shares some insights about the value of corporate social responsibility.
“The business case for social responsibility has disparate viewpoints and approaches. According to Aneel Karanani, author of The Wall Street Journal article headlined, “The Business Case Against Social Responsibility,” the idea that companies have a responsibility to act in the public interest and will profit from doing so is fundamentally flawed.
“The reality is quite different. Many organizations are recognizing social responsibility (SR) is not just a ‘feel good’ effort; it is smart business strategy that is emerging as an expectation and not an exception. In 2008, nearly 80 percent of Fortune 250 companies worldwide produced SR reports, up from 50 percent in 2005.
“Organizations are integrating concepts into their business strategies which lead to increased business results and innovation. In a 2010 poll conducted by Business Social Responsibility, 84 percent of respondents are optimistic that global business will embrace SR/sustainability as part of their core strategy over the next five years. Ninety-four percent plan to maintain or increase their budgets for SR programs in the year ahead.
“The question is not relevancy, but how do you measure the return on investment to assess business value? Unless you measure something you don’t know if it is getting better or worse. Measuring the return on investment of SR/sustainability is not a widespread practice. Gathering data is often difficult. Without this information programs are often viewed to be separate from core business. In the BSR poll, only one third of respondents report doing so in their organizations.
“The American Society for Quality (ASQ) is a global quality community focused on using quality principles to make the world a better place. Through research and education, ASQ is leading a movement to align quality principles to SR business strategies. Quality is the methodology to advance the application of social responsibility. In a recent white paper co-published by ASQ and Manpower Inc. (February 2011), a key factor for organizational leaders is to raise the stature of quality across the organization and strategically integrate it into SR efforts. For more information about the social responsibility benchmarking project and to join the SR Research Consortium, visit www.TheSRO.org.”
