SHAPE Magazine 1 / 2013 - SCA

COMMUNITY
RELATIONS
these issues has varied. PR departments, human
resources and those working with environmental
management have shown the most interest, while
fi nance departments have been more skeptical.
But I think we’re seeing a change here and
an understanding that this is a way of creating
increased value for the company.”
He describes the basis of corporate community
relations as a “win-win situation” in which both
the company and the community benefi t from the
initiatives. Relationship building with the local
community can fulfi ll various purposes: it may
be about marketing the company to local target
groups, but also about preventing crises through
understanding and good relations with important
stakeholders.
JUTTERSTRÖM SEES a trend today in which
the various concepts in CSR and community
relations are aligned and partly converge.
“It’s basically about seeing the company’s
role in the world and managing those
relationships well because it’s good for business in
the long term,” he says.
Are companies taking over functions that society
was previously responsible for?
“That’s hard to say,” Jutterström says. “Society
sets the framework in many areas through rules
and regulations at national or supranational level,
such as in the European Union. But there are major
diff erences between various countries with different
traditions. In the United States, companies
traditionally have a stronger role as a community
player. But we’re increasingly seeing initiatives,
such as corporate branded multipurpose arenas.”
Today most people agree that long-termism
gives shareholders a better return over time. Even
Jack Welch, the former General Electric CEO who
was embraced as a superhero of capitalism, has
expressed sympathy with this view.
“On the face of it, shareholder value is the
dumbest idea in the world,” Welch told the Financial
Times in 2009. “Shareholder value is a result,
not a strategy. Your main constituencies are your
employees, your customers and your products.”
10 SCA SHAPE 1 2013
LOCAL
is the SCA way
As a hygiene and forest industry
company whose products touch many
lives, SCA has a history of solid
community relations. In fact, locally
supported community involvement
is a part of the business strategy.
Kersti Strandqvist, senior
vice president, corporate
sustainability.
“
WE’VE ALWAYS had an important role to
play, and we see it as an opportunity
to make a diff erence in people’s lives,”
says Kersti Strandqvist, senior vice
president, corporate sustainability at
SCA. “Maintaining good community relations is
a boon to all parties because it instills pride in our
employees, creates goodwill in the community and
contributes to enhancing customer loyalty.”
With its roots in the Swedish forest industry,
SCA has a long history of local community relations.
Although its business today is global, its
perspective is local, embracing small-scale collaborations
around the world. These can include
anything from conducting training programs to
breaking taboos to distributing sanitary pads in
refugee camps.
“Our goal is not to take over the role of civil
society, but to contribute in fi elds where we have
our core competence and interests,” Strandqvist
says. “This creates a foundation for long-term
eff orts and real, measurable eff ects.”