Responsible Business Guide: A Toolkit for Winning Companies

RBG
Responsible Business Guide: A Toolkit for Winning Companies
8 Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) has become a commonly accepted term, employed
typically to describe a business enterprise’s duty to society and the actions a company takes
to fulfil it demonstrably. A uniformly agreed definition of corporate social responsibility is
still sought, even as a number of good working definitions are in use within their respective
contexts. Recent studies in support this view include De George (2006), Blowfield and Frynas
(2005), and Longo et al. (2005), are quoted by S. Jaseem Ahmed, (2006) in his paper on CSR
in Pakistan.
9 Quote ascribed to Milton Friedman, Chicago School of Economics and 1976 Nobel Laureate,
called by The Economist as "the most influential economist of the second half of the 20th
century. . . possibly of all of it."
10 From Ambreen Waheed’s description of the historical evolution of CSR, “State of Evaluation
of CSR in Pakistan”, Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan, 2005.
11 The “TBL Demonstration Project in South Asia”, supported by the United Nations Industrial
Development Organization (UNIDO), had a number of pilot programs that were developed
and implemented in India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, and Thailand. The results clearly showed that
when companies plan their processes with the environmental and social outcomes in mind
and employ efficiencies and compliance parameters, financial performance improves.
12 Ascribed to Simon Zadek, Peter Raynard, and Cristiano Oliviero, being introduced in “Responsible
Competitiveness: Reshaping Global Markets Through Responsible Business Practice”, published
by Accountability, with Fundacao Dom Cabral, London in 2005, and subsequently expanded
upon by Simon Zadek and Alex McGillivray in “The State of Responsible Competitiveness”
published by AccountAbility, London in 2007, including a chapter by Ambreen Waheed and
Faiz Shah.
13 Reflected in "Corporate Social and Financial Performance: A Meta-Analysis", Marc Orlitzky,
Frank L. Schmidt, and Sara L. Rynes, University of Sydney and University of Iowa. 2004.
http://www.finanzasostenibile.it/finanza/moskowitz2004.pdf,
14 Ibid. (Same as above)
15 Ethical Consumerism Report 2009. Co-operative Bank and Ethical Consumer Research
Association (ECRA). 2009. http://www.goodwithmoney.co.uk/ethical-consumerism-report-
09/
16 Between 1998 and 2009, RBI worked with over 70 leading companies, social enterprises
across 10 key sectors, government- and UN agencies in the USA, Europe, the Middle East,
South Asia, and the Asia-Pacific, conducting social audits, independent assessments, developing
teaching cases and providing training and advisory services. RBI’s work has appeared in
national strategies, position papers, CSR reports, course handbooks, textbooks, and corporate
communications over the past decade.
17 Comments emerging from CIPE’s stakeholder dialogue in preparation for the RBG, informed
by documentation of stakeholder engagements facilitated by RBI between 2003 and 2007,
ranging from the GTZ-AVE Social Standards Roundtable sessions in all major cities of Pakistan,
to the consultations organized for the Securities and Exchange Commission of Pakistan in
preparation for the National CSR Strategy based on the “State of CSR in Pakistan”.
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