Proceedings: Conference on Corporate Communication 2012 Page 1

Corporate Communication and the Development of IBM’s CSR
Despite the fact that there appears to be at least one point in time during which the company's
business choices may have been, in retrospect, questionable, Mr. Watson's overarching legacy of
concern for others has been operationalized into a highly-targeted set of community-andeducationally-centered
CSR programs. These initiatives warrant closer examination, as the
technology and talent involved in them may serve as models for the non-profit sector and other
corporations. Non-profit executives present at Litow's lecture intimated that IBM's programs were
both significant sources of potential corporate funding for them and also models in terms of
researching, planning, and implementing community-based programs. This modeling may also
involve sharing knowledge about the programs themselves, including the role that effective
corporate communication plays in planning and implementing CSR initiatives. For these reasons,
if not for the others mentioned here, IBM represents an important case study.
Abstracts of <strong>Conference</strong> <strong>Proceedings</strong>: <strong>Conference</strong> on Corporate Communication 2012
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