The View from the Boardroom - UNDP Trinidad and Tobago

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The View from the Boardroom - CEO Study on Corporate Social Responsibility in Trinidad and TobagoStrategy• Little evidence for a substantive shift towards morestrategic forms of CSR: While CSR has undoubtedlybecome a more familiar feature within the local businesscommunity with a high level of acceptance of the ideaand concept behind the practice, the commitmentsmade by senior managers towards corporate socialengagement remain largely philanthropic in nature.More than two-thirds of all respondents namecharitable giving and events sponsorship as the areasthat their CSR outreach was most reflected in.• Continuously strong focus on public relations andreputation management as main drivers of CSR:A further indication of the unchanged philanthropicnature of CSR in Trinidad and Tobago is the fact thatan overwhelming 96.8% of all CEOs interviewed for thereport named brand, trustworthiness and reputationas being among the most important drivers for theirCSR activities. Only 11.4% mentioned increasedcompetitiveness as a motivating factor for their socialengagement.• Strategic planning still remains an underdevelopedtool of managing CSR embraced by only half ofall CEOs: A mere 51.4% of all CEOs interviewed forthe report used a CSR Strategy in their corporateoperations. This suggests a rather modest level ofintegrating CSR activities into the business planningframework. Such relatively weak readiness for strategicplanning somewhat contradicts the assertion made by82.4% of all respondents that CSR was “critical for thefuture success of the business”.• The link between CSR and bottom line performanceremains subject to speculation and guess-workrather than being examined through empiricalresearch: 94.3% of all CEOs went on record as sayingthat their companies have never investigated the nexusbetween CSR and the financial and market performanceof their businesses. The apparent lack of interest inmeasuring the economic impact of CSR makes theevidence-based allocation of resources for corporatesocial investment difficult and throws the strategicnature of CSR further into question.• Reporting on CSR activities has not experiencedany significant improvement: Only 50% of all CEOsinterviewed confirmed that their companies reportedon their sustainability management. This suggests awidespread lack of disclosure and a rather unsatisfactorylevel of transparency and accountability as shareandstakeholders are being left without informationregarding compliance with international standards ofsustainability and ethical behaviour.• Most CEOs do not provide financial incentives tomanage performance of their senior managers inthe area of CSR: Only 14.3% of all CEOs acknowledgedthe strategic importance of CSR and the relevance ofsustainability issues for their company’s commercialsuccess by linking the remuneration of senior managerswith their CSR performance. In other words, raisingone’s company’s public profile as a socially responsiblecorporate citizen by deepening its societal commitmentthrough successful management does not ‘pay off’.• Promoting CSR through supply chain managementis popular in theory but carried out in practice byonly half of all companies: The majority of CEOs(97.1%) have stressed the importance of suppliers andcontractors for the promotion of CSR saying that thelatter should be practised through the entire supplychain. However, being asked if their companies areactively seeking to implement sustainability criteriathrough their supply chain, the number of ‘doers’significantly decreased and only 53.1% of all CEOsreplied in the affirmative.10
The View from the Boardroom - CEO Study on Corporate Social Responsibility in Trinidad and TobagoDrivers• There is broad acceptance by CEOs of governmentinvolvement in CSR: Two-thirds of all CEOs (75.8%)embrace the idea of government intervention drivingCSR. This suggests a certain change in the traditionallydominant view of the business community that CSRshould be based on the voluntary commitment ofcompanies given that government intervention canlead to both incentivisation and the imposition oflegally binding regulatory frameworks. Acceptance ofgovernment involvement includes the developmentof a national CSR policy, something that 88.6% ofrespondents would welcome.• CEOs are keenly aware that often their CSRcommitments and their societal outreach makesthem corporate actors that effectively deliversocial services previously provided by government:Business leaders are mindful of their role as privatesector entities involved in social development whenassisting the government with the delivery of basicservices to vulnerable groups in society. 68.6% of CEOsthink it to be a correct assertion that they are ‘doing thegovernment’s job’ by getting engaged in CSR.• In the eyes of CEOs, consumer attitudes in Trinidadand Tobago are, compared to other countries, lesseffective in bringing about a stronger complianceof businesses with ethical principles: Only 48.6%of CEOs think that a company’s social reputation is anincreasingly important factor in influencing consumers’purchasing decisions. Such cautious attitude towardsthe potential pressure generated by consumers is alsoreflected in the 85.3% of all CEOs who believe that socialand environmental concerns would influence consumerbehaviour to a lesser extent than in other markets. Andonly 11.4% of respondents named consumers to beamong the main drivers for CSR.• CEOs believe that the workforce is an essentialdriver for CSR that would prompt them as seniorcorporate decision-makers to become active inthe field of sustainability: The focus of CEOs andcompany owners is firmly on their employees whenbeing asked to identify the most important factorsunderlying their ‘boardroom’ decision-making onCSR. 71.4% of all interviewees mentioned the area ofemployee engagement – comprising internal CSR andcorporate volunteering – as a top consideration in theway their decisions on CSR activities are being made.Civil Society• The voluntary and non-governmental sector remainsrelatively weak in its attractiveness as a partnerfor private companies in the implementation ofCSR programmes: Only 37.1% of all respondentsmentioned Civil Society as a key driver for CSR inTrinidad and Tobago. Interviews with CEOs haveshown that corporate support for NGOs exists but thatlimitations in the organizational capacity of nonprofitorganizations and their often significant overhead costshas led to a situation in which only a few NGOs havebecome regular partners for private businesses.Corporate Volunteering• The personal commitment and previous involvementof CEOs in activities of corporate volunteerismdoes not necessarily translate into a greater degreeof ‘professionalization’ of volunteer management:The majority of CEOs have previously volunteeredas private individuals (85.7%) as well as in their roleas employees before joining the ‘boardroom’ (91.2%).This level of personal involvement would suggest thatthe majority of companies in Trinidad and Tobago hadestablished a formal corporate volunteer programme asa consequence. However, only 37.1% of all CEOs saidthat their companies operated an official employeevolunteer scheme.11
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The View from the Boardroom - UNDP Trinidad and Tobago

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