The View from the Boardroom - UNDP Trinidad and Tobago

More documents

Recommendations

Info

The View from the Boardroom - CEO Study on Corporate Social Responsibility in Trinidad and TobagoCHAPTER 1CSR in Trinidad and Tobago – Strategic Evolution or Preserving the Status Quo?Case StudyWe started our journey with that home byentering into a tripartite relationship with thestate and the church. What we brought to thetable was an ability to do things so we firstencouraged just to give, give some money. Butwhen we looked at the state of affairs theremore than money was required. The state ofthe facility was just totally unacceptable, itwas a decrepit facility, it shouldn’t have beenhousing children and the administration of thefacility required improvement. We thereforeacquired the land, we demolished the oldbuidings and rebuilt the entire facility intoa modern facility. We project managed, wemade sure that capital was spent efficiently,we project managed large plant facilities sothat was a core competency that we broughtto the table. And then we encouraged anemployee to be an active board member andset out to look at what was good governancefor the home to make sure it was properlygoverned and that there were controls. Thenwe partnered with the Church to make surethat they were providing the care givers, thatthere was appropriate training, appropriatedevelopment etc. We lobbied the governmentfor subventions to make sure that they weredoing their part. We became a prod to thegovernment and used our corporate leversto get them to do what they needed to do.We have a clear vision of where we want toget to when we partner and what our endstate is and then we set up our activities ina methodical and well planned way to get tothat end state.”Eugen Tiah, CEOPhoenix Gas Park Processors Ltd.Have you ever undertaken company-internalanalysis regarding the link between CSR andfinancial and market performance?94.3%5.7%YesNoTheoretically, increasing profitsthrough socially responsible actioncould take different forms. Forexample, corporate volunteerprogrammes could lead to improvedstaff morale which in turn wouldcause an increase in productivitylevels. Another example of a causalchain leading to financial gains wouldlie in the area of ethically producedand traded products with its impacton consumer behaviour and consumerchoice. The latter is often informedby the adherence of corporations toethical norms and standards in thesourcing of its raw materials and themanufacturing and distribution of itsgoods. If and when such consumerattitudes – ethical consumerism- translate effectively into actualpurchasing decisions and thereforeconstitute a behavioural reality, thecompany will commercially benefitthrough increased sales.Reporting on corporate sustainabilityactivities is another important featureof strategic CSR. In their 2008 STCIC/UNDP CSR Mapping Report, theauthors concluded that “apart fromlarge companies from the Energy24
The View from the Boardroom - CEO Study on Corporate Social Responsibility in Trinidad and TobagoCHAPTER 1CSR in Trinidad and Tobago – Strategic Evolution or Preserving the Status Quo?and Related Industries sector andFinance and Real Estate sectors, thereis generally a lack of disclosure as itpertains to reporting and accountingfor social and environmentalprogrammes and other CSR-relatedactivities. 16 As far as reportingon their social and environmentaloutput in addition to their economicperformance is concerned – somethingthat is sometimes labelled ‘TripleBottom Line Reporting’ or ‘IntegratedReporting’ 17 - only 50% of all CEOsinterviewed in Trinidad and Tobagoconfirmed the use of such reportingtools. The findings of another recentstudy specifically examining the levelsof corporate governance disclosureconfirm such ‘modest’ reportingprofile. 18 Reporting on CSR activitiesand performance serves a number ofpurposes. It provides vital informationon a company’s annual sustainabilityrecord to workforce, investors,customers, government officials, civilsociety while increasing transparencyand accountability. Regular andcomprehensive reporting on keyIs your company reporting on its CSRactivities?50.0%50.0%YesNoCSR criteria helps to demonstratethat the principles of ethicalbusiness practices and responsiblemanagement are seen by managers asmore than just corporate ‘lip service’and that companies deliver on theircommitments as initially set out intheir business and communicationplans and as conveyed to thegeneral public in advertisementsand marketing campaigns. As such,reporting is an important instrumentto assure stakeholding individualsand organisations about a company’sdetermination to adhere to nationaland international standards, normsand rules and to build trust aroundits corporate image and identity.The absence of regular sustainabilityreporting from the Private Sectorsuggests that CEOs have still not fullygrasped or accepted the strategicvalue and bottom-line relevance ofCSR. In many other markets bothemerging and Western-industrial,international reporting frameworksand documentation guidelinessuch as the UN Global Compact’sCommunication on Progress process,the Global Reporting Initiative, theAccountAbility 1000 Standard, theFTSE4 Good Index and the SocialAccountability SA 8000 Standard havebecome widely used and accepted aidsfor presenting facts and supplyinginformation regarding companies’sustainability performance. Disclosurewithin such frameworks goessignificantly beyond a mere listingof projects instead containing dataregarding strategy, managementsystems and performance indicatorsas well as with respect to stakeholderexpectations. They seek to highlightand measure the impact that acompany’s social and environmentalinvestment has made in communitiesand the information contained in suchreports is often quality-controlled andverified through third party assurance.The relatively weak state of CSRreporting in Trinidad and Tobagowith only half of all CEOs interviewedconfirming any kind of disclosuremeans that the corporate governanceremains a significant challenge in thecountry’s boardrooms.Even less common in Trinidad andTobago boardrooms is the practiceof acknowledging the strategicimportance of CSR issues, principlesand objectives by including a linkbetween individual performance withregards to social and environmentalindicators and the remuneration ofmanagers including that of CEOs intoa company’s overall business strategy.If understood as a contribution tocorporate value creation and to thelong-term survivability of a companyin the marketplace, managerialperformance in the environmentaland social realm should arguablydetermine levels of executiveremuneration as much as bottom-linedelivery.Is the remuneration of your senior managers linkedto CSR performance?85.7%14.3%YesNoAsked about the link between theircompanies’ remuneration policies andthe CSR-relevant performance of theirsenior managers, only 14.3% of allCEOs confirmed such a connection.16 See CSR Mapping Report, p.viii.17 See for example the Connected Reporting Framework of the Prince of Wales’ Accounting for Sustainability project www.accountingforsustainability.org18 Using the Experts on International Standards of Accounting and Reporting (ISAR) as a basis for its investigation and sampling a total of 31 large companies listed on the Trinidad and Tobago StockExchange, the report finds that “the average enterprise from the Trinidad and Tobago sample to be disclosing less than half of the items in the ISAR benchmark”. It stresses that “while the samplehas relatively high rates of disclosure for a few topics […] with most companies exceeding the relatively few disclosure requirements of Trinidad and Tobago rules, the overall level of disclosureremains low compared to other emerging markets”, in: ‘Corporate Governance Disclosure in Trinidad and Tobago – A Case Study by Syntegra Change Architects of Trinidad and Tobago’, p.5;Paper presented to the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, Intergovernmental Working Group of Experts on International Standards of Accounting and Reporting, producedunder the overall direction of Dr. Axel Kravatzky25
Page 1: The View from the Boardroom- CEO St
Page 5 and 6: The View from the Boardroom - CEO S
Page 19: The View from the Boardroom - CEO S
Page 50 and 51: “Our process for supporting NGOs

The View from the Boardroom - UNDP Trinidad and Tobago

You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles

Delete template?

Save as template?