Global Compact International Yearbook Ausgabe 2010

Social Entrepreneurship
in Times of Crisis
Social entrepreneurs can help companies to make their
social engagement credible and public: besides the benefits
to corporate reputation, their commitments can often bring
new business and sales contacts. But social business has not
been left unscathed by the financial crisis. We spoke with
Mirjam Schöning, the head and senior director of the Schwab
Foundation for Social Entrepreneurship.
Many companies have cut back on their commitments to social responsibility
in response to the economic crisis. Will this separate the wheat
from the chaff show us who’s really committed and who was doing
this for appearance’s sake?
Mirjam Schöning: Certainly some firms have cut back on
their commitments. Firms that have firmly anchored the social
aspect of their responsibility in their actions, however, have
sometimes even expanded their work in this area. Interestingly
enough, we’re seeing this with companies in the IT sector. Take
Hewlett Packard and Intel, for example, which are creating
entire divisions around social impact. So are consulting firms
like the Boston Consulting Group and Ernst & Young.
Why then, in your view, should a company invest in civic engagement?
At the end of the day, corporations are citizens too, and
they should commit themselves in the same way good citizens
would. It’s important to emphasize here that other social forces
must be involved: there’s always at least one organization that
is already implementing an idea, someone who has found a
better approach to a certain segment of the population (young
people, for instance, or those living below the poverty line)
or an innovative solution to the same problem.
The UN Global Compact is one of the most important umbrella organizations
in the world. How well do you see the subject of civic engagement
being incorporated here?
The Global Compact was announced by Kofi Annan at
the World Economic Forum in Davos in 1999. Since then,
the Compact has developed into one of the most important
measures of corporate social conduct. But the 10 Principles of
the Global Compact are targeting standards on human rights,
the environment, and corruption that should be adhered to
in order to avoid negative effects. They say less about the
positive contributions that companies can make through
their involvement.
Thinking globally, how should such initiatives be used to develop this
subject further?
At the global level, we need a variety of additional forums
so that we can do more thinking on the subject and decide
how to proceed.
The UN will be emphasizing the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs)
on the political agenda for 2010. What sort of stimuli do you anticipate?
The MDGs are ambitious but concrete goals. We should
be doing more to work towards them. We may need to break
the goals down into individual details that would demonstrate
what each of us can each contribute, both in our representative
roles and at a personal level.
It’s clear that the Millennium Development Goals are not going to
be reached in the desired timeframe. The economic crisis is making
everything even more difficult. What can civic engagement achieve
here in spite of things?
We shouldn’t bury our heads in the sand about the MDGs;
even if it looks as though these will not be fully realized,
committed companies can still provide a significant impulse.
Civic engagement and active corporate citizenship will play
an important part in preventing the next economic crisis or
at least lessening its effects.
The interview was conducted by Dr. Elmer Lenzen.
Mirjam Schöning is Head and Senior
Director of the Schwab Foundation for
Social Entrepreneurship.
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Global Compact International Yearbook 2010