CSR in SMEs – part 2

Corporate Social Responsibility Corporate vs Eco-eficiciency, social and economic responsibility? Sometimes the society, companies and organizations seems to consider CSR only as a social issues. However, CSR is not only about working conditions, work-life balance, health and Safety or labor practices but also is about waste reduction, pollution avoidance, recycling, responsible supply chain management, product safety or fair pricins. CSR must be included in a SME as a part of the strategy taking into account all the three pillars; social, economic and environmental.

Comments Off on CSR in SMEs – part 2 / 03 May 2012 por Carlos Cerdan Infantes
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Little innovations

“Small and medium enterprises (SME’s) represent a source of innovation”. Why subestimate the ability to make positive changes even when a company is small? Countries like Spain generate most of the employment through SME’s (arround 80%). Innovation and the ability to be sustainable have a direct correlation, mantaining the basis of the employment through SME’s, requires them to adapt to the speed of changes and even go beyond. Human capital is a company’s principal asset, innovation is fostered when profit meets with the social dimension (understood as something internal too). Sustainability has a piece of its truth when this two spheres move together along.

Comments Off on Little innovations / 03 May 2012 por Rodrigo Capriles Mazzei
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SME with you and me

The success of a Small and Medium Enterprise (SME) comes from knowing and understanding the needs of the local community. After all, it is the demand of the locals that an SME tries to cater to. After finding its ‘niche’ the enterprise delves into it, perfects it and, if done correctly, finds success.

With the above said, a good phrase that helps describe the future of enterprises is: “Think locally, act globally” because their local community keeps growing and expanding thanks to powerful communication tools. To maintain leadership in this field, managers need to always ask themselves: Do we know the needs of our local community?

Comments Off on SME with you and me / 02 May 2012 por Hokuma Karimova
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CSR in SME’s

CSR in SME’s has a totally different nature. Unlike big corporations that have CSR departments and make a lot of effort to promote their responsible image, SME’s need and have to incorporate this strategy into their business. I would even say that this is the only way small entrepreneurship may survive in this world. By being responsible and caring about their clients and employees an individual entity builds trust, which is in my opinion the most valuable quality in todays “Doing Business”.

Comments Off on CSR in SME’s / 02 May 2012 por Piotr Adam Lubiewa-Wielezynski
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Why resource-racked countries are actually poor?

How can we explain the fact that some countries that are less endowed with natural resources are the world leading economies, for an instance, Japan have a small territory, limited natural resources, not suitable geographic conditions for agriculture, but it managed to become an economy superpower based on importing raw materials and exporting high value added products and new technologies.

On the other hand, let’s see the case of a poor country that is rich in natural resources like Angola. Angola is an African leader producer of oil and net exporter of minerals, however much of its population relies on food aid and lives below the poverty line.

Many development theories and historical circumstances can explain why resource rich countries are actually poorer at the present time. However I will try to explain this fact by contrasting the example between Angola and Japan economic history.

After the WWII the Japanese economy was in a deprived state, having much o of its population living with low living standards. Nonetheless the Japanese leadership at that time lead its human resource with strategic plan to catching up with richer countries in the west economy through modernization.

This was achieved through transfer of technology, infrastructure and R&D investment, financial and political ties, good governance and finally through nurturing professional training and potential industries. As result, Japan has become one of the top economies in the world with low inequality throughout its society.

Conversely, the history of Angola after the WWII was very different, the country received its independency from Portugal in 1975, like many countries in the South that were able to be independent since their European colonizers were not able to administrate its Colonies any longer. However instead of having a good leadership Angola has entered into a period of dictatorship and civil war, which left deep scars in the society and economic growth up to these days.

Today Angola has attracted inward investment from international companies who went to the country to extract and process its natural resources, however the income that these activities generate are not distribute among its citizens neither investment in infrastructure, education, job training and local industrial capacity improvement  takes place.

Hence, historical authoritarian, corrupt and neglectful leadership, together with extractive activities that many multinationals conduct in the country, left Angola in a worst state than before in relation to its natural resource availability, absolute poverty and inequality.

The case of Angola is similar to many other countries which are rich in natural resources but at the same time repressely and unfairly administrated, holding political institutions that are after their own interest rather the common good for the country and society, making them entrapped into poverty.

Comments Off on Why resource-racked countries are actually poor? / 01 May 2012 por Patricia Perez Costa
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What would be the advantages if only SMEs existed in our planet?

Lets try to imagine a world where big companies were not available but only small and medium enterprises.

Here are the possible facts of this scenario:

The predominant SMEs in this case would hold: an extensive local knowledge of resources, supply and customer purchasing patterns, due their closer link.

They would be able to attend market niches widely, be highly adaptable and fast changers. Most importantly we could assume that these SMEs would not cause the environment negative externalities that large corporation, as we know, cause because of the extension of their operations and impacts are smaller.

However we do not have to wonder about this hypothesis, because this is the reality. Small Medium Enterprises account in fact for over 90% of firms in the world, for an instance in OECD countries this figure reaches 95% of economic activity being generated by small and medium companies.

Nevertheless the assumption that SMEs could cause less externality is totally wrong. It came to my surprise to know that SMEs collectively accounts for 80% of pollution generated by business activities worldwide. But at individual level small and medium enterprises, in most cases, does not take into consideration socio, economic and environment impact it creates neither have sustainability operational strategy incorporated into the business model for the short and long term.

But from realising the dimension and importance that SMEs have on the sustainability of our planet and its role as economic driver in most countries, can make us to conclude that, having incorporated responsible values and accountable actions towards the planet triple bottom line sustainability on small and medium enterprises, extreme necessary.

Nonetheless, SMEs usual characteristics of being highly adaptable, flexible and closer to its suppliers and customers equip them with an excellent ability to think out of the box and integrate sustainability into their business beliefs and consequently inside its products and services.

But, one important question that may take a while to be answer is “How long it will take for this shift to happen broadly for SMEs on worldwide scale?”

Will customer supply chain compliance standards requirement and some society pressure be enough to make it happen in the near future…?

 

1 comentario / 30 Apr 2012 por Patricia Perez Costa
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Materiality class: How Apple has integrate CSR into strategy?

After a glance at Apple website and to responsibility’s report, it’s pretty clear that Apple is not a pro-active and innovative company in the sustainability’s field.

The mainstream of Apple, is the reaction.

Reaction to the issues that has seen involved its supply chain, in terms of labour rights. Apple has tried to react to this and other (environmental) issues with some improvement and spreading it through some reports, but there’s still a lot of commitment to put in these fields, especially in the supply chain we can still see a lot of weaknesses in term of auditing and code of conduct spreading & complying. Apple seems to being still just in the second step of CSR, the “compliant of codes of conduct” which is far away from the integration in the corporative strategy (see picture below).

To integrate into strategy the CSR Apple should do many steps forward in the future, but from the present it doesn’t show a real intention to tackle this topics, on the contrary it shows just a “reaction” commitment brought by the reputation risk, came out from the supplier scandal (Foxconn).

Apple should see in the CSR integration into corporate strategy an additional value which could lead to a growth of its credibility and reputation, and in consequence a business opportunity, but probably the actual revenues and market feedback play the Lion’s share in this company’s strategy, but what if the revenues in the future will drop? It will come then the right moment to move forward in the CSR?

 

 

4 comentarios / 29 Apr 2012 por Luca Palma
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Measuring CR: Key Performance Indicators

Why resource-racked countries are actually poor?

Nowadays we’re seen a new worldwide scenario; in one side we can find the developed countries, whereas the consumptions are really high, following a development model which it could be defined as consumes: this has been brought to a huge disparities in the effective consumptions between these countries and the developing countries.

In the other side, the developing countries are the main holders of the raw materials all over the world. This lead to an issue: who has the main benefit for these materials? Do these countries could keep the revenues for this business? Do they become developed due to these revenues? Do these resources drive these countries to the real (and hoped) development?

Unfortunately we’re seeing these answers by our self: the fact is that the developed countries hold the technologies and have the financial power to exploit these resources, while the developing countries haven’t it. Following this way, we’re reaching a “neo-colonialism” where whom has already the technologies/financial power go to the poorer countries (but richer in natural resources) and share with them just a small amount of the revenues of this exploitment. In this vicious circle the developing countries have just a weak bargaining power, and thus they can’t avoid (and neither say no) this “partnership”.

Hence this relationship it seems to going on and on, without solution of continuity, until the developed countries would help the developing countries to reach a certain level of maturity which would be necessary/sufficient to manage by their self the resources that they own. This step it will be necessary, but in the meanwhile the developed countries, in the same way that has been done during the colonialism, are doing a huge revenues by this (proven) system, and until the big players (multinationals, corporations) will decide to change their behaviours toward a more sustainable development which could contemplate a development even for the “exploited countries”, my fear is that we’ll never be able to see a different scenario in the future.

 

Comments Off on Measuring CR: Key Performance Indicators / 29 Apr 2012 por Luca Palma
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CSR in SMEs

The driver is drunken!…no, is in love!

When we’ve started the SMEs class, I was really sceptic about the possibility to apply in a successful way the CSR in this level of business. I must say that I was wrong!

What I really understood is the (amazing) straight relationship which could occur between the main driver (CEO, owner, management) of the small/medium enterprise and the main stakeholder (the employees).

It’s moreover interesting how the keen pursuing of a (sustainable) goal could be transmitted to your employee if they really understand your path and your commitment to achieve it.

In the end my own reflection over this class is exactly what my title has been meant: being crazy in a SMEs, innovate and find new way to being sustainable and engage your stakeholder, and to involve your employees, this is the (NEW) way to conduct your business toward a social, responsible…lovely business!

 

Comments Off on CSR in SMEs / 29 Apr 2012 por Luca Palma
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Post: CSR in SME

“There are no healthy companies in ill societies”. Consider this and in the “why” and “how” of doing business, ensures not only a responsible behavior in order to achieve a successful business model, but also the love and admiration of your most valued assets: employees and clients.

Comments Off on Post: CSR in SME / 27 Apr 2012 por Diana Patricia Sanchez Barajas
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