Doing Good is Good for Business

One day in the city of Medina circa 600AD, in what is modern day Saudi Arabia, the Caliph (governor) of the time had a chance meeting with the Imam (religious leader) of the time. After having spent most part of the day distributing money amongst the poor and destitute of the city that had visited him, the Caliph found before him the Imam. On seeing his distinguished guest, the Caliph ordered that the biggest bag be filled with gold coins and handed to the Imam in reflection of his station. Taking the bag, the Imam handed it over to a servant of the Caliph that had accompanied him into the court. Then, turning to the Caliph the Imam said: “This man straightened my sandals out of respect when I removed them before entering. This is the reward for his goodwill. Now, lest you had forgotten, we are forbidden from accepting charity, as ours is a destiny tied to benevolence, by failing to exercise our obligation to giving, we risk losing our privilege of receiving”.

This story always stuck with me through the years, flashing back to me every time I’d confront the reality of the disparity of the world in which we live. It’s a very simple logic really, if only we all had the capacity to think this way.

Imagine – idealistic as it may be for a single moment the impact on a society or group of people with a mindset that the objective of wealth, was not possession but distribution. Looking at the disease of inequality from a spiritual perspective and based on the principle of the scales of divine justice, it’s interesting to see the irony that those privileged with great wealth will have to account for how they dispersed the good fortune bestowed upon them, whereas those who languish at the very bottom of the economic pyramid, have very little to answer for.

The debate surrounding global prosperity and its distribution, or lack of has never been as profound as it is today. 2011 delivered to us a poignant and tragic display of individual defiance and desperation, which triggered an Arab uprising that morphed into a worldwide awakening. As I sit here writing from a snug armchair, in the confines of a warm coffee shop, there are people camped on the streets from Manhattan, through Manama, and into Moscow questioning the justice of the world they have inherited. Ralph Nader once wisely observed, “If we had justice, we wouldn’t need charity.”

Since joining APCO Worldwide and having the opportunity of working on the communication strategy of a client at the forefront of energy management, I invariably found myself confronting a term I had encountered often, but knew little about.

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) also known as corporate conscience or corporate citizenship or social performance, or sustainable responsible business, is according to Wikipedia ‘A form of corporate self-regulation, integrated into a business model and responsible for a company's actions to encourage a positive impact through its activities on the environment, consumers, employees, communities, stakeholders and all other members of the public sphere.’

Richard Branson is arguably the most revered and respected entrepreneur in the world today, and also one of the foremost champions of CSR thinking, so naturally when he talk’s people listen. In fact his book on CSR, the somewhat candidly titled ‘Screw Business as Usual’ is the inspiration behind this expression of thoughts.

Engineered on a concept called ‘Capitalism 24902’, a refreshingly new and exciting approach which romanticizes a desperately warranted economic renaissance, the new system reflects and endorses a seismic shift from the way business is presently undertaken. An approach that no longer sights shareholder value and profitability as the ‘holy grail’ and ‘be all and end all’, the concept challenges the notion that business exists solely to make profit, arguing instead that it exists for a much higher purpose.

During a recent conversation with a friend, who regrettably lost a great deal of money through personal dealings, he said: “I don’t care about not having the money, I know I can make it back again. What eats away at me on a daily basis, is how careless I was with it, half the world’s population lives on less than $2 a day. You do the math.” The numbers unfortunately are the most disturbing element of the mix, bringing everything sharply to life, illustrating the degree of inequality.

For example, World Healthcare spending clearly shows that only 10 per cent of the money the world spends on health each year is devoted to diseases or conditions that account for 90 per cent of global disease. Of the 1,500 new drugs approved in the past twenty-five years, less than a meager 20 were for neglected infectious diseases that disproportionately affect the poor. 

“Those of us who have been fortunate enough to acquire wealth must play a role in looking at how we use these means to make the world a far better place”, says Branson.

In an age of austerity where governments of even the most affluent nations are failing to deliver on their most basic obligations, there is a mass soul searching amongst all factions of all societies attempting to look above and beyond the jargon of the economists and the bloodsucking banksters, to understand who is ultimately responsible for their dignified survival and well-being.

According to ‘Capitalism 24902’ the new era of prosperity must be ‘all encompassing’ ensuring success and dignity for each and every individual. Naturally, such idealism is viewed with a degree of skepticism and with the direction current world affairs are heading this temperature only looks set to increase. Nevertheless, if we put aside for a moment the dancing politicians, their acrimonious hostilities and incessant fascination with drawing apocalypse, it is unmistakably clear that a new direction is not only necessary but vital.

The ‘24902’ in Capitalism 24902 came about from an apparent light bulb moment. During one particularly charged brainstorming session with Richard Branson and his team as they sat around pondering what to name their new approach to CSR/philanthropy one sheepish young voice broke the silence by announcing somewhat randomly that the circumference of the earth is 24902 miles – and that was that. In fact, thinking about it the name couldn’t be more appropriate. Not only does it align perfectly with the theories all-encompassing ideology of being socially responsible across the globe, it also represents a formidable challenge. The thought of covering 24,902 miles by air, sea or land is daunting enough, as are the challenges of reducing disastrous carbon emissions, prevent devastating disease and famine and empowering the disadvantaged with genuine opportunity for a better future. Challenges daunting no doubt, but only challenges nonetheless. Bogani Tshbalala an entrepreneur with the Branson Centre in South Africa said: “I believe that nothing is impossible, because impossible is nothing”, Capitalism 24902 seems to think along the same lines.

However, there should be no doubt that the future challenges the world faces, including the ever present threat of climate change are not the sole responsibility of CSR, the main component of this planet and CSR by default is people, so what ever happened to ‘HSR’ or Human Social Responsibility? Surely we all have a significant part to play.

Ultimately, the solutions to the challenge will emanate from a marriage between the three pillars of government, business and the social sector. Branson restates that for far too long big business has traded off health and state of the planet for growth and profit. Ironically however, business remains the most powerful agent for positive change – but crucially not business as we know it.

We learn that at one time in history brutal uncivilized cavemen fought amongst one another, primarily for survival and supremacy, fast forward a few thousand years and today more than ever in recent years society remains a broken rabble led, or rather misled by a few brutal war lords who continue to plunder the earth’s resources without recognizing any value for them since they’ve been as Branson aptly puts it, used and viewed as ‘free services’. Consequently these actions lead to the hypothesis of ‘generational tyranny’.

Despite however, the over-riding sense of doom and gloom Branson emphasizes excitingly positive examples of the power of effective sociable responsibility, revolving around the theory of ‘doing good is good for business’. One particular example, being that of the well document achievements of Mohammad Younus and his ‘Grameen Bank’ which empowered the poor and mainly women in rural Bangladesh by pioneering the idea of small loans or ‘micro-credit’ so they could enterprise and start small businesses, ultimately working themselves out of poverty. Today, micro-credit has facilitated the fair lending of billions of dollars to under-privileged individuals and families around the world who would otherwise not be eligible for borrowing or would simply be at the mercy of extortionate money lenders, and with an unprecedented repayment rate around 80% the success of the system is in stark contrast to that of domestic retail lending for instance. The initiative even attracted similar philanthropically minded businesses such as France’s Danone to initiate campaigns which have since proven immensely popular and valuable. After all ‘doing good is good for business’.

Another fantastic example of the profitability of ‘doing good’ is a US based leader in renewable energy. Focused on solar and wind, the company that started in 1997 after the inquisitive young daughter of its founder asked: “daddy what are you going to do about all the toxic waste being put into the air?” was eventually sold 15 years after that fateful day for $350 million in cash. A look at the website of the company today displays a live counter which as of this moment reports that its customers have saved 15,543,833,510 pounds of CO2 emissions, the equivalent of 504,289,463 cars off the road or 4,667,732,800 households turning off their lights for a day. Bear in mind this is a live ticker changing every second.

The shipping industry, responsible for 90 per cent of the world’s global logistics emits over one billion tons of CO2. Through simple and comprehensive efficiency measures the ‘Carbon War room’ a leading ‘do-tank’ on the fight against carbon emissions estimates that industry-wide reductions could amount to 30 per cent i.e. $70 billion. A truly staggering saving and even more so when put in the context of emission reductions.

Another serial culprit in the war against carbon is inefficient buildings, an area where my client is making waves. Accounting for 50 per cent of worldwide carbon emissions, the opportunity posed by solutions that increase efficiency in not only buildings, but entire cities is one of the finest examples of Capitalism 24902 and the notion of ‘doing good is good for business’. Energy efficient cities could create millions of jobs and save five out of the 25 gigatons of CO2 emissions we need to avoid disaster. Only today a Chinese company announced the completion of a 30-story mega hotel in just 15 days, and that’s arguably the least impressive statistic. The structure built in 360 hours using cutting-edge technology, uses six times less cement, is five times more efficient than regular construction material, can withstand a 9.0 magnitude earthquake, and boasts a filtration system with air 20 times purer inside than outside. You get the picture.

Even coffee can be efficient. One leading alliance represents over 260,000 coffee, tea and cocoa growers who in turn represent 75 per cent of the ownership, helping improve the lives of 1.8 million people. So there is little arguing, companies that focus most on profits are not necessarily the most profitable companies, as the marriage of mass consumption and greed have lead down a path which is clearly no longer sustainable. As a result we need to return to a time when ‘profitability’ was a bi-product, a pleasant bonus of doing business, while the main purpose was to fulfill a need in turn for remuneration which met ones requirements.

A recent study conducted by the Centre for Sustainable Energy (CSE) reported the height of environmental consciousness amongst young people and emphasized the idea that we are gradually moving away from an ‘industry orientated’ to a ‘people orientated’ mindset, from the ‘industrial age’ to the ‘age of people’, the rise of a movement that represents a shift between a world created for privilege, to a world created by community.

So, as for my client it is clear that they are in the right business, according to Jigar Shah CEO of the Carbon War Room “clean energy will clean up in the market place”, and as a global leader they truly are leading by example. Their award winning CSR mandate is helping develop and deliver access to reliable, affordable and clean energy across the world by addressing, the lack of appropriate equipment, the lack of financial resources available for innovative energy entrepreneurs and the skills and expertise shortage through technical and business training.

Gandhi once famously said: “be the change you want to see in the world”. Somewhat fittingly as we look forward with the utmost optimism and anticipation to a greener and fairer future, we can sense that there is something in the air. Let’s just hope it’s not the polluting kind.