Corporate Social Responsibility

The term CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) has become a buzz word in and out of the corporate world. Anyone who reads the newspaper would be familiar with the term CSR given the number of news releases and articles on companies doing certain CSR Activities like scholarships, book donation, feeding program, medical and dental mission, provision of livelihood programs and a lot more.

But with that varying kinds of approach into Corporate Social Responsibility it is apparent that there is no unified perspective as to what CSR really is. Actually CSR doesn't have a “singular” concrete definition applicable to all corporations implementing CSR. People coming from different industries have different perspectives thus provide different definition and approach on CSR.

I am now in a Multi-Sector Forum on Corporate Social Responsibility and Accountabilty. Below are some pop-up ideas and reactions based from the presentations and reactions from participants (subject to editing and updating).

Reality Check: Business engagements are well business. If they do things beyond business like corporate social responsibility projects the main goal is still for the improvement of business. These are investments not just merely to help the development of a certain community but it is also geared towards achieving the goals of the corporation.

“When enemy speaks in front of an enemy...”

This was how the moderator of Multi-Sector Forum on Corporate Social Responsibility and Accountability commented after Prof. Alfonso presented his perspectives on the current state of CSR in the Philippines and answered some queries (wherein some were a bit hostile). The audience of the forum is composed mostly of representatives from development NGOs (some from party-list and labor groups).