Cross Company CSR is the future of CSR

Karachi, April 28, 2009: CEOs and senior executives of 16 multinational and national companies participated in a Roundtable recently organized by tbl– triple bottom line, a CSR focused bi-monthly publication brought out by Asiatic Public Relations Network, to deliberate the concept of Cross Company CSR (C3) as the future direction for corporate social responsibility. The C3 concept pioneered by tbl, advocates joint ownership of CSR interventions by 2 or more companies with common interests, goals and stakeholders, with the objective of optimizing resources and individual strengths for greater benefits for all.

Held at the corporate offices of National Foods Ltd, the Roundtable witnessed a stimulating discussion on the potential that the C3 concept offers, as well as on the possible hindrances to its practical implementation. At the end of the Roundtable, a Resolution was signed by the participants, who committed to exploring a proto-type of the C3 – whereby a practical example of C3 can emerge.

“CSR has today become a corporate narcotic, with a lot of companies indulging in all sorts of activities and calling it CSR,” stated Zohare Ali Shariff of TBL and went on to say, “TBL, as a knowledge-based publication specializing in CSR, is continuously researching into new concepts and practices, with a view to giving future direction to CSR in Pakistan and we believe the C3 concept may well be the defining way to go.”

The Cross Company CSR model first of all seeks to research and establish common ground between companies and share learnings. This is then expected to lead to identification of collaboration opportunities whereby the collaborating partner companies will pool in resources in a manner that gives a fair return to all. This way each partner company will be able to optimize its inputs while generating higher returns for both the participating companies and the beneficiaries.

Companies participating in this groundbreaking gathering on CSR included Asiatic Public Relations, Digispace, Engro Chemical, Engro Foods, Engro Polymer & Chemicals, Faysal Bank, Habib Oil Mills, KASB Group, National Foods, Naya Jeevan, Philips, Progressive Group, Unilever and Visa International.

tbl – triple bottom-line is a specialized CSR focused bi-monthly publication with the primary objective of creating awareness and facilitating the creation of a more entrenched sustainability culture in our country. tbl aims to catalyze a substantial, on ground difference in the way that the business world interacts with society for a mutual, larger well-being, specifically via disseminating best practices and sharing higher standards of excellence.

tbl is sent complimentary to a diversified group of 1500 decision-makers and opinion formers in the corporate sector, the government, NGO sector, international institutions and academia. Its readership of about 5000 covers a diversified group of individuals and largely professionals from the high-income stratum of the country.

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One Response to “Cross Company CSR is the future of CSR”

  1. Fascinating insights. We have launched Transformational Logistics (see: http://transformationallogistics.wordpress.com/ ) as an umbrella term for logistics in Emerging and developing economies. As we look at end-to-end supply chains we move through various tiers of source and supply that moves from formal to informal enterprises. There are many ethical and environmental impacts along the way and we would be keen to link up with TBL and especially C3 activities.

    What about a joint reesearch initiative linking 3C with Transformational Logistics? We are planning an International Conference and would welcome your thoughts.

    Again, a fascinating set of insights.

    Rob Bell

    May 15, 2009 at 4:23 pm Reply

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