As the first issue of 2009, we decided we need to hear from corporate leaders, on their forecast of the future of CSR. Here are some comments we received from thought leaders and opinion formers on where they think CSR should be heading towards in the years to come.
Favad, thank you for candidly sharing your thoughts. While being realistic, I’d like to be a bit more optimistic too and am confident that the coming years will bring positive change, even if it is slowly, and even if it’s the hard way…
I am little surprised at the wide variety of definitions of CSR being used by the sample and yet not covering the fundamental aspect – the core business activity. Only one (Seemin Shafi of Faysal Bank) talks about the need of evaluating social impacts of core economic activity. Telecom companies aggresively usurping public space through their irresponsible BTL activities and FMCG companies running wasteful advertising campaigns are few fundamental and conveniently forgotten aspects of responsible corporate activity. My thought for 2009: We’ll remain single-bottom-line oriented and ‘CSR 2.0’ is not going to be a reality in near future.