Читать книгу Doing Good By Doing Good - Baines Peter, Peter Baines - Страница 7

I think there are five main groups of people who are going to take the most value out of reading this book:

• those with an interest in business who are looking for new opportunities to improve end-of-year returns

• those working within, or hoping to expand their knowledge of, corporate engagement

• those involved in the charity sector as charity leaders or directors on not-for-profit (NFP) boards

• those who call themselves philanthropists or who play a role in foundations that distribute money to charities and NFPs

• social entrepreneurs who love the excitement of building new business ventures while at the same time benefiting others.

In the following pages we'll explore how each of these groups stands to benefit from the case I'm going to make.

Essentially, the book represents my observation and interpretation of those who have worked within this space and have added immensely to their business or the company they work for and to their own personal wealth, and along the way have also managed to feed their soul. What ties them all together is that their pursuit of doing good has resulted in their doing good, and therein lies the magic.

The book contains a collection of case studies from public and private companies of various sizes who have adopted corporate social responsibility (CSR) in the past but have jumped ahead of the pack in developing a new style. In most cases they have changed the course of their giving in order to create a deeper impact in the communities they are working with, and consequently they have seen a direct improvement to their business. The improvement they have seen may take the form of raised morale, deeper engagement, a tighter workforce, new customers or increased brand awareness, and a number of these companies have already seen increases to their bottom line. But what you will see is that many of these results were incidental to and not the driving force behind their change in community engagement.

I should declare a personal interest in a number of the organisations I have profiled in this book, insofar as I have worked with them on a consulting basis to implement or overhaul their strategy for contribution and engagement with the community. There are also a number of case studies from companies whose presence or position I would love to take the credit for, but sadly I cannot. The entrepreneurial vision of Blake Mycoskie, the founder and ‘Chief Shoe Giver’ at TOMS, is an obvious choice. What I love most about the work of TOMS is the sheer simplicity that sees the model work so effectively. No messy formulas, no percentages from gross or net profits, just one for one. As a businessman Mycoskie has done very nicely from his social venture, and in my mind there is absolutely nothing wrong with that. The community can only benefit by encouraging and applauding those who, like Mycoskie, bring their skills and vision to this sector, rather than losing them to the corporate world.

Mycoskie doesn't have all the answers to the problems in developing countries; he doesn't pretend to. Is his model the only one to follow? Maybe not, but there are several million people in the developing world who, but for TOMS, would not have shoes on their feet today. And that has to be a good thing. Mycoskie was always going to be a huge success and make a stack of money, given his eye for opportunities and ability to turn concept into reality, and the children of Argentina, Nepal, Malawi, Kenya and Ethiopia are better off as a result of TOMS’ commercial success.

If you have CSR attached to your job description, unless you are with quite a large organisation, there is a good chance this is not your only role. You may also be wearing a marketing or internal communications hat and CSR is just something the executive team thought should sit with you when they looked for a home for it on the org chart. Their thinking reflects how they see it: ‘It's a nice thing to have in the organisation, but it's not sales, that's for sure. It's not operational. It's the softer side of things.’ Even those of you who are working in a dedicated CSR role will probably have come from marketing, PR or internal comms. How does the fact that you work in marketing or communications qualify you to make the best decisions on something that can be so important to the business, and has so much potential if the resources are appropriately allocated?

You might rightly ask the same question of me. How does working in the forensic area investigating major crime for 20 years make me an authority on this? My answer is: the experience of setting up the international aid organisation Hands Across the Water, a charity that now operates in three countries and raises several million dollars a year for distribution to hundreds of children across various sites in Thailand. And it's not so much the establishment of the charity as it is observing the success that has come from creating opportunities for our supporters along the way to share in the experiences.

I'm fortunate that I can travel on both sides of the road. As the founder and leader of the charity I see what type of sponsorship, involvement and relationships work best for the charity. Contrary to popular belief, just because you draw a seven-figure salary or work for an international accounting firm, it doesn't mean you have all the answers for small to medium-sized NFPs. A recent comment in The New York Times from the head of a charity summed it up pretty well: ‘If I get another volunteer I am going to go out of business.’ As a consultant building these programs for businesses, I understand what they are looking for and where the opportunities lie. I understand what is going to work with the charity and create lasting relationships. By playing in both spaces it's a bit like running with the foxes and hunting with the hounds.