Leadership Required: Business for Social Responsibility Conference in New York
Posted by rkroes on November 18, 2008
A very timely conference on the subject of the leadership required to manage the sustainability of our world. On the eve of the event the citizens of the United States elected a new president after 8 years of George W. Bush (it was quite a scene in Times Square…).
Valuable perspectives were provided on Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) including by CEO’s of GE, IKEA, Levi’s, and SK Telecom. General Electric Chairman and CEO Jeffrey Immelt laid out what he considers to be the four pillars of a successful CSR program:
- Remember the first part of CSR is “corporate”—you have to be competitive.
- Run your company on trust, which means compliance, governance, and transparency.
- Have a long-term commitment to your people.
- Orient your company to solve social problems, including energy and the environment.
Immelt also drove home the point that CSR must be strategic (YouTube).
Here are some session highlights relevant to the role of IT in supporting companies to be more sustainable:
- Is IT So Green?
- A Global Approach to Internal CSR Communications
- Reporting as a Conversation Starter
- CSR’s ROI: Does It Matter?
- How to be Lean and Green
- Innovating CSR Online
Summaries of all the sessions are available at:
http://www.bsr.org/bsrconferences/2008/session-summaries.cfm
Cheers,
Rich
