The Corporate Social Responsibility & Governance Conference 2009

By Chironjit Das

The Corporate Social Responsibility & Governance Conference 2009 was held at Crown Plaza Mutiara Hotel, Kuala Lumpur on 11 and 12 March 2009. Some progress has been made in Malaysia in terms of incorporating corporate social responsibility (CSR) in businesses through the government granting tax incentives, the setting up of Putrajaya Committee for GLC Transformation, and CSR reporting requirements for public listed companies (PLCs).

Themed “International CSR strategies & Solutions for Directors and Managers”, the twelve speakers addressed the many aspects of CSR and why CSR can help solve  society’s problems.

Many people, especially in the business community, understand that they can practise CSR as a way of giving back to society, whether be it environmental or educational.

On this basis, three speakers stood out with their thoughtful presentations on the role of CSR in their businesses and how practising CSR benefitted their companies, apart from generating publicity.

Dr Loh Chi Leong, Executive Director of Malaysian Nature Society (MNS) gave an interesting presentation on “CSR and Environmental Reporting” where he quoted from an online source that ethics refers to “the science of human duty”.

Environmental conservation is thus a duty to “fellow humans, future generations; the natural world (plants, animals and ecosystems)” and that is where Malaysian Nature Society steps in.

MNS is actively involved in publications such as Malaysian Naturalist and Malaysian Nature Journal as well as nature conservation and nature parks where the award-winning NGO concentrates on “identifying important conservation and environmentally sensitive areas, studying flora and fauna, developing management plans and involving the public and local communities”.

His presentation also showed dire observations by the UNEP (United Nations Environment Program) that by living in an increasingly polluted and rapidly growing world, we are already facing “severe” climate changes and would experience the possibility of “water-stressed conditions” by 2025.

“Environmental principles” such as “sustainability; polluter pays; precautionary” coupled with “social principles…of equity; human rights; participation” can be viewed as part of “sustainable development” as opposed to “rapid development” which is possibly contributing to the bad state of our environment .

In order to implement these principles, Dr Loh explains that a “paradigm shift” needs to take place where “capital-centered development” moves towards “society development”.

Only then will we be able to leave a better Earth for future generations, a key principle of environmental conservation.

In a totally different yet intriguing presentation, Tan Sri Dato’ Dr Ramon Navaratnam listed the reasons why CSR is the in-word for today’s businesses.

“Investors and financial markers now see CSR activities that are integrated in business strategy as evidence of good management and proof of business sustainability,” Tan Sri Ramon noted.

Tan Sri Ramon observed that CSR “is increasingly becoming an integral part of long-term business strategy” and “owners and shareholders no longer see profit maximization as the single sole criteria/indicator of business and investment performance”.

Thus, doing CSR would bring “increased profit from enhanced operational efficiencies and cost savings, increased sales and customer loyalty” and help companies improve their “reputation management”.

Citing Sunway Group, of which he serves as Corporate Advisor, as a case study, Tan Sri Ramon highlighted several salient points about the company’s commitment to CSR initiatives particularly in the education field.

The Sunway Group interprets CSR as “to protect and promote human capital excellence above and beyond the company…a commitment that it fulfils in service of the Malaysian community.”

In this light, the company developed the Sunway Education Trust Fund for Sunway University College and Monash University, the Sunway Job Placement program and “school adoption and assistance”.

Tan Sri Ramon’s most interesting thought on CSR was, “businesses can only flourish when the communities and eco-systems in which they operate are healthy.”  That explains why Tan Sri Ramon believes that companies would do well to understand the importance of CSR and remain above competition.

The Sunway Group’s growing reputation as a provider of quality education is a fine case of Tan Sri Ramon’s point.

The last yet no less arresting presentation was given by Dr. Arun Venkataraman, Conservation Director for WWF (World Wildlife Fund) Malaysia.

He believes that CSR is a “good business complement” and improves the “brand experience” through “leveraging on CSR practice to drive management of key relations with investors, customers and stakeholders”.

The Nielsen company found that “72% of Malaysians say if price and quality are equal, they would switch to a brand or retailer associated with a good cause”. For instance, BMW and Susan G Comen identified women as their “new market segment” and conceptualised a dollar for “every mile of test drive”. The results were “softer imagery and 400 vehicle sales.”

Also, the same percentage of Malaysians was found by the Nielsen company to “be happier to work for, and more loyal to, a company associated with good cause, rather than a company that does not support charitable causes.”

Dr. Arun identified the former percentage as “consumer expectations” while the latter is “employee expectations”. These expectations would help a business understand its market appeal, develop its brand values (in relation to the cause it supports) and there would be a “synergy between [a] campaign/promotion of cause and other brand advertising.”

In short, CSR through “cause-related marketing” would enable the business to better capitalise on its brand values and customer loyalty.

WWF Malaysia, as Dr. Arun points out, has successfully partnered with HSBC (for WWF Living Planet Expedition with regard to pandas), Nokia for Turtle Sanctuary Community Education, BOH for the “Restore Orang Utan Habitat” project and Honda for the Sumatran Rhino Rescue mission.

He singled out Honda for remaining true to its brand values of “Challenging Spirit, Realising Dreams” by donating RM5 million to the conservation project from 2006 to 2011.

With these examples, it is little wonder that the Nielsen company reported 85% of Malaysians agreeing that “it is important for companies to support the work of environmental protection organizations like WWF”.

Dr. Arun’s presentation drove home the point of caring for Earth’s resources while there is still time and that  successful brand-value and related marketing can do wonders for a business when it is tied in with CSR.

Other speakers included Dr Geoffrey Williams (OWW Consulting Sdn Bhd), Mr. Puvan Selvanathan (Sime Darby Group), Dr. Tan Lin Lah (Caux Round Table, Malaysia, UN Global Compact Local Network Malaysia), Mr. Girish Ramachandran (RSM Strategic Business Advisors), Mr. Brian Lariche (The Liaison Combination Sdn Bhd), Mr. Andrew Ho (SAS Asia Pacific), Dr. Jothmani Uniandy (Bursa Malaysia) and Dr. Bala Nadarajan (Smart Business Consulting), who presented on a wide range of CSR-relevant topics such as business impacts of doing CSR, global CSR agenda and “using technology to monitor and manage sustainability”.◊