Entrepeneurship and New Venture course February 9, 2010

I have a great book to recommend for any of us starting anything – from a company to a CR program in an organization.  The book is “The Art of the start” by Guy Kawasaki.  Published by Penguin books, 2004.

This book gave me a great framework for starting the environmental scan and feasibility plan required for this course.  Easy to read, to follow and implement.  Filled with examples and practical actions to take to move ideas into action.

Corporate responsibility for small organizations February 9, 2010

A classmate and I have worked diligently since September 2009 to assess the need of corporate responsibility programs for small business organizations in both the form profit and non-profit arenas.  We interviewed 17 organizations and received a wide array of feedback, mostly confirming that:

 1) CR is important to the organization and they’d want to implement a program at the earliest opportunity,

2) the organization lacks the time, the knowledge and the resources to create such an initiative, to deploy it and to sustain it.  This gap between what organizations state they need and their inability to create and maintain in a long-term sustainable way led us to design a phased program with simple initial actions that grow and expand in a cumulative manner.

 We have conducted research on corporate responsibility in multiple countries and have focused on business outcomes that, especially in for profit organizations, would contribute to maintaining a CR program.

 We have created, based on the research conducted by Ms. Sheila Bonini at McKinsey, our own Return on Responsibility analysis, which is be the basis to implement a solid program that can measure its value from inception, vs. being perceived as a cost.

We will work with Proff. Griffin to review our progress and adjust the program based on her recommendation so we can be readly to beta test it at smal non-profit organizations.

Contributing to local organization related to GWU January 25, 2010

The Northern Virginia Society for Human Resource Management www.novashrm.org  (a Chapter and affiliate of the national Society for Human Resource Management – www.shrm.org) contributes greatly to the Human Resources profession in the Northern VA area.

Last year, I volunteered with them in the role of Lead Community Relations.  The role had been inactive so we decided to implement simple initiatives that could have a significant impact in the community.

• Implemented 3 new initiatives:

1. Business Books for Libraries
2. Toys for Tots donations
3. Dress for Success donations

We collected donations that amounted for 146 business books – we only accepted books that dated from 2007.  These were distributed to libraries in coordination with their Collections Librarians, based on what they already had and was needed.

Toy donations begun as early as September and most of them were delivered in coordination with local fire stations in northern VA so they could reach the rural areas of VA.  178 new toys were collected and distributed right in time for the holiday season.

Supporting women without jobs was an incredibly successful initiative that took place year-round since clothes donations were planned in a seasonal manner.  The back to work initiative was also supported by reviewing resumes and many times, working one-o-one with women ready to have interviews.  We collected 56 suits, 29 dresses, 70 pairs of shoes, 51 coats and jackets and many stockings and jewelry.

NOVA SHRM is truly dedicated to helping the communities where we live, work and enjoy life.  These initiatives were just the beginning, besides all the career development and educational work the association does.

The George Washington University sponsors NOVA SHRM and the association promotes the school’s Master’s Degree in Human Resource Development.

The Responsible Manager January 25, 2010

Some of us are approaching graduation this May 2010, and will either have additional responsibilities in our jobs or may venture into new initiatives.  This got me thinking about what type of manager and leader I want to be.  The higher up we grow in organizational life, the more our roles turn to be about influencing people, and this has a significant impact in the workforce, the company and ourselves.  I was surprised to find in the current issue of the HBR, the following article that Prof. Prahalad, from the Michigan Ross School of Business reminds his students about to graduate every year.  It resonated with me and the principles of being a responsible manager: 

• Understand the importance of nonconformity.  Leadership is about change, hope, and the future.  Leaders have to venture into uncharted territory, so they must be able to handle intellectual solitude and ambiguity.
• Display a commitment to learning and developing yourself. Leaders must invest in themselves. If you aren’t educated, you can’t help the uneducated; if you are sick, you can’t minister to the sick; if you are poor, you can’t help the poor.
• Develop the ability to put personal performance in perspective. Over a long career, you will experience both success and failure. Humility in success and courage in failure are hallmarks of a good leader.
• Be ready to invest in developing other people. Be unstinting in helping your colleagues realize their full potential.
• Learn to relate to those who are less fortunate.  Good leaders are inclusive, even though that isn’t easy. Most societies have dealt with differences by avoiding or eliminating them; few assimilate those who aren’t like them.
• Be concerned about due process. People seek fairness—not favors. They want to be heard. They often don’t even mind if decisions don’t go their way as long as the process is fair and transparent.
• Realize the importance of loyalty to organization, profession, community, society, and, above all, family. Most of our achievements would be impossible without our families’ support.
• Assume responsibility for outcomes as well as for the processes and people you work with. How you achieve results will shape the kind of person you become.
• Remember that you are part of a very privileged few. That’s your strength, but it’s also a cross you carry. Balance achievement with compassion and learning with understanding.
• Expect to be judged by what you do and how well you do it—not by what you say you want to do. However, the bias toward action must be balanced by empathy and caring for other people.
• Be conscious of the part you play. Be concerned about the problems of the poor and the disabled, accept human weaknesses, laugh at yourself—and avoid the temptation to play God. Leadership is about self-awareness, recognizing your failings, and developing modesty, humility, and humanity.

The Responsible Manager – Harvard Business Review, January 2010, page 36.  By Prof. C. K. Prahalad.

Value Creation – Global Residency in Brasil November 24, 2009

This past June, we had our global residency in Brasil.  We visited government offices in Brasilia, telecommunications company Oi, investment company Investe Rio, petroleum company Petrobras, healthcare company Amil, aerospace Embraer, mining company Vale, and other multinational corporations like genetically modified seed company Monsanto, aluminum producer Alcoa and Banco Itaú.  

 

Many of these corporations have a CSR initiatives they are very keen in promoting and making students aware of them.  In many instances, CSR ties to environmental sustainability as in the case of Petrobras, Vale, Monsanto and Alcoa.  Some of these companies have learnt the hard way, and have initially implemented CSR practices as a way to react to criticism and fix, with a quick approach, what was incorrectly done to protect their image and assets.  In many instances, they have evolved these practices to engrain them in their business strategy.

 

The country as a whole seems to be open, willing and ready to correcting the corruption issues that obstruct their growth and attraction of capital.  Companies such as Banco Itaú have always operated with impeccable ethics despite decades of hyperinflation, military coups ad economic and social instability.  They struck me as a mature, responsible and open-minded company that is profit based, but they seem to achieve great success in a tempered manner.  Respect for their employees translates in respect for their customers and the environment.  The Itaú Foundation, which invests in art, offers workers and customers a wonderful experience combining high corporate fiancé with Brazilian and Latin American art in almost every corner.  The values of the bank are communicated to their audience in many ways.  Their CSR initiatives are applies in every M&A and partnership they engage in.  It was enlightening to see this level of corporate responsibility in a small bank that is now ranked as one of the top 50 ones in the world.

Corporate Political Strategy November 24, 2009

I took this class this past semester where we had the pleasure of having guest speakers from Kodak and Wall-Mart and also Dupont’s former CEO and Chairman Chad Holliday and Eliot Spitzer specking about corruption in Wall Street and the drive for companies to make profits and have higher than before earning per share as a measurement of business success. 

This class provided a method and structure to look back in history and look at corporations like Enron, Shell, Exxon, Odwala, Glaxo, and Ikea and their CSR practices or lack of thereof.

Students were asked to research companies listed in Case Studies and form their own opinions before coming to class.  We discussed cases in groups and then led class discussions to ensure that dialogue could help us evolve our thoughts and understand from other people’s perspective how they see corporate responsibility in action in the real world for companies in different industries.

I found myself questioning companies’ initiatives from a new angle where CSR must make business sense in order for it to be sustainable – otherwise, it may fall in the trap of being a fad and a missed opportunity for an organization to do business in a more holistic approach than just tracking EPS.

“What is your purpose?” & “B Corp” October 27, 2009

I am just starting to research these organizations but like the videos I am posting below:  they provide facts and the begining of a roadmap for action.

http://www.goodpurposecommunity.com/

http://www.bcorporation.net/The-B-Corp-Story-Video

Hello world! October 27, 2009

I am new to the blogging world and will learn enough to communicate progress towards my Certificate in Responsible Management and the Principles for Responsible Management Education (PRME).

I am working with my classmate to create a Corporate Responsibility program for small companies.  I truly believe that today’s businesses face a daunting challenge: to identify, achieve and sustain a competitive advantage while empowering employees, customers and communities to grow and prosper with them.  

I think that Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is an organization’s obligation.  Considering the interests of their customers, employees, shareholders, communities, and the ecology and to consider the social and environmental consequences of their business activities is not only smart, but can also lead to increase profitability.  

By integrating CSR into core business processes and stakeholder management, organizations can achieve the goal of creating both social value and corporate value.

The Corporate responsibility program will create partnerships with small firms, and based on continued dialog allow us to understand their values and a method for applying them in the internal and external communities they operate in.  We will rely on the education and research the Institute for Corporate Responsibility at GWU (http://business.gwu.edu/icr/index.asp) and other organizations provide to continue our efforts.