Corporate Social Responsibility

The past thirty years the responsibilities of companies have been intensely debated. During the 70’s and 80’s the attention was primarily focused on the impact on the external environment. However, in the 90’s focus has been expanded to embrace social responsibility and a widened economic responsibility.

Corporate ethics is a term often used to cover the standards of "good corporate behaviour" with regard to the "people" and "planet". But defining ‘ethics’ is in itself a task that has occupied philosophers for centuries. However, because of its pragmatic character, the legal aspect of this responsibility has had more success. The human rights are employed more and more to judge the behavior of the companies.

While the ethical responsibility for the companies faces the challenges of the inaccuracy, the superficiality and the break in comparability, these founded on the human rights, and thus on international legal instruments and national laws, constitute a clear framework for the companies that supports clearness, the uniformity and the comparability of the performances of CSR.

The globalisation of the markets and the technological revolution accentuate the conscience of the societies on the importance of the human rights, which do the hopes possible in the way in which the companies should behave. To transgress these rights and to disappoint these hopes damage the good most established reputations and destroy confidence.

The Sustainable Development is a main concept, that is defined for businees by the Triple Bottom Line, popularly described by the three Ps: People, Planet, Profit, describing how business can assist contributing to sustainable development. As a common appellation the concept can be framed as Corporate Responsibilities, consisting of social, environmental and economic responsibilities.

The issues to be covered under the sustainability considerations are multifarious. Lawhouse.biz supports the proposed delineation of the ‘social bottom line’ in accordance with the International Bill of Human Rights.

The corporate responsibilities are multiple and are framed by a series of standards and specific rules.

To know its own social responsibility for a company requires, beforehand, a clearly knowing of what it does, why and for which it does.

Certain answers will have more importance than others for the managers, the shareholders and all the stakeholders. Each stakeholder has waitings which must be the analysed, because which waiting is in the center of the CSR, and thus in the plan of the corporate activities.

The CSR's strategies and politics adopted and implemented translate the answers of the company to these various waitings, and most be reported in the balance sheets (financial, social and environmental reports) annual.

The practice and the communication of the company must be credible and have sense for all the stakeholders, as well the internal as external, in order to make to company a responsible social actor.

With its broad and solid international experiment Lawhouse offers a range of CSR services to assist you in developing and implementing a CSR strategy that will improve the overall performance of your business.

Lawhouse offers a range of services to you to assist you, after the identification of the zones of risks and opportunities, to develop and put into practice an adequate strategy and specific policies of CSR, which will improve the realization of your beneficial business and also the business of your sphere of influence.

 

Corporate Risks and Opportunities

Companies that choose to ignore CSR may encounter many consequences.

The risks can be summarised as follows:

  1. Increased civil and criminal litigation against companies and management;
  2. Loss of top talents;
  3. Loss of investors;
  4. Increased cost of capital;
  5. Decline in stock value;
  6. Loss of customers and business partners;
  7. Loss of public contracts and public procurement procedures e.g. Word Bank, European Union, European Bank for Reconstruction and Development;
  8. Loss of business partners;
  9. Exposure to naming and shaming campaigns and blacklisting campaigns;
  10. Loss of brand value.

On the other hand, there are many opportunities available to companies who choose to implement CSR strategies and incorporate CSR into company policies

  1. Enhanced corporate image and added brand value
  2. Attract and retain top talents; Enhancing job satisfaction, loyalty and identification;
  3. Access to quality business partners;
  4. Customer satisfaction and loyalty;
  5. Improving risk management;
  6. Favourable access to capital markets;
  7. Establishing a good footing with public authorities and the general public;
  8. Creating a basic reference point and language for partnerships;
  9. Public relations opportunities;
  10. Contribution to the development of stable global markets.