CSR- Enlightened Self Interest

"In terms of power and influence you can forget about the church, forget politics. There is no more powerful institution in society than business... The business of business should not be about money, it should be about responsibility. It should be about public good, not private greed." - Anita Roddick, Business as Usual

Roddick’s view couldn’t be more true, especially considering that there is a general perception that self interest has been too much at the front of executive thinking and action, and that even during a period of strong economic growth the benefits have fallen to only a few. This unfortunate situation has led to experts predicting that this era of “self interest” is changing and has the potential to give way to a new era of “Responsibility”.

I am sure we all wish this could be now so that we clearly see how responsible more companies are.

CSR- Enlightened Self Interest

It is a known fact that those companies that have learnt how to integrate responsible business practices into their core business are all these companies that are integrating CR because of its positive impact on the long term sustainability of the business, not as an afterthought.  They understand responsible business is both financially necessary and socially beneficial.

With this view in mind, today individual members and groups in the community in which an organisation operates are increasingly being recognised as important stakeholders in the long term security and success of large and small enterprises. Building relationships with these community groups is, therefore, an important issue in corporate and communications strategy. This is where Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) comes in as it is an organisation’s defined responsibility to its societies and stakeholders.  

But companies and organisations need to take a step further. They need to demonstrate leadership, live and communicate their values and vision and this can’t be done by publishing statements or group rehearsal of values – this requires action and engagement. They should walk the talk.

In view of the above, evidence shows that good governance of corporate responsibility builds companies’ financial viability and stability.

The case of London City Airport

London City Airport plays a key role in supporting the activity and growth of London’s economy. Located in East London, it is the UK’s leading business airport and it makes a significant contribution to the economy of the local area, providing more than 2,000 jobs through its own operations and the 55 employers based onsite.

In 2009, London City Airport launched the “Take Off into Work” scheme for long-term unemployed Newham residents as part of the Airport’s wider community engagement strategy. Among others, the programme helps the company to reach its aspiration of employing 70% of its staff from within 5 miles of the site, with 35% of these from the Borough of Newham.

In 2009, 62 Newham residents from the programme gained employment (some at the airport and some in other local businesses). 45% of these candidates had been unemployed for a year or longer and 4% had never worked. Through the programme, more than 130 previously unemployed Newham residents have now gained employment and recruitment costs (estimated to be in excess of £1,000 per position) have been significantly reduced. Ultimately, the company has received a number of awards for its work, including the Lord Mayors Dragon Award, and a Business Alliance Annual Volunteers Employment Champion Award. This recognition enhances both community relations and support, and more broadly the reputation of the company.

Thus, the “Take Off into Work” programme works to help local people into employment both within and outside of the company by developing their job skills and confidence, and raising their aspirations. The programme is run five times a year.

Why is this a good example of CSR?

The reason is obvious. The “Take Off into Work” programme provides both business and social benefits – namely it provides the airport and its onsite businesses local and flexible staff, adds to the wellbeing of the local area and provides employment for local people. In doing so, it contributes to the wider sustainability of London City Airport’s operations within East London.

Besides, the company eventually gains the trust and support of the communities and this is in line with the 2010 Edelman Trust Barometer which found that business must align profit and purpose for social benefit. Trust is a protective agent and leads to tangible benefits; lack of trust is barrier to change.

My fight hunger viral video

In one of the modules called New Media, we were given an assignment to create and propose an online Viral Video Campaign using social media. Thus, we were to put together a detailed proposal for an online video viral campaign that incorporates social media. We were given freedom to choose the company, the product, the service or the initiative for our campaign to be based around. Among others, we were to produce and deliver:

·         A viral video

·         Creation of social media elements as part of your campaign

·         A written strategic and creative proposal

I chose to do a campaign for ActionAid and here is a viral video I produced.

When consumers become consumed, watched and traded

Does the above photo mean anything to you? What about the column on the right hand?

Oftentimes we communicate on the internet for free, consume videos, music, articles etc for free and most importantly give our information for free. But in spite of this entire not-tricky-puzzle, have you figured out why Google is the richest browser if not one of the most profit making companies in the world and yet they give “free services”?

BBC’s Dr Aleks Krotoski and her video The Virtual Revolution: The cost of free is certainly a good exposure.

Believe it or not we give up for free our all for convenient online space but this has enriched browsers like Google and numerous companies (advertisers) just at our mere click on any key word on the browsers. A mere search to a word or topic on say Google makes a massive business between the browser and numerous companies and hence every time we “google” we help them make money.

The funny thing is that about Google’s business is that it sells something that doesn’t really exit as opposed to others who sell tangible products. In simple terms, Google gets massively paid for simply sending traffic to other websites.

Ads by Google. That catchy phrase you often see on Google page and that’s how the browser is making its money. You should have noticed that every time you do a search on Google, there is a section called “Sponsored Links”. Every time you click on one of those links, Google charges a certain amount of money to the website for the click. And when you go on a website you’ll notice advertising from Google too. Virtually every word. So when you click a word say football, several websites of football advertisers pop up on the sides and Google charge a certain amount of money to the website you clicked on and part of that money is given to the webmaster publishing the ads. And I can hardly talk of the power adverts have on our lives. A mere look at it increases our impulse to go for it. Eventually, the product online is not content but your eyeballs looking at the content. This is called AdSense and is an enormous source of income for Google.

As of how advertisers feel the pinch, albeit temporarily because they still make profits from such adverts, a bidding system is used. Yes, bidding because lot’s of companies realises the gold in this business hence the scramble for space. So when you want to advertise with Google, you select keywords you are targeting. Let’s say I do parcel deliveries as above and I want to bring potential customers to my website. I’m going to bid on the keywords “parcels” and “deliver parcels” for example. The price I’m going to pay will depend if there is other companies bidding for that keyword. The more companies are fighting for a keyword, the more I’m going to pay for a single click to my website. So the mathematics involved is Product/Space=Bidder x Quality. So you can envisage that for highly competitive keywords like finance and health it can cost quite a lot of money for a company to advertise with Google.

It therefore does not come as a surprise that Google seems to be everywhere now: They have to show substantial growth to their stakeholders and to do that they have to drive more and more traffic to provide more and more advertisement.

The main cause of concern however, is that this all happens at the expense of our privacy. As we give in almost our every detail on line with the coming of social media as the driver, Google looks at contents of our mails, wishes and likes and links some keywords to some ads that appear on the sides. In other words, every time we read something, a cookie tracking device which gives out information about our range of interests is planted on our computer, allowing Google to customise the adverts it gives us. So our privacy is at stake, and more so when we spend a lot of time online.

So, much as it is hard to dispute the view that the internet is the next Industrial revolution, the main issue is that the product online is not content but your eyeballs looking at the content. Here you can find more information about the Google philosophy and how Google makes money.

Transparency: the next PR industry pillar

In this blog this week, we will look at a webcast I produced as part of my assignment. The assignment asked us to assume that we are the planning director of a PR agency. The MD of the agency has suggested that we produce a short webcast to the agency’s current and prospective clients that introduces them to an issue/trend in public relations. I therefore chose transparency as an important trend in the PR industry in coming years that will change the industry for the better and hence improve its reputation. I hope you will enjoy it.


Thanks for watching. Feel free to leave comments and make sure to stay tune for more issues in PR

To blog or not?

Blogging has certainly risen above its infacy as millions of surfers are now familiar with this term. Bloggers, especially in Public Relations continue to rise in fame but some surfers still have questions regarding this phenomenon. Why blog for your PR organisation? What are the benefits? Does it matter? Whither PR blogging? I will attempt to respond to these questions and justify why blogging, especially in PR field is an inevitable phenomenon.


1. Blogging for your organisation promotes transparency
 If an organisation's structure is a building, then blogs serve as the windows – they allow customers to peer inside and see what is happening internally with greater precision than ever before
2. Blogging drives traffic to your website
This is one of the most pertinent reason for blogging. A blog simply is the best way to bring traffic to your Web site. This is especially the case if you are rolling out a new Web site that needs to establish its presence
3) An organisation blog puts a human voice to your company’s name




For more information about blogging, check this link:

Blogging and video workshop

View more presentations from Matt holland.