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DIRECTIONSTHE FULLREPORT 2006
TRENDS IN CR REPORTING 2005–06
IS CORPORATERESPONSIBILITYIN YOUR COMPANY’SBLOOD?
 
DIRECTIONS 0601This year Directions has decided to put someof the UK’s largest companies under themicroscope to see if corporate responsibilityis being embedded in the organisation. Hasanyone found the secretto injecting corporateresponsibilityintothe heartofan organisationand seeing it circulate into every fibre?Do the people getit?If it had happened,would weknow?So we have run some tests on a select groupwithin the FTSE 100 to see if corporateresponsibility is in their blood – right downto seeing if the switchboard knows what weare talking about! The tests are not diagnostic–there are many things a company shouldbe doing in order to have embedded corporateresponsibility and some of the evidence couldbe confidential information – but turn to page10 todraw your own conclusions.This year we have two contributors whobring us the realityof embedding corporateresponsibility.Rowland Hill from Marks & Spencer talks aboutthe challenges M&S has faced in its quest toembed corporate responsibility in the businessand in the brand. Lisa Walden, an internalcommunications specialist,givesaview oncommunicating corporateresponsibilitytoemployees and ensuring the peopleunderstand the strategy.After the successoflast year’s judging panelwe decided we needed an update on whois reporting effectively, so the panel is back.Ten experts have studied the FTSE 100 andtheir findings start on page 18.And last but not least we’ve researched theFTSE 100 and EURO250 tosee what theyhave produced this year.Happy (and healthy) reading!
The holy grail of corporate responsibility has beenthat this approach to doing business becomes anintrinsic part of a company’s day-to-day operationsand decision-making. Much head scratching hasbeen done over the years to work out how to do it.Has anyone had a breakthrough?
Welcome to Directions 06, alook at embedding corporateresponsibility.
Directions 06Trends in CR reporting2005–2006
Areport by salterbaxter
Nigel Salter, salterbaxter
nsalter@salterbaxter.com
Lucie Harrild, salterbaxter
lharrild@salterbaxter.com
Contents
01
Welcome toDirections 06
02
Looking for corporateresponsibility behind the labelby Rowland Hill, M&S
06
Corporate Responsibility:more than skin deep?Lisa Walden, internalcommunicationsconsultant
18
The panel
10
EmbeddedTests
17
Embedded TestsThe winners
34
Euro 250 andFTSE 100 Analysis
33
The panel’swinners
35
Euro250andFTSE 100 Analysisoverview
48
About salterbaxter
 
DIRECTIONS 06DIRECTIONS 060203
The challenge is that many of thepeople with whom you work don’t. Someof your colleagues will be CR-agnostic, aminority might even claim to be anti-CRand worst of all are those obsessiveswho want to use it to pursue their ownCR agenda. How do you keep everyoneaiming in the same direction throughthe good times and bad?
At Marks & Spencer we clearly startwith a huge debt to our heritage inthat we’ve always had the ability toattract ethically minded individuals ascustomers, employees, suppliers andshareholders. But over the last decadethe retail marketplace has undergonesignificant change. Expectations andpersonnel have all moved on and yeton the whole we’ve managed to keepCR moving forward in the right direction.It hasn’t always been easy and therehave been times when we’ve hadto retreat from the odd battle inorder to win the war. Having triedmostapproaches I’ll run through thetechniques that worked the best for us.
c
Leadership is terriblyimportant... What you’relooking for is someonewho is effective withinthe organisation, ‘gets’CR and is respected.
d
Leadership is terribly important. In variouscapacities I’ve worked for M&S for nearlyaquarter of a century seeing out the oldfamily leadership up tothe present day.During that time we’ve had both passiveand active leadership on CR. The passivevariety is supportive and well intentionedbut in truth only active leadership can‘cut through’ to the organisation’s strategy.What I’ve learned is that if the senior teamaren’t in a position to provide leadershipon CR then you have to go and find itelsewhere. Look to the non-executivedirectors or perhaps the leader of animportant business division. What you’relooking for is someone who is effectivewithin the organisation, ‘gets’ CR andis respected.Next up is governance and processes.Compared to many organisations M&Splaces a greater reliance on its peoplerather than its processes so I won’t dwellhere too long. You need to connect theleadership of the business with its CRperformance and ensure stakeholderengagement with appropriate responses.It’s always easier to motivate peopleif you can identify positive benefitsrather than the avoidance of risk. We’veput in a system with a Board level CRCommittee supported by a CR Forum ofsenior managers and heads of departmentacross the business. That said, what weachieve still depends hugely on the energyand commitment of our people.The qualityofour relationshipswithstakeholders is also hugely important.Much of this is about basic courtesy andacknowledging that sometimesthe mostunexpected sources can provide valuableinsights into your business. At its bestthese relationships can help form andeven deliver your future strategies.That said, many people in corporate lifecan feel very uneasy about face-to-facemeetings with the likes of campaigngroups and over the last few years theM&S CR team has done a lot of hand-holding during the initial ‘getting toknow you’ phase.All successful organisations have a clearbusiness strategy. You know the sort ofthing, to be the fastest, cheapest, best,most reliable, most stylish etc. To mymind the single most important piece ofinformation a CR practitioner can have isthe answer to the question: ‘How does CRsupport our strategy?’ If you can answerthis with clarity, knowing which partsof the CR agenda really matter to keystakeholders, along with the organisation’sstrengths and weaknesses I really believethat you’re half way there. If the answerdoesn’t exist within the organisation goout and start building a consensus aboutwhat it might be. Constructing simple listsof what it does and doesn’t include is areally good starting point. At one point weeven had every part of the business withtheir own little set of pictures showing theissues that mattered. This kept focus andprevented wasted energy in respondingto passing fads or distractions.
c
Actions speak louderthan words.The behaviourand deeds of an organisationhaveto match up to therhetoric.
d
As you’re reading Directions‘06 it’s probably fair to assumethat you’re someone who ‘gets’Corporate Responsibility.
Looking
for corporate responsibilitybehind the label
Rowland Hill
Corporate Social Responsibility/SustainabilityManager, Marks & Spencer
of 00

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