MODERN BUSINESSHe notes that many of the customers who applauded the de-
cision at the time seem to have forgotten, but those who were
in opposition have not. “Love is fleeting,” he says. “But hate is
forever.” (See excerpt from Stack’s book on page 18.)
But many companies feel the do-gooder dividend outweighs the
risks, both in relations with consumers and in day-to-day operations,.
Brad McLane, who recruits high-level positions at RSR Part-
ners, says, “Companies aren’t doing it just to say they have it. My
clients are incorporating it into how they do business—what in-
gredients they use, where they source, how they design products.”
Megan Kashner, clinical professor at the Kellogg School of Man-
agement’s Public-Private Interface agrees. She’s says that we’ve
moved from “greenwashing programs that mimic CSR” to an era
of “authentic CSR.” Greenwashing is the practice of making mis-
leading claims that make a company appear more environmen-
tally or socially conscious than it is, for example, when BP began
touting itself as being environmentally conscious through a $
million public relations campaign, only to have a string of envi-
ronmental disasters—some of which, according to a government
report, were caused by corporate cost-cutting to boost profits.
Simon Lowden, Pepsico chief sustainability officer, says, "It’s
woven into how we operate as a business. For instance, we need to
maintain our license to operate in water-stressed regions, so we’d
better focus on being responsible stewards of water. It’s not only
the right thing to do, it’s important to our business.”
CSR is particularly useful in human resources.
Rebecca M. Henderson, holds the John and Nat-
ty McArthur Chair at Harvard and is finishing a
book on this topic, Reimagining Capitalism in a
World on Fire. She says: “CSR has a tremendous
impact on the morale of employees. Authentic
purpose, which may mean occasionally sacrificing
profits, accesses a whole range of emotions diffi-
cult to get at otherwise, like trust and engagement.”
In other words, it gets through. And that is a
good thing. It leads to higher levels of productivity
and employee retention.“No public company in the
world would last a weekif the only people they cared
about were shareholders.”