This is a book about how to improve corporate performance and gain competitive advantage Corporate Social Opportunity by the authors of the best-selling Everybody’s Business moves the argument from the ´why’ of corporate social responsibility (CSR) to the ´how’ and beyond. This is not always a story of black and white, of what is right or what is wrong. Often it embraces apparently conflicting demands, which require the application of judgement, guided by a clear sense of overall direction and corporate purpose. This book is designed to act as a compass for aiding navigation through such dilemmas and complex decisions.
Grayson and Hodges challenge perceived wisdom that adherence by business to corporate social responsibility (CSR) is a zero-sum game where the impact on companies is added costs and extra regulatory burden. From their unique vantage point working with leaders of global businesses and of local communities, the authors explain how companies can be pursuaded to adopt stringent social, ethical and environmental standards simultaneously create largely untapped opportunities for product innovation, market development and non-traditional business models.
The key to exploiting these opportunities lies in building CSR into business strategy, not adding it on to business operations. With examples from 200 companies to illustrate their case, the authors outline both in theory and practice a seven-step process companies can apply to assess the implications of CSR on their business strategy and identify their own corporate social opportunities. |