Aimé Sans, managing director of full-service agency BUSINESS & NATURE,on social commitment, sustainability and CSR events.
TW: Corporate social or environmental commitment has come to be considered a pillar of economic success. The term used to describe this is Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). Rather than be perceived as nothing but profit generators, companies seek to position themselves in society as corporate citizens. Is CSR losing some of its urgency in the wake of the economic and financial crisis?
Aimé Sans: A little, yes. Unfortunately CSR is one area in which money can be saved very quickly in economically and financially straitened times, as a result of which less attention is being paid to it. But the important question remains as to how the public, customers and most particularly companies’ employees react to cuts of this kind. In my opinion there is no underestimating the long-term consequences for the company, which will if anything tend to be negative.
TW: Modern CSR has very little to do with the old concept of patronage, traditional corporate willingness to donate and engage in sponsorship. These days CSR programmes are increasingly being integrated into regular business strategies, either to improve the corporate image vis-à-vis clients, as a trump card in recruitment or as a practical expression of the corporate philosophy and to brighten up morale at work. What CSR events has BUSINESS & NATURE designed in the recent past?
Aimé Sans: Over the past ten years we have designed quite different CSR events. For example, a few weeks ago management board members and directors of Allgeier Holding, a big IT company, built a playground for emotionally retarded children in Unterhaching. Another project was the construction of a playing field for children at a day nursery in Potsdam. It was built by 50 managers, who would otherwise have been in competition with one another, during a two-day KYOCERA MITA distribution conference. And the biggest CSR project that we have realised so far was with 200 international pharmaceutical group executives. It was held January 2010 in Cape Town as part of the annual kick-off. For this we set up 15 different projects together with two local non-profit organisations, because we wanted everyone to be personally involved and be able to turn their hand to it. We installed an internet platform on which the 200 executives could register for one of the 15 activities. These activities ranged from marketing workshops with local aid organisations through building two crèches and two playgrounds to photo campaigns for children in a refugee camp. Thirty participants contributed to this campaign by preparing warm meals and then personally distributing them to 6,000 children. Judging by the feedback, the participants’ expectations were far surpassed and their awareness of lives that have very little in common with our affluent society aroused and heightened.
TW: How can corporate social responsibility projects be integrated intelligently and target group-appropriately into events, team and executive training and educational projects?
Aimé Sans: First of all, you have to get the client on board, define the time and budget parameters precisely and obtain a clear commitment to implementation of the CSR campaign. After that, a professional non-profit organisation (NPO) or social agency and a project need to be found that sit well with the client. It is vital here that the focus is always placed on the NPO’s needs. As a general rule, CSR projects can be particularly well integrated into team or executive training courses. Then instead of working on a fictitious task, participants are placed in charge of a reallife project involving actual resource management, the relevant quality management and a set completion deadline – as with the specific construction of a playground, for which the materials are admittedly provided but which the team has to organise and coordinate in all other respects. It doesn’t really matter what kind of event is involved. The main thing is that the participants are deeply moved by the relevant CSR campaign, that they recall the event for a long time to come and that it goes to their hearts.
TW: Critics repeatedly object that companies make use of CSR and “green meetings” as marketing tools but sell this to the outside world as purely social commitment because the promotion campaign would not otherwise have any impact. Is this criticism justified?
Aimé Sans: Yes, maybe that is the case, and there are certainly some examples from the past to bear that out. But taking a pragmatic view, funds have been channelled into social facilities that would arguably not be available to them were it not for companies’ CSR activities. So I believe that it’s better for a company to polish up its image with CSR work and do good in the process than for people simply to harp on about the motives behind the projects and not do anything at all. Ultimately it’s the results that count. Children running around on a playground couldn’t care less about the motives for which it has been gifted to them.
TW: Is there any connection between a company’s financial performance and its social commitment?
Aimé Sans: Of course. Normally, companies generating high earnings have more money available for social commitment. But there is certainly no statistically definable ratio.
TW: An increasing number of meetings industry suppliers and planners are turning their attention to climatefriendly event organisation and sparing use of resources. Are CSR and green meetings related in any way?
Aimé Sans: Not that I can see. The most that can possibly be said is that companies endeavouring to stage green meetings also endeavour to play a part in achieving a balance between economic stability, environmental sustainability and social fairness.
Interview: Dirk Mewis
