CSR at Board Level

Where does CSR sit at Board Level? Well probably under the External Affairs team, or maybe there is a specific person responsible for CSR. If there is, what are they called?

A survey of 100 fortune 500 companies could reveal some interesting results. In the meantime I'd like to propose whether the title means a lot or not. Personally I don't think the title means all that much. What is most important is the job description and the responsibility/respect the person has. However the job title might imply these. Thus there may not be much difference between CSR or CR but there is for Community Affairs and Legal (which may also be responsible for CSR).

A few leading companies have redefined 'CSR' as CR or R or many others (some including ethics which is to be aplauded). One that I like is CSO: Corporate Social Opportunity, thus someone's 'CSR' report was titled CSO: Turning Corporate Social Responsibility into Corporate Social Opportunity (it may have been P&G I am not sure). Although this may work for some, for others they may not have the ability to capitalise on CSR as core to their strategy and a source fo comparative advantage or innovation.

What I would encourage for companies not yet at the CSO level is another title; one that is more short term focused, more financiall and legally focused -and thus easier to define a short-term business case: Risk Management. Whilst investigating our own CSR report, we've realised there will be a number of various focuses. 1 is what we are doing badly, not as well as we want to, or can do better and achieve more. Another 1 is what risks we face now that we are not addressing and what ones we should be anticipating in the future.

Risk Management is a really great way of defining the most pressing aspect of CSR: the one with the most examples, and the one that can most easily be understood by other Board level Directors.