Category: Strategy

Crowdsourcing solutions for corporate social responsibility challenges

10/6/2015

Occasionally your business gets in a bit of a rut. New ideas might be hard to come by. Perhaps any new ideas that do come through just do not work. At these times an outsider, usually a consulting firm, comes in to help. Well, has your business ever tried crowdsource the problem?

Reaching out to the masses and soliciting their support is another option that organizations have utilized more and more the last few years. Crowdsourcing helps a company solve some of its biggest issues. Crowdsourcing gives opportunities to other businesses in a different industry to contribute as well as creative individuals to bring alternative ideas.

Crowdsourcing

"the practice of obtaining needed services, ideas, or content by soliciting contributions from a large group of people and especially from the online community rather than from traditional employees or suppliers."
Merriam-Webster

First, the Carlsberg Group is looking for ideas to improve its environmental impact with its "Cheers to Green Ideas" campaign. The initiative is looking for solutions to in three high-impact areas: eco-friendly packaging, recycling, and less water & energy consumption when brewing.

Image credit: Carlsberg/Sustainia

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Guest Article | Five steps for starting or reorganizing your corporate social responsibility

4/9/2015

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We were lucky enough to be able to contribute to Craft Brewing Business a second time. For this piece, we discussed how breweries can use five steps for starting or reorganizing its corporate social responsibility.

You can read the article here: http://www.craftbrewingbusiness.com/business-marketing/brewery-corporate-social-responsibility/

Although it comes from a brewery perspective, the same principles can be used for all businesses. Here is an outline of our five step model:

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CSR Trends for 2015

12/31/2014

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2015 is almost here! Change out your calendars, set some reasonable goals, and get those party poppers popping!

One of the many end-of-year traditions are all of the trends to see for the next year. In this piece, we will examine four trends several business analysts are anticipating for 2015. Then, we will examine how the trends will impact corporate social responsibility (CSR) practices.

Before we do that, we need to establish a connection between CSR and all business trends. We will be doing this by using a CSR trend many CSR analysts expect for 2015:

CSR Trend: There will be an increased merging of CSR into business strategy & C-Level decision-making.
Reasoning: CSR is not going anywhere. State governments are increasing their support of Benefit Corporations (B-Corporations). Businesses are achieving success with their CSR campaigns. Finally, customers are willing to pay more for products from companies that have a positive impact. With all these different stakeholders building long-term support for CSR, business executives will be incorporating CSR into their decision-making more often.

If CSR is going to be more involved in the future, let's now see how CSR is impacted by other business trends forecasted for 2015:

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How strategic is your corporate social responsibility? - Part 5 of 5

11/19/2014

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For our final chapter in this series, we will focus on the necessity of proper leadership when building corporate social responsibility (CSR) into your business. In his final section of "What is Strategy?," Porter emphasizes that executing a strategy relies on differentiating activities, choosing the right trade-offs, and communicating clearly. No matter your role, you can be a leader in implementing CSR at your business.

For Those Directing The Vision
(High-Level Management)
One of the best lessons learned in the article is, "General management is more than the stewardship of individual functions. Its core is strategy: defining and communicating the company's unique position, making trade-offs, and forging fit among activities" (18). As an executive or high-level manager, you can use CSR to assert, support, and reinforce your values and mission, no matter the size business you are running.

Good leaders at high-level management can use CSR to:

Be creative with new ideas to support their vision and competitive advantage.
Contribute to the guidelines for better decision-making.
Reinforce values & culture throughout the company.
Support professional development for all employees.
Hedge against future risks.

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How strategic is your corporate social responsibility? - Part 4 of 5

11/12/2014

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For this portion in our series, everything is about to come together because we focus on having a solid fit between all business activities, including corporate social responsibility (CSR). The more your business's activities fit together, the stronger your business's advantage will be against competitors.

We have alluded to fit in previous portions of this series in some of our CSR examples.

Vail Resorts uses its Epic Promise program to focus on the environment and youth.
SCA uses its private, sustainable forest in its sustainable packaging.
New Belgium Brewery uses its energy-saving tactics when producing its beer.

When looking at these CSR activities, they all fit to their other business activities and their corporate strategies.

Porter claims, "While operational effectiveness is about achieving excellence in individual activities, or functions, strategy is about combining activities" (10). By combining activities together, you create a strong "link" that makes both replication by competitors very difficult and numerous trade-offs. According to Porter, there are three orders of fit.