SABMiller on Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)

‘Much more at the periphery, it [business] can fund Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) programmes aimed explicitly at meeting developmental challenges.’

Corporations rightly exist to make profit and, so long as they behave responsibly, society benefits when they succeed. So it’s no surprise that Graham Mackay, chief executive of one of the world’s largest brewers, SABMiller, is anxious to point out that multinationals will only become active participants in international development once they are convinced of the ‘hard business case’.

Mackay believes that what’s good for development is good for business. Yet what struck me was the slip (as I see it) above which follows Mackay’s statement that, ‘by far the greatest contribution business can make to development is through the very act of running its business – paying suppliers, paying wages, paying taxes’.

It seems to me that the acts Mackay describes (which I’d like to see qualified to include notions of fair trade) are the actions of a responsible business. And this is important because to have real meaning and impact social responsibility must permeate the whole of the corporation; becoming part of its nature; becoming part of the way it does business. Mackay, almost certainly inadvertently, risks separating CSR from the rest of his business in a way that can only ghettoise it. He creates an impression that so long as the odd cheque is sent off to some undoubtedly worthwhile CSR programme in Africa, business may continue as usual.

In truth, with multinationals like SABMiller facing ever greater scrutiny of their business, that trick is unlikely to be pulled off. Where business practices are believed to damage development goals – squeezing suppliers too hard or paying poverty level wages, say – it’s increasingly unlikely that discrete charitable works will be taken in mitigation. More likely, such corporations will find themselves suffering the big stick of government regulation that will curtail their profitability. Those that make social responsibility integral to the way they work, secure profit for the long term.
Contact Stephen Newton

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