Don’t neglect or exaggerate your corporate responsibility

July 24th, 2008 at 08:30am Kylie Crull

We talk a lot about “buzz words” and how to use them to bring attention to your message and organization. Many organizations use popular buzz words to help promote and shape their image as a “green business” or “responsible corporate citizen”, which is great as long as your messaging is consistent with your corporate culture and way of doing business. Basically it comes down to being able to “walk the walk” if you “talk the talk”. A Businessweek article on July 8 addressed the issue that while there has been a surge in paid advertisements about how certain companies are addressing social and environmental issues, there has been a significant drop in corporate charitable contributions. Ethical problems and reputation damage can result when companies ignore their social responsibilities or publicize inaccurate portrayals of their corporate citizenship. According to the article, corporations should pledge 1% of pretax earnings in order to call itself a “good corporate citizen”.

The Frito-Lay product, Sun Chips is a good example of a company that has consistent and accurate messaging regarding its carbon-footprint and charitable contributions. The Sun Chips brand has a solar powered factory and has helped rebuild a town that was almost completely wiped out by a tornado. Being a good corporate citizenship should be something that is ingrained into the company culture instead being treated like a promotion.

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