Four ideas to get started with CSR.

?A little over 51 years ago, the economist Milton Friedman published an article in The New York Times Magazine that upended business. Friedman argued that “The Social Responsibility of Business Is to Increase Its Profits.” You might think Gordon Gecko invented the idea that greed is good, but it was this guy.

For about 49 of those 51 years, almost everyone agreed with Friedman that businesses sole responsibility was to serve their shareholders. Yes, you must look after your customers. But the main reason you do that is to keep them buying your products.

Yet, in the past few years, something interesting started to happen. More people have begun to question whether businesses have a responsibility not just to their shareholders but to their stakeholders too: to their employees, their customers, their suppliers, the community around them.

This idea, which some people call stakeholder capitalism, began to grow and grow to the point where it wasn’t just hippies and lefties calling for it, but big bank CEOs too. Wall Street grew a conscience. You can imagine poor Milton turning in his grave.

Because what was, not long ago, something that only the biggest, wealthiest companies did has become almost ubiquitous. All kinds of companies are starting to build purpose into the fabric of their business model.

Corporate Social Responsibility, which was not long ago an obscure department on the fringes of a business, has become something that sits with CEOs and the board.

How should everyone else in the company think about it? Here are a few ideas to get you started:

1.?????Corporate Social Responsibility is not a thing you do. It’s a way of doing things. It’s a way you structure your business. At every step, at every business decision, ask: does this service not just our company but our other stakeholders too? It’s asking what you can do to positively impact the world— while also being profitable.

2.?????No business is better placed than a small but rapidly growing company to have an outsized impact. You don’t have legacy systems to overcome. You can embed purpose into the fibre of your organisation as you grow.

3.?????The way to be authentic and avoid tokenism is to use your unique business strength. Suppose you want to ban plastic straws in the office – great. Every little bit helps. But unless you are a straw manufacturing company, it’s probably not going to change the world. Do what you do, for good.

4.?????Keep your bullshit radar turned on. You may have heard about greenwashing, where companies say they are doing great things when they are not. Some of these are most definitely bad actors trying to pull the wool over everyone’s eyes. But many are likely to be well-meaning but carried away by their own PR. Think – very critically – about how others will perceive your actions. Setting a target is not the same as achieving change. Good intentions do not automatically equal good results.