Teaching about Corporate Social Responsibility

CSR can be a course in its own right, or at the very least treated as a topic in many management courses.

When teaching CSR as a topic, I’ve found that an excellent starting point is to have the students watch and then discuss the speech given by Bill Gates when he was awarded with an honorary doctorate at a Harvard University graduation ceremony in 2007. His approach to CSR was the theme of his inspiring speech to the assembled graduates. He set the seed for the new graduates to use their new careers in a positive way to adder inequities throughout the world.

After some light-hearted “one-liners”, like referring to himself as Harvard’s most successful dropout, he went straight to his theme. His concern for the great inequities between the haves and the have-not’s in the world, and how he and his wife Melinda have set about focusing their energies and resources in this space. 

He explained that as one enters a career path, responsible managers, professionals and executives must not just focus on earning a living, but must also give back to society. Just start by donating a few dollars a month and  couple of hours  each week to a worthwhile cause, he explained. For him and his wife their challenge was to do the most good, for the greatest number with the resources that they had.

The world could be changed for the better, he implored his hushed audience if capitalists and their governments recognised the challenges to do something about reducing the inequities in society that so concerned his family.

After outlining the processes necessary in his opinion for people and organizations in developed societies like the USA to address the inequities, he turned his focus onto the Harvard community, and how they could contribute to the process. The Harvard administrators should employ faculty with compassion, he stressed. For the privileged students, he implored a need for them to consciously learn about the problems facing the under-privileged; poverty, hunger, no education and diseases that can be cured.

The speech concluded with him exhorting each of the graduates to personally take on a social issue, and to use the technologies that weren’t available when he was a student to assist in managing it. To modestly use their talent and energy throughout their careers to change lives and make a difference. His audience were inspired, and responded with a standing ovation.

The full 29 minute speech can be viewed on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AP5VIhbJwFs (30 minutes)

Discussion with the class can vary, depending upon the professional nature of the course. For marketing students, discussion might be around fair trade practices. Economics topics might explore how graduates can help towards the ethical management of natural resources. In strategic management courses I have the students discuss Gate’s model for addressing a problem by determining a goal, followed by the crafting of actions, and then concluding with a review of the impact that the strategy set out to achieve. The opportunities for discussion are limitless. Where possible, I put it to students to individually make a pledge to themselves as to how they might make a contribution towards the betterment of society. In some courses, students might well come from countries where they have experienced or witnessed some of the problems outlined by Gates. For others, they might have come from social settings where the charitable culture as outlined in the Harvard speech did not exist.

The theory of the Triple Bottom Line can be addressed with many case studies demonstrating the culture of this at work. InterfaceFlor, a world leader in the manufacture of carpet tiles is an excellent example, with plenty of resources available on YouTube. Founder and CEO, Ray Anderson at around the turn of the century began a strategy for their operations to be 100% sustainable by 2020. I recommend two videos worth using. One is a TED Talk (2009) where Anderson outlines his vision and refers to the genesis of his approach, the Paul Hawkins book, The Ecology of Commerce. The second is a six-minute case study showing operations in one of the InterfaceFlor factories, demonstrating his sustainability goals in action. Here are the respective links;

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iP9QF_lBOyA&t=219s (16 minutes)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IPQ9x_Y2of4&t=2s (6 minutes)

In a recent course on managing innovation and entrepreneurship I went a step further. The class was made up with students from 12 different countries. I had them help me with planning a crowd funding campaign to assist a young entrepreneur in The Gambia. This approach was in line with the Gates philosophy for professionals to give something back to society in some meaningful manner.

Here’s what I put to the class.

Alhagi Touray from The Gambia in West Africa was an active user of Linkedin, and he connected with me through my article about mentoring young entrepreneurs.

( https://www.dhirubhai.net/in/alhagi-touray-0a2540177/ ) 

He was a similar age to the class average, and was developing a commercial vegetable garden on about 1,000 square meters of land owned by his family. A reliable, and low cost source of water was a problem. His only source came from a neighbour’s tap 200 meters away.

We often hear of dodgy messages and scams from West Africa, asking for personal details. But Alhagi’s approach was not like these. His profile described him as a vegetable gardener with ambition. After a few exchanges on Linkedin, we began talking via WhatsApp. I discovered that he had a commercial vegetable garden on some thousand square meters of land that he said belonged to his family. I was still cautious, so revealed very little about myself or my family. His horticultural practices appeared to be restricted by a limited supply of water, drawn from one neighbour’s tap and another’s well. Both about 200 meters from his allotment. We discussed the use of a garden hose, so I sent to him a 30 meter roll and some clip fittings by post. I included about eight packets of vegetable seeds out of interest.

When the parcel eventually arrived, he expressed his sincere gratitude. Though the hose was too short, my intention was to give him the idea to source some more locally. His use of the seeds was interesting. Instead of using them all for new crops, he is experimenting with them to test their adaption to local conditions.

In another string of communications, he asked if I could source an iPad to enhance his use of social media. Putting this request to one of my other MBA cohorts, one student was prepared to donate her old iPhone 8 as she was soon to upgrade to an iPhone 11.

Again, after a long delay through the postal services it arrived into his grateful hands. By this stage it was clear that Alhagi was genuine in his ambition to improve the quality and output and  from his commercial vegetable operations. His produces supplies his family and to generate an income from sales at the local markets in his town, Brikama. I was now so impressed by his honesty and intentions that I made a commitment to start a crowd funding campaign for the bore that he so desperately needs.

The target to sink the bore and install the necessary infrastructure was us$7,500 dollars. Alhagi provided me with the quotation from a contractor, Mr Darboe Jula.

I have spoken on the phone with him to qualify details of the materials and costs, and am satisfied with his credentials. The local water has a salinity of 31 - 35 ppm.

The class discussion turned to honesty. Several students raised concern about the management of the funds raised from this campaign. Fortunately, I had identified the Mentor a Child Foundation, a registered charity in The Gambia,

This not for profit charity was founded by Dr Sanusi Drammeh, a hospital doctor in London, and active in the Gambian ex-pat community. His associates in the MCF in The Gambia mentor secondary school students with their career ambitions. When I put Alhagi’s story to them, they offered their support. They have communicated with him, and will project manage the installation of the bore. Importantly, this will include handling of all the moneys required for the project.

There was genuine interest by the cohort in the case, and when launched, some of the students made donations, while others committed to promoting the campaign through their own social media networks. If this has captured your interest, have a read of my recent article, published below.

This crowd funding exercise proved to be a very useful and practical way to demonstrate the take-up of the challenge put by Bill Gates to the Harvard graduates in his 2007 address.

For those readers who teach this topic, feel free to use this approach, or elements of it as outlined above,

With thanks,

Dr Paul Szuster. 

DBA MABP MBA FUAAA FAICD BA Dip Ed