What Is Your Corporate Call To Duty?

This article is co-written by James O’Brien and Anders Liu-Lindberg

It’s not uncommon that you’ll hear that companies are only interested in profits and don’t care about the consequences of their actions. However, we have to question if that is truly good business in the long run. Corporate Social Responsibility has been one way of trying to force corporations to think differently about their role in society and how they go about their business. However, there’s also an intrinsic way of looking at this. If you look at your employees as individuals and ask what their call to duty is you might find a different answer to running a sustainably business than what is forced upon the company from the outside. In fact, we’d argue that having employees with a strong call to duty is a sign of a company with strong Business Acumen. That’s also the topic of our on-going series where we look at what it really takes to make money. 

What is all this talk about Call To Duty – explain please! 

Let’s look at what call to duty or duty of care really means and then elaborate with a few examples just to say that, of course, it’s still about value creation i.e. we’re not arguing that every company should become a not-for-profit organization. Here’s what duty of care refers to based on the research behind the Business Acumen Gauge. 

• Acting in cohesion and solidarity with others
• Caring about the impact that actions and decisions have on others
• Being an advocate for your organization
• Being accountable for what you do
• Active consideration of the impact of decisions on future generations

You should look for the footprint of duty of care in your company through the ethics which are prevalent, its values, the organizational vision, the commitments the company makes and the ownership it takes for its actions. If these factors do not promote individuals to act as described above it’s not going to go well for your company in the long run.

Next let’s test if acting as described would lower or even work against the company being profitable. 

• Working with cohesion and solidarity could just as well equate to teamwork and working together towards shared goals. In fact, it would be great if the company is full of this rather than people working for themselves or against each other.
• Caring about how what you do impact others essentially goes to how you build trust and relationships with people. In most businesses, today it’s very difficult to be successful without being trustworthy and having many good relationships with colleagues and business partners.
• Advocating for the company or organization you work for should be good for attracting customers and employees. Everyone wants to join a winner so when you brand your company as one it’s not hard to see the benefits.
• Being accountable is also something that builds trust within an organization and fosters teamwork and collaboration. When people know they can count on you it helps them focus on what they need to do themselves.
• Thinking about future generations goes a long way towards running a long-term sustainable business. If all you care about is making the next quarterly numbers the likelihood of you being out of business within the next couple of years is probably quite high. It’s also tightly connected to the vision of your company. If you truly work towards your vision you would also be answering the question of why the company should exist in the future. It can only exist by fulfilling its role in society in a positive way.

In our opinion, there’s nothing in above that would drag down the profitability of your company and definitely not in the long run. In fact, it's quite the opposite. That means having a strong corporate call to duty = good business. 

It still sounds a bit fluffy – how can I test this in my organization? 

To test whether you and your colleagues have a strong call to duty you could ask and answer some of the following questions. 

• Do you take responsibility for the wellbeing of your staff/colleagues?
• Are you socially perceptive and responsive?
• Can you influence and persuade others for the organizational good?
• Are you a steward for the organization’s future?
• Do you show an active concern about the economic health of the organization?
• Do you show an active concern about the social health of the organization?
• Do you show an active concern about the environmental health of the organization?
• Do you show an active concern about the morale of the organization?
• Do you show an active concern for the welfare of the communities that the organization serves?
• Do you monitor and mitigate compliance risks?
• Do you understand that the organization is part of a much wider community?

At your next team meeting try to raise some of these questions and see how your staff/colleagues respond. It will be very telling not only if they have a strong call to duty but also if they have high or low engagement in their jobs and the company. We don’t think you can be highly engaged without a strong call to duty. 

Do you have a strong corporate call to duty and are you highly engaged in your work and your colleagues? If the answer is no it doesn’t necessarily mean that you don’t have strong Business Acumen but perhaps simply that you should look for a better situation at a different company or in a different job role. Nevertheless, a strong call to duty will lead to better company results which is what Business Acumen is all about! 

This is the twelfth article in the Business Acumen series where James represents the CXOs wanting their teams to better understand how the company makes money and Anders represents the professionals working in support functions needing to increase their Business Acumen. You can find a link to the other articles below.

Do You Know How Your Company Makes Money?

Finance People - Adopt A Growth Mindset Or Die

Do You Have What It Takes To Make Money?

It Takes Purpose And Vision To Follow A Leader

When Others Go Deep Business Partners Go Broad

Are You Aligned To Your Company’s Strategy?

Collaboration Is What Makes 1 + 1 = 3

Is Your Resource Allocation Destroying Value?

Do You Trust Your Systems And Processes?

Guts Or Facts. You Decide!

Leadership Priority #1? Talent Development!

Anders also encourages you to take a tour of his old posts on finance transformation and not least “Introducing The Finance Transformation Nine Box” which is really the starting point for the transformation. Finally, you should join the Finance Business Partner Forum where we will continue to discuss this topic.

The CFOs Roadmap To Transforming Finance

How Finance People Can Be More Successful

The New Career Path For Finance Professionals

What Defines A Finance Master?

Financial Analyst vs. Finance Business Partner

You’re A Finance Business Partner, Now What?

How Finance Business Partners Improve Company Performance

There Is A New Kind Of CFO Needed In Town

Anders Liu-Lindberg is the Head of Global Finance Program Management Office at Maersk and has more than 10 years of experience working with Finance at Maersk both in Denmark and abroad. My main goal at Maersk is to create a world class finance function not least when it comes to Business Partnering. I am the co-author of the book “Skab V?rdi Som Finansiel Forretningspartner” and a long-time Finance Blogger with now more than 16.000 followers.