David Varney, chairman of Business in the Community and mm02, warns that passive membership will no longer be acceptable.
Three factors – the centrality of business, the erosion of public trust, and the dynamics of a networked society – have come together with powerful effect, just in the past year to create a kind of ‘Perfect Storm’ for business.
As a result, a new consideration has found its way into many corporate boardrooms and executive offices, and that is reputational risk – the risk of failing to manage your reputation consistently with the goals and values of your enterprise. Loss of reputation is the greatest threat to any organisation. Enron, Tyco, WorldCom, Adelphia, Vivendi in France, and Marconi and Equitable Life in Britain – all these demonstrate how quickly – and how devastatingly – things can go wrong.
For the members of BitC, it is not a welcome sight. In some ways, it has made our job much harder over the past year. But I believe it has also done us a great deal of good. Reputational risk brings our role at Business in the Community into sharper focus. It clarifies the need for businesses to look beyond their narrow, commercial goals and incorporate a broader societal perspective.
This awareness informs our choices, alters our policies, and mitigates against abuse. It goes deep into the corporate bloodstream.
BitC was founded on the premise that commercial enterprises are inescapably linked not just to their employees and shareholders, but to their broader communities. Our aim is to inspire, challenge, engage and support businesses to improve their positive impact on society. Even in these stormy times. Especially in these stormy times. Under my chairmanship, companies will be asked to make a commitment to action. Passive membership will no longer be acceptable. We are moving from enlarging the membership of the organisation to enlarging the meaning of membership. We have developed five key principles that inform all our actions. We call them the Five I’s:
Integrity is the bedrock foundation of our operations. It underlies everything we do, and everything we expect from our members.
Inspiration propels the organisation forward, from individual to individual. We inspire business leaders to inspire action in others. It is a chain of ongoing, renewable commitment and engagement.
Integration is the means by which the programmes and tools we’ve developed are put to use. We work with businesses to develop practical, meaningful ways to integrate measurement and reporting into their mainstream practices.
Innovation is the process by which we reinvigorate our creative energies. We remain open ourselves to non-traditional approaches and invite constant examination of our practices.
And lastly, Impact is the reward. We witness it every day, in the people we meet, in the communities that experience the benefits.
Over the past two decades, the social responsibility agenda has become a fashionable part of the landscape. Government, the voluntary sector, politicians, suddenly everybody’s doing it, or talking about it. We welcome that.
But it is critical that the corporate sector remains in the driver’s seat. We are uniquely qualified because we thrive on innovation, risk-taking, and challenging the conventional. For the leaders and supporters of BitC, the Perfect Storm is the Perfect Challenge.
David Varney is the current chairman of BitC. He is also chairman of mm02, the new mobile phone operator. He was previously chief executive of BG (formerly, British Gas), which he joined after a long career with Shell.
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