Kicking off Briefing’s election edition, David Grayson calls for a profound cultural change in the next government and highlights some specific actions the next administration can take.
Writing this before the official start of the election campaign, let alone before the results are declared, one outcome appears certain. We are about to embark on a highly negative and simplistic campaign – one that is likely to alienate voters and further reduce faith in the politicians.
Consequently, politicians are likely to face an uphill struggle after the election: one that will involve rebuilding civic engagement and trust. Above all, I respectfully suggest this should include a new humility.
In a connected, global information society, where international NGOs are often more trusted than multinationals and where single-issue groups have many more active members than political parties, elected politicians are certainly important. Yet they must wake up to the fact that they now share both airtime and legitimacy with many others.
Today’s politicians need to partner with numerous interest groups on a wide range of platforms to tackle society’s ills. To do this, they and civil servants working with them, must be properly trained in stakeholder engagement. Businesses and NGOs need to start debating how public service delivery (as opposed to pure policy-making) can become more genuinely entrepreneurial and customer-focused. Such cultural changes will have a greater impact than specific policies when it comes to improving CSR and public-private-community partnerships in the UK. Nevertheless, here are a few suggestions for the next government.
Operating and Financial Review requirements on pension fund trustees stating whether they have a policy on ethical investment and specifications of competences that managers need to run businesses responsibly are clearly better than heavy-handed regulation and compulsory reporting. This too should apply at the EU level, when the new commission publishes its next CSR communiqué. Another light-touch lever would require financial institutions, which after all manage our money, to publish their voting records at company AGMs as well as their approach to responsible business strategies.
In some areas, the spirit has been willing but the flesh has been weak. The report from the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister’s private sector panel on local strategic partnerships and the challenges of making good on the government’s commitment to enterprise education in all secondary schools this year are two good examples.
The government should maintain the ministerial link between small firms and CSR. Realistically, government can add little value to the CSR agenda of large companies. Instead it can have a positive impact in helping smaller businesses make the link between environmental, social and community responsibility and improvements in profit and performance.
The link between publicly funded help for small firms and responsible business practice should be more explicit. Some regional development agencies are just beginning to explore the link between clusters of responsible businesses and competitive advantage of particular cities and regions.
There are rumours that some EU officials are pushing for compulsory product labelling. This could be unhelpful. Instead the government should encourage technological innovation. For instance, technology already exists to enable blind shoppers to hear what products are in front of them on supermarket shelves, using a handheld device that reads electronic barcodes. Why not launch a similar device for ethically minded consumers wanting to screen products?
The government should ‘walk the talk’ by encouraging its own employees to volunteer and include responsible criteria into their own purchasing. The example of the Inland Revenue and Customs & Excise successfully incorporating the BITC index shows what government can do. Overall, the challenge facing any government in the next term will be to ensure the UK’s recognised leadership in CSR contributes to international competitiveness, rather than becoming a drag.
Corporate Citizenship Briefing, issue no: 81 – April, 2005
David Grayson is a member of Briefing’s editorial advisory panel. He is chairman of the Small Business Consortium and a director of Business in the Community. David is also principal of the ‘virtual’ university for small business development professionals – BLU – which published his pamphlet Creating a more entrepreneurial public service ethos. He writes here in a personal capacity.
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