How did you get involved in CSR?
Luck. After deciding to leave the mainstream business world I was short-listed to run WWF UK, but also knew the MD of Grand Metropolitan [Diageo’s predecessor] Community Services through sitting on the same Local Employer Network in Sussex. GrandMet was seeking an experienced financial and general manager to bring its charitable offshoots to the same level of business management as the rest of the company – I got the job.
Did the role meet your expectations?
I was amazed. The flagship charity – now called Tomorrow’s People – soon had 550 staff, 120 front-line offices and training centres in deprived neighbourhoods across the UK and was helping over 10,000 people every year. We developed to become one of the leading UK service-provider charities working in partnership with successive governments. We applied this same business model to establish a series of other important initiatives tackling major social issues firstly in the UK, including the Foyer Federation – youth homelessness and Cities in Schools – truancy and exclusion and then exported our experience with similar projects in the USA, India and Brazil. At the same time we imported employee volunteering in a big way from our US Pillsbury subsidiary, which significantly upped our corporate community involvement (CCI) game.
How did CCI evolve into CSR within your company?
I can identify a number of key stages within Diageo (and GrandMet). With GrandMet CCI initially meant tackling major social issues which affected the business environment where the organisation’s skills and resources could make the most effective impact. We then progressed by developing and applying CCI evaluation and measurement tools such as the PerCent Club and London Benchmarking Group and internationalising CCI and employee volunteering. We then broadened the remit to understand wider social, environmental and economic impacts and began publishing corporate citizenship reports at global and country level.
Following the GrandMet merger with Guinness to become Diageo in 1997 we had to agree and implement Diageo’s corporate values and launched the Diageo Foundation with defined areas of focus. The next step was establishing a corporate citizenship committee chaired by the CEO with a clear remit working in conjunction with audit, risk and compliance, as well as
powerful corporate citizenship sub committees, chaired by senior executives focusing on key issues. We then moved towards annual corporate citizenship reporting at global and country level meeting GRI standards, with
responsible drinking becoming a key overriding strategy of the company worldwide.
What is the most crucial aspect of sustaining CSR in a company? Continued support and commitment from the CEO, and from employees. To truly achieve this it has to align with the business case and the organisation’s values. I worked for four successive CEOs, each of whom, quite rightly, had to be convinced in turn that we were doing the right thing.
What was your best experience as a CSR manager?
Launching our community centre in South Africa with Nelson Mandela.
And your worst experience?
My first meeting with the Thalidomide campaigners who were conducting a bitter media campaign against the company following our merger with Guinness and United Distillers. Their meeting objective was to make me feel as uncomfortable as possible with their disabilities. They succeeded.
What achievement are you most proud of?
Building trust with the “thalidomiders” over five years and reaching an amicable full and final settlement. Enabling Tomorrow’s People to help over 400,000 people achieve complete independence and sustainability. My part in fully embedding CSR in Diageo businesses across the world.
And least proud of?
Despite the huge strides taken in responsible business by leading companies, both large and small, too often it still tends to be the “usual suspects”. I know that CSR practioners are invariably willing to share their knowledge with others; and there are an outstanding selection of CSR consultancies who have helped their clients achieve great success. Yet there are still too many businesses [estimated at 75% worldwide] who don’t get it, or at least don’t really do it.
What is your view on the growing influence of investors and consumers?
I’m only semi-convinced about both these stakeholders in upholding CSR. I think that long-term fund-based investors do take it into account, particularly when assessing risk and reputation, and obviously the SRI Funds are very concerned. However the sell-side analysts and hedge funds have very little interest beyond the last quarter’s results or even the last five minutes on the equity markets.
Consumer power can be very influential, for example on eco-friendly products. However actual buying behaviour does not always reflect attitudinal surveys and there tends to be a lot of inconsistency in how consumers behave across different aspects of their personal purchasing.
How do you perceive government’s role in CSR?
As regulators and major purchasers in any economy, governments are crucial to business. There have been some excellent examples of different sectors working together to develop solutions to particular social and environmental issues. On the other hand governments sometimes expect companies to respond to a predetermined agenda and can be overbearing in engaging business.
What issues make you pessimistic about CSR in the future?
I have two major anxieties. The first is about CSR programmes which are not genuinely anchored in the business but based on PR fluff and short-termism – I have always worried that these could bring “CSR” into disrepute and undermine the real players; there has to be consistency and depth in the way an organisation, or sector, behaves or otherwise corporate reputation is severely at risk.
My second anxiety is the effect of a serious economic downturn – for example on some of the tremendous work being done with regard to the environment. This probably reflects my wider concern with society and government priorities lurching from long-term sustainable solutions to short-term financial considerations.
What gives you cause for optimism?
I am convinced from my twenty years service within one of the “usual suspects” that responsible business is now part of the organisational DNA of those leading companies. Values, policies and codes, public reporting and employee expectations all make it inconceivable that this approach could ever fall off the agenda.
Geoffrey Bush was director of corporate citizenship at Diageo for 10 years until his retirement in April 2007. Before 1997 he was engaged in the same mission for eight years at Grand Metropolitan, during which time he played a pivotal role in the development of the company’s approach to CSR. He continues to advise Diageo on CSR issues and is chairman of the Trustees of the Diageo Foundation. Geoffrey was also recently made a fellow of the World Academy of Art & Science (WAAS).
COMMENTS