Press Release

For Further Information
Cheryl Kiser
kiserch@bc.edu
617/552-8948
617/552-4545

September 4, 2000

Japanese Business Group to Tap Into Center Expertise

Chestnut Hill, Mass. -- A Japanese economic organization hopes to strengthen its region’s fledgling tradition of corporate citizenship by studying the correlation between social and financial performance among businesses in the United States.

A group of executives and academics from the Kansai Economic Federation’s Committee on Good Corporate Citizenship, will meet Sept. 14 with staff and researchers at the Boston College Center for Corporate Community Relations.

"We’re honored to be hosting this group and heartened by the fact that the Japanese business sector, like many U.S.-based companies, are beginning to identify corporate citizenship as a business essential," said Bradley K. Googins, executive director of the Boston College Center for Corporate Community Relations. "This visit springs from a shift in the Japanese perspective that societal well-being is the sole province of government, and the corporation is obligated only to its own network of employees, suppliers, customers and shareholders. It’s only recently that this view of the corporation’s role has broadened to include the wider community. We feel that through our knowledge of best practices, our research findings and our Standards of Excellence in Corporate Community Involvement, we can help corporations develop the community relationships that will improve society and strengthen their own bottom line."

The group of 10-15 people representing different industries will be led by Kanji Kobayashi, vice chairman of Nippon Life Insurance Co. The Committee on Good Corporate Citizenship will publish its findings in March. Its report will look at how companies can better contribute to the sound development of the community by working in collaboration with employees, local governments and nonprofits.

The Boston College Center for Corporate Community Relations is an international membership organization that provides research, executive education, consultation and convenings on issues of corporate citizenship. Since 1985 The Center has created the skills and competencies for community relations practice. The Center created the first Standards of Excellence for Corporate Community Involvement, with a companion Diagnostic Tool that helps corporations assess and plan their corporate community involvement. The Standards are a comprehensive tool for measuring and benchmarking a company's corporate community involvement activities across all business functions.

Through its research, knowledge building and Certificate Programs, The Center is the leading organization helping corporations rethink their role in the community. Its mission is to educate businesses to view community involvement as a business essential, and to help them incorporate it as an organizational strategy that will create healthy, sustainable communities in which to live, work and do business.

For more information, or to attend all or part of the delegation’s visit to the Boston College Center on Corporate Community Relations, please contact Cheryl Kiser at the above phone number or email address.