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Press Release
For Further Information
Cheryl Kiser
kiserch@bc.edu
617/552-8948
617/552-4545
New Standards for Corporate Community Involvement
BOSTON -- Corporate community involvement: a table for 10 at the charity ball or a proven business strategy with a clear link to the bottom line?
Unquestionably, the latter, according to the world's top companies.
The role of the corporation in the community is undergoing a sharp transformation. The highest corporate performers are out on the dance floor learning new steps and building relationships while the firms that haven't adapted are sitting it out at their table for 10 - the corporate equivalent of the wallflower.
The framework for approaching community involvement as an organizational strategy are the Standards of Excellence in Corporate Community Involvement, seven management principles and practices created by Boston College Center for Corporate Community Relations.
"These Standards represent a transformation of community relations practice," said Bradley K. Googins, director of the Center for Corporate Community Involvement. "They provide us with a set of guidelines to steer our companies along strategic lines, assess our progress, and most importantly, transform ways our companies and communities work in partnership for mutual gain."
The Center revised its six-year-old Standards earlier this year to reflect the growing sophistication of corporate community involvement. The Center unveiled the new Standards last month to 400 community relations professionals attending its 10th annual International Leaders Conference in Washington, D.C.
"These Standards will revolutionize the way corporations think about their external stakeholders," said Clorox Company CEO Craig Sullivan. "They are a roadmap for achieving excellence in how corporations deliver on their community involvement goals."
Clorox is among a number of companies that have embraced The Standards, including Compaq Computer Corp., IBM Corporation, Chase Manhattan Bank, Merck & Co. Inc, Eli Lilly and Company, Mintz Levin Cohn Ferris Glovsky & Popeo P.C., Avista Corporation, SBC Communications, Shell Chemical Co., Freddie Mac, Motorola, Allegany Power, Aliant Energy, Arizona Public Service, Detroit Edison, Florida Power & Light, Northern Indiana Public Service, Minnesota Power, Nstar, TXU Electric & Gas, Tampa Electric, Wisconsin Public Service, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Unilever, Wells Fargo, Just Born Inc., Rockwell, Boeing, SAFECO, Churchill Downs, Ameritech, New Balance, Olin, Stop & Shop, Polaroid, and Gillette.
The seven new Standards include a Diagnostic Tool to help businesses assess their performance as corporate citizens and plot a course for continuous improvement. The Diagnostic Tool provides detailed performance indicators that describe how to meet each Standard.
"The Diagnostic Tool and the Standards of Excellence draw a distinct link between community relations initiatives and the corporate bottom line," Googins said. "They're an invaluable tool to broker corporate transformation in community relations because they not only help companies assess their strengths and weaknesses, they equip the individual practitioner with the hard information to make the business case to senior management for deeper involvement in the community."
Business is a powerful force for change when it leverages its assets and partners with the public and nonprofit sectors to address common concerns like education, crime, health care, and housing. For instance, one Silicon Valley company is giving disadvantaged youth marketable skills and doing their part to ease the worker shortage by training 70,000 teenagers worldwide to design, install and maintain computer networks. Another company is donating its time and expertise to the New York City Board of Education to redesign a vocational school curriculum to prepare graduates for today's high technology jobs.
Corporate community involvement pays off for companies by helping them:
- Attract and retain employees in a tight job market
- Boost their attractiveness as a social investment
- Enhance their "license to operate" in the community
- Improve customer relations and attraction
- Fuel market innovation and new product development
"Leading companies view community relations as a business essential, which, done strategically, sets up a win-win for both the corporation and the community," said Lew Karabatsos, community relations program manager for Compaq and chair of the Standards of Excellence Steering Committee.
The Center for Corporate Community Relations is an international corporate membership organization that partners with businesses to strengthen their community relationships and investments to achieve healthy, sustainable communities. It does this through research, policy and education that build knowledge of the interdependence of community vitality and business success.
For more information or to be put in touch with companies that are becoming more effective corporate citizens through the Diagnostic Tool and the Standards of Excellence in Corporate Community Involvement, please contact Cheryl Kiser at the Boston College Center for Corporate Community Relations, 617.552.8948.
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