Looking Back

At the end of September, Steve Rochlin, The Center’s long time Director of Research and Policy Development, left to take on a new role as Head of AccountAbility North America. In this article Steve looks back on his time at The Center.

October 2006

I remember vividly how puzzled I felt some 11 years ago, applying for a job at what was then The Center for Corporate Community Relations at Boston College. Corporate community relations? Corporate social responsibility? Corporate citizenship? To me, this was all a foreign tongue. Friends of certain ideologies scoffed. “Sounds like oxymorons,” they said.

But I discovered that Center founder Ed Burke, a committed staff, and a growing number of pioneering companies were up to something big. Where it was all going was hard to predict. I remember peppering any and every Center member I could find with a thousand questions. A few answers were discouraging. I recall more than a few cynics, saying for example that the best way to engage with lower income communities was “not at all.” Too many told me, “we wouldn’t touch them with a 10 foot pole.”

But most answers enlightened. What impressed me so profoundly was to watch the growth of an amazing group of corporate citizenship professionals. Because they were so committed to their businesses, they knew that they could do nothing less then demand their companies meet the highest standards of excellence and leadership in the way they treated society.

First they focused on how their companies worked with communities. And then, as they began to see beyond their home site to take in the full, chaotic, and shifting implications of a global society, they began to demand more. Can we be proud of the good we do for communities if we don’t do well by our employees, they asked. Can we succeed as a business if we don’t practice the highest ethics and live our values? Can we be a good citizen if we do not sustain the natural environment? Do our values stop at our front door, or must we insist that those we choose to work with as partners and suppliers live up to our own high standards? Is it enough to communicate what we do, or must we become accountable to our stakeholders?

I have watched and studied these individuals pursue answers to these questions with passion and patience; with great vision and pragmatism; with no road map to guide them but with what I can only describe as a sense of unwavering faith. Although too numerous to single out by name, these people are my heroes.

I’d like to think that during the last 11 years The Center has been a valuable friend, mentor, and partner on the journey these leaders have made. As we have seen the field evolve from check writing, to volunteering, to community investment, to cross-sector partnerships, to the “triple bottom line,” to stakeholder engagement, to reporting, to standards, to socially responsible investing, to sustainability, to social innovation, to human rights in business, to value propositions for values, to investing in the base of pyramid and many others, I’d like to think that The Center has had a positive, influential role.

I think about Brad Googins’ decision – so controversial at the time – for The Center to change its name and broaden its focus to corporate citizenship. It wasn’t just the right choice, it was in hindsight the only choice that could have been made. It was an obligation for The Center to work on the broader relationships of business and society.

In this time The Center has carved a unique role. Neither apologist nor detractor for business, its role has been to provide a clear eyed view for business. We have been a scout and sensor to identify the critical trends that business must take on to ensure a healthy climate to live, work, and do business. And we have lived in the gray area between theory and practice. We have worked to help define the necessary concepts, and then figure out how to bring them to life in practice. A colleague loved to repeat the quote by Peter Drucker, “In the end, even the greatest strategy degenerates into work.” We have always focused on the work of corporate citizenship and have built the tools, systems, and approaches to make the concepts of corporate citizenship real.

I am awed to look at 11 years and see the incredible progress that the field has made. But there is so much more to do.

I agree with the challenge issued by Timberland CEO Jeff Swartz at The Center’s last conference. To paraphrase, together we have succeeded in establishing the legitimacy of the idea that corporate citizenship is a business fundamental. At this point, it’s becoming almost silly to argue that companies should not be involved with communities, the environment, in promoting more inclusive economic prosperity, and in building ethical operations. Now, over the next 11 years, we have to set about showing what difference we can make, and deliver nothing less than breathtaking results on the promises we have all been making.

For me, this journey will keep me in the field, but move me to a new challenge as I open up the North American presence for London-based AccountAbility. I will keep my ties to The Center as a Senior Fellow, and through the partnership of the Global Leadership Network. And while my body will leave The Center, my heart will always remain with its mission, its amazingly talented staff, it’s incredible group of leaders on its Advisory Board, and of course its members.

Thanks to all of you for giving me the privilege of being your colleague and partner during these last 11 years.