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NEWS January 15 2002
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| Review: NEW! FROM THE OXYMORON PUBLISHING CO:[1] "ETHICAL CORPORATION" MAGAZINE "Genoa 2001: Would you like this to happen outside your HQ?" asks Ethical Corporation magazine on its front cover, underneath a picture of some black-clad protesters in a cloud of tear gas. Presumably the implication is that if you take some steps towards showing how socially responsible your corporation is, then you can avoid being targeted by protesters. Ethical Corporation has, however, forgotten that many of us are not as easily fooled as all that, and that for as long as you are a corporation and your function is to increase shareholder returns, then you are a central player in increasing inequality and environmental destruction, and no amount of token gestures or greenwash can change that. Hence the magazine is full of confused messages. It wants companies to do more, and attempts to argue that it is good business sense to do so. However, the emphasis seems to be on measures which will keep criticism at bay, which is hardly a genuine foundation for altruistic behaviour, and there is no reason for any company to do more than the absolute minimum if heading off criticism is the main motivation. Indeed any company seen to be doing more than necessary might be regarded as reckless by investors. It is a magazine by business for business, so as you would expect, the sacred cow of profit-making remains unexamined, and no attempt is made to present any reason for being socially responsible other than to ensure one's reputation is maintained. Having read the entire magazine, I am still unsure what this elusive 'Ethical Corporation' looks like. It seems that it is defined by what it is not, ie. notoriously unethical. Robert Jones of Wolff Olins sets out to write about how to incorporate ethics into the core of one's business instead of treating them as an add-on. He recognises that cause-related marketing is cynical and superficial, but instead recommends finding a big idea and making that the driving purpose of the whole company, which smells suspiciously like, um, cause-related marketing on a bigger scale. Or worse, like the sort of cloying ‘team-member morale boosting’-type exercises so beloved of companies like McDonalds. One of the problems is that, surprise, surprise, nobody can agree on whether there are any examples of the fabled beast. Deborah Douane of the New Economics Foundation admits that "CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) has, to date, failed to deliver any tangible benefits on a sufficient scale", while Robert Jones seems to think there are some examples, but the cases he provides are particularly illustrative of how this approach misses the point: He claims that Virgin's big idea is "championing the consumer in the face of the big incumbent companies", thus apparently giving it his ethical seal of approval. Anyone who has tried to catch one of Virgin's train's will see how laughable this is, but more seriously, Virgin is simultaneously driving train prices up and operating an airline, thus being a major contributor to climate change. There is no use in having one ethical idea if everything else your business does is unsustainable. Deborah Douane admits that "CSR cannot save the world", but still claims that we should not give up on it. Certainly companies can make moves which improve life for some people in some places, and it is therefore hard to completely dismiss all aspects of CSR, but it seems tragic that so many thinkers and campaigners are putting so much effort into something which cannot save the world. We really don't have the time. Ultimately, Ethical Corporation, as you would expect, is a magazine of piecemeal damage limitation for people who do not have enough imagination to see that we do not need corporations and who cling to the belief that they can be part of a solution. References |