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Authenticity and Audience – Being Human: interview with Mallen Baker

It seems obvious that not all your stakeholders are the same, with the same needs; yet for many companies it would seem that one size fits all when it comes to corporate responsibility reporting and communication. Simply producing a CR report isn’t enough to communicate with all of your audiences; and not all of them want all the information there is in your report.

Paul (Corporate Eye CEO) talked to Mallen Baker about the importance of identifying the different audiences for your corporate responsibility communications: about providing them with the information that interests them; about creating the opportunity to engage with them and to discuss the issues that matter.

I’ve broken the interview down into smaller pieces, so that you can quickly find particular points you’d like to hear about. I’ve also included the whole interview and a transcript.

Part 1: Tailoring content and conveying authenticity

Key topics:

  • understanding the different audiences
  • tailoring content for those audiences
  • conveying authenticity and generating trust

Soundbites:

“The key distinguishing features between a good report online and a mediocre one are a couple of things. First of all is that the company is clear about who its audience or audiences are… and the second part is the integrity of information and the authenticity of the voice that you’re hearing.”

“If you care about your audiences, you use a medium and an approach that they will relate to as your starting point.”

“Consumers see through the fluff very quickly. And all of the polls show that they’re becoming more and more cynical about the claims that companies make in the environmental and ethical space.

[audio:https://www.corporate-eye.com/main/audio/mallen-baker-interview-pt-01.mp3] Length: 8:40
Download: Mallen Baker interview: part 1

Part 2: Communicating commitment

Key topics:

  • the Centrica report interviews
  • CEO commitment; embedding sustainability in the business
  • discussing issues that are in the public domain

Soundbites:

“[they] had the courage to step up and say ‘We are prepared to be placed in an area that’s just slightly outside of the comfort zone’ ”

“Whenever there’s a controversy in the press relating to a company the first thing that I will do is go to their website and see what they say about it… the mind boggles just how often the answer to that question is ‘Nothing'”

[audio:https://www.corporate-eye.com/main/audio/mallen-baker-interview-pt-02.mp3] Length: 4:13
Download: Mallen Baker interview: part 2

Part 3: Authenticity and audit

Key topics

  • third party commentary
  • collaborating with the audience to solve a problem
  • using neutral spaces to exchange ideas and information

Soundbites:
“Having trusted third parties who have had the time – and the incentive presumably – to look carefully at what the company’s doing and to talk to them, and then to give their own reflections, good and bad… that generally plays pretty well”

“The other thing that provides authenticity is when people not only are admitting that something has gone the wrong way this year but actually seek to engage their audiences with problems that they face that they haven’t yet worked out how to solve”

“It’s shifted the focus a little bit from ‘the company is the star, the company is the centre of the universe’ and puts it into a position where there are sustainability issues and the company is one of the actors… one of the creators of environmental consequences alongside the rest of society”

[audio:https://www.corporate-eye.com/main/audio/mallen-baker-interview-pt-03.mp3] Length: 7:15
Download: Mallen Baker interview: part 3

Part 4: Audience and integrated reporting

Key topics:

  • integrated reporting
  • importance of the audience
  • interim sustainability reporting

Soundbites:

“integrated reporting could be … a very positive thing, and potentially a dangerous thing in equal measure.”

“The encouraging thing is that… it will lead you to be clear about the communication that you send to one of your key audiences… the danger, the downside, is if you begin to believe that that integrated report is what you produce for all of your stakeholder audiences.”

“Many of your direct stakeholders do not get their information from reports.”

“Where you are engaging your customers or your supply chain or your employees with what you are doing and what’s happened, then the more up-to-date and current that is, and preferably more of a discussion and two-way flow that is, then the more likely you’re going to succeed.”

[audio:https://www.corporate-eye.com/main/audio/mallen-baker-interview-pt-04.mp3] Length: 6:47
Download: Mallen Baker interview: part 4

Part 5: Social media and CSR

Key topics:

  • the right social media mindset
  • going to where the audience is
  • expanding the audience for CSR

Soundbites:

“You can’t have a discussion with a corporate entity. You can only have a discussion with a human being or a highly trained parrot.”

“One of the big challenges for the companies who are used to corporate communications and to being faceless – except for maybe the CEO in certain contexts – is that they find it very difficult to shift to a medium where it’s personal.”

“If you really want to engage the people who are your stakeholders… you need to go to where they naturally gather. And social media potentially creates tools that enable you to do that.”

[audio:https://www.corporate-eye.com/main/audio/mallen-baker-interview-pt-05.mp3] Length: 9:13
Download: Mallen Baker interview: part 5

Part 6: Trends in CSR communication

Key topics:

  • conflicting trends in CSR communication
  • legislation and innovation
  • the human element; stories

Soundbites:

“The evolution of corporate responsibility reporting or sustainability reporting to date is completely unsustainable in itself, ironically, because… the current state of the art doesn’t connect with audiences.”

“The trend has been more and more GRI reports, more and more standardisation. And I start to see a counter trend now, which is from the leading companies [who are starting to say] “We’re going to find ways that actually communicate better with some of our key audiences… we’re interested in finding the way that works.”

“It’s the human element, the story. … and it is the most elusive element because it requires you to be prepared to corporately communicate on a human level. That will always be a minority sport. But I think there can be some very, very good rewards for those who will pick up the intelligence about how it’s done well and give it a go.”

[audio:https://www.corporate-eye.com/main/audio/mallen-baker-interview-pt-06.mp3] Length: 7:32
Download: Mallen Baker interview: part 6

Here’s the whole interview, in case you’d rather listen to it end-to-end; and the transcript, for those who prefer to read.

[audio:https://www.corporate-eye.com/main/audio/mallen-baker-interview.mp3] Length: 43.43
Download: Mallen Baker interview (whole interview)
Download: Transcript

Many thanks to Mallen for taking the time to talk to Paul.

Who were we speaking to?

Mallen BakerMallen Baker is a writer, speaker and strategic advisor on corporate social responsibility and Founding Director of Business Respect. He is responsible for the Business Respect email newsletter on CSR, which is the longest running CSR internet newsletter in the world.

He is a regular columnist and contributing editor with Ethical Corporation.

Mallen was formerly the development director with Business in the Community, where he was responsible for developing BITC’s approach to marketplace issues, which includes how companies manage issues that arise around their core products and services. He produced the Marketplace Responsibility Principles working with a leadership team of CEOs from major companies headquartered in the UK.

He initiated the Business Impact Review Group – the group of 20 companies who developed a common approach to CSR reporting, and was responsible for the work of the Business Impact Taskforce which produced the landmark “Winning with Integrity” report.

Mallen chaired Kingfisher plc’s Stakeholder Advisory Panel 2007-2010, and was a board member of CSR Europe 2006 – 2008.

A new dawn for new business?

Let’s start this post with a little quiz.

Who here’s heard of the GRI?  Excellent, that’s nearly all of you.  Those with your hands down need to go off and do a little homework .

Now then, who’s heard of Ceres or the Tellus Institute?

Ah not so many of you, but then again that’s not too surprising.  Both are US based sustainability institutes: Ceres looks at it from the business and investment point of view while the Tellus Institute is more involved in policy formulation and research.  Together they founded GRI, although it is now a fully independent organisation.

Last question: who’s heard of GISR, the Global Institute for Sustainability Ratings?

Oooh, one, two .. a few more hands.  Not that many though.  Well, to be fair it was only unveiled a couple of months ago.  Like GRI it’s involved in the sustainability standards game, and like GRI it’s being established by Ceres and the Tellus Institute.

So, what you might ask, is the point of GISR?  What does it do which GRI doesn’t do?  Apart from give us yet another acronym to get confused by, that is.

[Read more…] about A new dawn for new business?

10 things a sustainability website should show | Part 2 of 2

This is Part Two of an examination of the 10 things a sustainability website should contain, based upon the Network for Business Sustainability’s list of 10 Things New Sustainability Managers Need to Know.

Click here for Part One.

6) How does the company measure its environmental impacts?

This is such a crucial question it’s often overlooked.  Every single sector, every single company, will have different environmental, social and sustainability impacts.  The current trend towards emissions and water use reporting, while welcome, is little more than a statement of the lowest common denominator.

At it’s heart sustainability is about examining how each individual company can improve its own performance and leave this kind of herd mentality behind.  So how does the company measure it’s impact, and what is unique about how it does so?

7) How does our sustainability attract and retain employees?

Another crucial question.  Sustainability is often allied to marketing and PR but is rarely linked to human resources.  However if sustainability is just as pertinent to a business’ operations as turning a profit, then it should be just as firmly embedded into the business’ recruitment and retention processes.

In all my years looking at corporate sustainability websites I’ve seen only a handful which have linked sustainability to recruitment and retention, and possibly only one which did so in a convincing manner.  This is still a growth area and one which any business serious about sustainability should seek to engage in.

8) How does the company mitigate climate change?

On the current science, this is all about emissions, but it’s a little more subtle than that.  “Mitigate” implies it is going to happen while most businesses appear to believe it’s all about stopping it from happening.

My personal perspective is that it IS happening and we have to adapt to survive.  So what adaptation is your company embarking upon?  Emissions reduction could be the least of your problems: perhaps you’re vulnerable to flooding or extreme weather conditions.  Have you even thought about these factors, ten or twenty years down the line?

9) What is business sustainability?

A hoary old chestnut, yet one around which there is still a lot of debate.  Yet it makes sense that if a business is claiming to be sustainable it should at least define, on its website, what it believes sustainability means.  You’d be surprised at how many don’t.

10) What further information is available on sustainability?

As I keep repeating, one of the major challenges of sustainability is for businesses to pull together in common cause rather than fight one another.  It’s not uncommon for a business website to point to resources published by NGOs, newspapers, research institutions and trade bodies.

What is uncommon is for a business’ website to point to one of their competitors and say “this is an initiative we aim to follow”.  Yet doing so is vital for a corporate website, not just because it fosters collaboration but also because it shows how seriously a business takes sustainability when compared to (say) profit.

Conclusion

It’s clear from this brief tour of what corporate sustainability websites should contain that there are many possible avenues which by and large remain unexplored by mainstream business communications.  This is partially because websites tend to fall within the remit of PR and marketing departments whose desire is to give as positive a spin on the company’s performance as possible.

Whilst this is an admirable ambition, it usually shuts off the need for a sustainable company to be transparent in the effects its operations has.  Overall, it is this need for transparency which represents the greatest challenge for any sustainable corporate website.

The new GRI on the block

New GRI on the block

Think GRI, think the Global Reporting Initiative in Amsterdam whose G3 framework has become the de facto standard for large businesses to report their sustainability against.

However there’s now a new GRI on the block, and I don’t mean the G4 framework which is due to be published in 2013.

The Glamis Research Institute is a Mauritius based business and academic research foundation and is part of the same group of companies as Glamis International, an education provider partnered with a number of UK academic and business establishments.

This institute has released its own sustainability model which, rather cheekily, it’s trademarked as the GRI Sustainability Model.  To differentiate from the GRI, I’ll refer to the institute as GResI.

At first glance, both Glamis International and GResI raise certain concerns.  They look like quite a small operation and the websites of both are sparse in places.

However the GResI Sustainability Model is worth looking at because it draws together various aspects in an approach I’ve not come across before.

[Read more…] about The new GRI on the block

Teach a man to fish… | Renewing CSR 2/3

It seems almost crass to hitch yet another article to the Murdoch dark star, but a quote the other day really sums up what this post is about.

I can’t remember who it was .. Matthew Parris perhaps (former Tory MP), or possibly Nick Robinson (BBC Political Editor).

Either way, the quote ran something like this:

You have to remember this is all about power .. who has power over whom and why.

No other phrase could sum up what business-as-usual is all about quite as succinctly.

This is what is meant by office politics: the judicial exercising of power over others, and it is that which defines a business on the wider stage, not necessarily its commercial offering.

So let’s take this from the top.

[Read more…] about Teach a man to fish… | Renewing CSR 2/3

The New Big Beast Of CSR Reporting?

Whenever a journalist describes anything as a “big beast” I always instinctively think of the leading UK politician, Ken Clarke (pictured).

Don’t ask me why .. I guess he’s managed that rare thing of an almost completely successful political career and it’s difficult to think of a political beast with bigger Hush Puppies and more cigars than he.

Which is kind of how the CSR reporting community tend to regard GRI these days.  It is the de facto standard for reporting and if you don’t do GRI you’re generally regarded as somehow second best.

However I recently found myself on the website of the Federation of European Accountants (it’s an exciting life I lead) and from there a quick hop, skip and jump brought me to the “KPIs for ESG” document published last September by the German Society of Investment Professionals (DVFA). (ESG: environmental, social and governance).

At which point my jaw hit the ground .. here was something which could really rival GRI’s dominance.

Actually this is ESG, not CSR

The first thing to make clear is that these are KPIs for ESG, whereas GRI is generally skewed more towards the CSR side of reporting.  You can argue the difference between the two and still never get a satisfactory answer.  They are nevertheless different facets of the same diamond .. unsustainable and unethical behaviour looked at from different points of view.

The second is that ESG is generally a lot tighter and less woolly than CSR.  This is because its perspective is that of investors, and they tend to be a pretty no nonsense bunch who can easily see through the flimflam which can make up a large proportion of many CSR reports.

For instance, although KPIs for ESG has no overarching general reporting framework it makes certain general points precisely and without ambiguity.  These include:

  • companies should use integrated reporting; ie. include ESG KPIs within their annual reports
  • data should be continuous; ie. there should be no material or time gaps and data should always be kept up to date (e.g. on websites)
  • data should be published through annual reports, on websites and as a normal part of analyst publications
  • supporting reference data should also be published which includes financial, numerical and industry benchmark figures.

Thanks to the causes of the current recession investors have lost their appetite for complicated and opaque financial returns: it is appropriate that a high level of transparency is woven into any form of ESG reporting guidelines.

KPIs for EGS : Oil & Gas, Pipeline

Sectoral KPIs

Where KPIs for ESG really comes into its own is in its sectoral measurements.  These are a list of indicators which companies can report against according to their sector, based upon the Dow Jones categorisation of 114 industry subsectors (the same classification Corporate Eye uses).

For example, the Oil & Gas group has KPIs for exploration & production, integrated oil & gas operations, equipment & services, pipelines, renewable energy, and alternative fuels.  In total this spans 149 KPIs ranging from political donations (mid-level); cost of oil spill remediation and fines (high level), and fines and lawsuits on anti competitive behaviour (entry level).

For the record, the other groups covered are: Basic Materials, Industrials, Consumer Goods, Health Care, Consumer Services, Telecommunications, Utilities, Financials, and Technology.

Not competition, collaboration

I’m tempted to say that there’s not a lot more that most businesses could need as a set of KPIs to report against.  Certainly, the indicators seem to be well thought out and fit the businesses they’re aimed at very well.

What really puzzles me, though, is GRI and their continuing work on sector supplements.  Surely here is a great springboard for them to use?  So instead of being big beasts all hunting separately in the jungle of sustainability, these organisations ought to get together and work it out between them.

In fact, this is already happening behind the scenes and there is a lot of momentum now growing for a universal set of CSR/ESG reporting KPIs.  I’m just amazed that these haven’t been given any greater publicity .. does anyone know why?

Picture Credit: shadow business secretary Kenneth Clarke by Underclass Rising under Creative Commons Attribution Share Alike License.