CSR in practice

In the last couple of weeks, we have talked a lot about what CSR means for a company. It was the theme of our annual Brand Growth Event, but it was also a topic of the several different processes in which we participated. By listening to the stories during our Brand Growth Event, hearing the academic perspective and analysing the Brand Growth study results, I have learnt three important lessons from the research, science and a lot of practitioner’s stories that I would like to share.

First, CSR starts with the way you involve people. For me, that means that a good CSR strategy starts with Equality, Diversity, and Inclusivity in the company. How do you create an environment where everyone feels safe and appreciated? I think this is one of the most important and also difficult tasks you have as an entrepreneur. You might have the best intentions, but you never know how the company appreciates it. For that reason, we have developed an extensive program for development and education, focusing on equality and diversity, trying to be as transparent and open as possible, and taking care of the vitality of people (both mental and physical). And very importantly: We measure the level of joy our employees feel in their work daily and use that as a direct starting point for conversations in the way we manage the company. The results of the “Happy Meter” are therefore a crucial part of the success of our overall strategy.

The second lesson I’ve learned is the way how to contribute to society. By sponsoring the BeatBatten foundation, asking people to be part of sponsoring events, integrating people that have more distance from the job market and supporting different initiatives like SIRE we hope we can contribute back to society. The challenge here is that you do not want to put too much emphasis on this and make it part of the communication. In my personal belief, doing good is something you do and do not talk about.

The final part, is supporting the industry in which we work. We have a very active content strategy in which we share as much as possible with the industry, support academia by funding PhD jobs, and exchange expertise & knowledge. The aim is to increase the importance of market research and support research that improves research. We are promotors for our own profession and this means that you have to play an active role. Besides all that, we also conduct a lot of research ourselves and present the results at many different conferences. The Brand Growth Event focusing on CSR that we organised ourselves was excellent, as reflected by the high rating of 8.9. That proves that people are interested in relevant content and that market research should also be more open to new findings and insights.

These three points are crucial in the development of a good CSR strategy. The stories that I have heard during our Brand Growth event supported this. It also shows that the CSR strategy has to be related to the core values of a company in order to make it credible and trustworthy.