COMMENT The new year is a time for reflection and looking to the future. So here’s a question to kick off 2021: why does your company do corporate social responsibility? There are hundreds of reasons why a cause might be worthwhile, but why should you care about the practice of CSR?
If the answer is simply “because you should”, or perhaps even “because you have to”, I invite you to consider the following reason: CSR makes excellent business sense. Far from being a tick-box exercise, it is a practice that opens doors and allows new connections to be made in places where we might not normally expect.
A true CSR initiative is more than a networking event which raises money for good causes, although these are undoubtedly beneficial and can raise significant funds. CSR done well can provide not only the funds, but also numerous additional benefits. This is true both for the companies and individuals involved, as well as for the assets, charities and communities they affect.
Power in numbers
Of course, at its root, CSR should be done because you have a genuine interest in the causes into which you invest time and resources. At the Noé Group, we encourage all our staff to get involved in charitable endeavours that they care about, whether work-related or otherwise. We work closely with One Great Day, one of the largest single-day fundraising events in the country. The money raised in retail and office destinations goes straight to Great Ormond Street Hospital Children’s Charity and more than 200 other children’s health charities.
Make no mistake: our work with One Great Day comes from our passion for its causes. But there is also a business lesson here. CSR makes sound commercial sense because it helps create and foster relationships that may not necessarily be available through traditional means. Corporate co-operation on charitable initiatives can build trust and allow connections to flourish where they might not normally in a purely business context.
Through One Great Day we have worked with some fantastic partners to help support fundraising up and down the country. Without corporate sponsors and partnerships with the companies and individuals within those organisations such as Savills, CBRE, Montagu Evans, Lockton, Ashdown Phillips, BMO Real Estate Partners, Lee Baron, The Hark Group, JLL and MAPP, the events could not go ahead.
Ultimately, while you can lead on CSR, you can’t do it alone. To create a truly successful CSR initiative, everyone must benefit. As the African proverb goes: “If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.”
Bonds of trust
Events such as these demonstrate the potential for co-operation across the property sector. But we can go further than this; cross-sector co-operation is not only good for the causes you are helping, it’s also good for your business. If I work with you on a CSR initiative, I’m more likely to pick up the phone on a business-related matter. Co-operation is an essential value for the property sector to be successful.
Understanding how a company operates is also important. CSR can provide a window into a company’s values. As I stated earlier, we encourage all our staff to participate in the causes that are close to their own hearts. This is something that is woven into our ethos and reflects outwardly when we do business.
So while a company’s CSR strategy should be something that comes, first and foremost, from a genuine interest in the charities and causes that they represent, there is also another benefit: building relationships through joint initiatives can open up new pathways in business. The bonds of trust that are created through CSR initiatives can go a long way to fostering good relationships and can help when it comes to business arrangements. As such, in answering to my own question, companies should care about CSR because everybody benefits in significant ways.
Zvi Noé is a founding partner of Noé Group
