Month of March , 2007

High expense and low returns bring attention to RED's new philanthropic model.

The RED campaign, launched last year with the fanfare of celebrity endorsement and the involvement of Apple, Motorola and Gap to benefit the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, has come under attack following an AdAge article reporting that the involved companies spent $100 million on marketing and have raised only $18 million worldwide. The figures have drawn criticism from nonprofit and consumer watchdogs, along with a response from RED CEO Bobby Shriver.

The CRO can relate to the pains of transparency.

Buyer due diligence for closely held firms is a little harder than for public companies. No SEC filings to look up. And the most gruelingly self-revealing part of the due dilly process is when the buyer meets your top 10 or 20 customers and asks them what they think about you and your enterprise.

The new responsibility of personal disclosure.

Elizabeth Edwards recently announced that she has incurable cancer while her husband is running for president. In the corporate responsibility era, there’s only one way to go. Take it public. Tell your story. Then keep running to win.

140+ reports including new reports from Coca-Cola, Staples, Vodafone and others...

Corporate responsibility officers and the cruel art of probabilities

CROs, CIOs, CTOs, CSOs, CFOs and CEOs all have puzzled over a similar problem:  should we prepare for a low-probability, potentially catastrophic event more or less vigorously than we prepare for a high-probability event that is painful but not deadly?

The weird go pro. 

Over the past six months, I have met with well over 350 executives that fill the role of corporate responsibility officer.  With every day that goes by, Corporate Responsibility is becoming more of a recognized profession.  When we started The CRO back in August 2006, we counted 12 corporate responsibility officers among the Fortune 1000.   Today we count 55.

Does corporate responsibility have a gender?

When I was in French-speaking Belgium last week, I had an argument with a local guy on the topic of corporate responsibility. He claimed that the concept is “feminine,” since in French, it is preceded by “la,” which indicates a feminine noun. As in “Il fait porter la responsabilite de notre corporation.”

Shopping the eco-friendly car options.

Recently I’ve been shopping for cars. I’ve looked at gas-electric hybrids, natural gas-powered models, and even looked into importing one of the popular bio-diesel or ethanol-powered models from Europe. And yes, I’ve even looked at regular gas-powered cars.

The move for corporate responsibility in big-time college sports.

Finally, March Madness is here. I admit that as an alum of perennial basketball powerhouse UCLA, I am a bit loony about the men’s National Collegiate Athletic Association, or NCAA, hoop tourney. This year, the tournament will generate an estimated $1.2 billion in bets, another $1 billion in lost worker productivity, $132.6 million in revenues for the schools and tens of millions of potential career earnings for the star players.