CRO POV: CRO’s 100 Best Citizens List and Your Career

Climbing the list and the corporate ladder

By Jay Whitehead

When CRO magazine’s 100 Best Corporate Citizens of 2007 issue hits the streets this week, I guarantee one result: 100 companies will be very happy, and another 1,000 will not. For the past seven years, this has always rung true.

More than 1,100 companies are surveyed by Boston-based KLD Analytics, and only 100 make the list. But the list does not just happen. It is the work of literally thousands of people on the corporate practitioner side as well as on the analyst side. And the list has spawned many CRO careers.

KLD’s Peter Kinder and Eric Fernald are the duo most responsible for mustering the resources and conceiving the list each year. And they confirm that the investor relations, corporate social responsibility (CSR), compliance, legal, socially responsible investing (SRI), communications and sustainability community is chockablock full of professionals who cut their corporate responsibility teeth on making preparations for this list.

In 2007, Green Mountain Coffee Roasters will celebrate its second straight year as number one. According to the company, it is unclear whether its presence on the list has helped its stock price, its sales or its ability to recruit employees. But, says one company official, “it sure hasn’t hurt.”

Each year, the list provides quite a lot of behind-the-scenes drama. To some extent, a spot on the list goes to those who put the time, resources and sharp elbows into polishing up their corporate responsibility story. IBM staged a roaring comeback in 2007 with a number 6 ranking. That’s a testimony to a concerted effort among its corporate citizenship, investor relations and communications teams, who worked hard with KLD to get their story across.

Mattel, number 92 on this year’s list and the only toy company near the top 500, has its own story of aerobic efforts to make its corporate responsibility initiatives known. Sustainability Director Kathleen Shaver worked with a team of more than 100, aided by communications manager Jules Andres, to produce that company’s recent CSR report. Printed brilliantly on Mohawk Paper’s most environmentally friendly stock, the report sets a new standard for answering the needs of every possible flavor of Mattel stakeholder—shareholders, customers, retailers, lenders, media, community, government, suppliers, employees, board members. The company’s mastery of the corporate responsibility story necessary to put together the report obviously made an impression on the analysts at KLD.

Next year’s list will have at least one fewer company on its prospect list, due to last week’s announced merger between No. 54 Whole Foods Market and No. 59 Wild Oaks Market.

But that just makes room for more dedicated corporate responsibility pros to make a name for themselves and take the next step up the career ladder to CRO.