The Smalrus Web Site

A friend of mine had this “i’m” symbol located next to her screenname in Windows Live Messenger. I’m not going to get into this too much right now, but it was an interesting way for internet companies to integrate themselves into the corporate social philanthropy market, by donating an unlimited amount of money to various causes. Microsoft integrates its causes through the utilization of a simple code in the user’s screenname and allows the user to align him/herself with the cause to which s/he feels most sympathetic. Nine different causes ranging from stopglobalwarming.org, Susan G. Komen for the Cure, UNICEF, or the National Multiple Sclerosis Society, donates an unspecified portion of advertisement revenue each time one sends an IM.

I’m not sure how much will be donated, or how effective the campaign will be, however it seems to fit within the advertising means by which Project (RED) functions, where the corporations are able to appeal to users through normal consumption methods (in this case instant messaging) and send donations on their behalf. It will be interesting to see what the outcome of this campaign will be and how long the campaign will even run.

I’ve been lacking things of real interest to write about here on this blog, though I must say that I’ve downloaded the new Wilco CD and it is excellent.  It sounds a little bit like Randy Newman and modern Bob Dylan, only confirming my belief that 2007 is the year of the matured artist.  In addition to the Wilco CD, I’ve obtained a copy of the new Kings of Leon album and it seems that bands are creating bigger and better albums that expand and evolve the sounds of the artist, rather than just making a sophomore or third album that falls into the rut of similar song writing styles with different melodies.  The alternate agenda of bands is to completely change their styles and heading into a different direction that alienates core fans.  A group puts a lot of its credibility on the line by taking this approach and risks either massive successes or failures.  One could look at Radiohead as a band that either alienated a lot of its pre-Kid A fanbase or only served to entice them further into the rabbit hole.

I’m not sure yet whether I will ultimately post a formal review of the Wilco and/or Kings of Leon album, but they are high on my list of 2007 albums.  The remainder of the year continues to pull some amazing follow-up talents from bands like the Arctic Monkeys (23 Apr), Travis (7 May), Radiohead (18 Aug), Coldplay (31 Oct), The Polyphonic Spree, Feist, and of course, the supposedly excellent but may never come out Guns ‘n’ Roses album.

Now onto things a little less (or more) technical:

Whilst I’m reading Michel Albert’s book Capitalisme Contre Capitalisme, I’m also starting my research into various journal articles, with my current cache of articles at 77.  Personally, I wish there was a way that I could move the pdf journal files onto my Palm Zire, but with 2MB of memory, I can barely upload one file at a time onto it.  It’s a pain to have to drag my laptop everywhere, but I’ve also put the files onto USB key, so now I can bring them with me wherever I go.  The first article I’m reading is entitled “A Comparative Analysis of New Product Programmes: European versus North American Companies.” 

As far as I’ve read, Prof. EJ Kleinschmidt encourages a cross-national approach in assessing the successes of new product programs.  Though I’m not sure where this might fit into CSR, I believe his premise is correct.  And perhaps in assessing the various CSR approaches and formulating, it is helpful to know how new product programmes function.   By doing so, I can extrapolate prescriptions as to now future product entries may be marketed with a focus on CSR.

In addition, I have started culling quotes from various television shows and other sources of pop culture.  This past Sunday, I was watching Gordon Ramsay’s F Word and there was some discussion between Chef Ramsay and British television personality Janice Street-Porter on sustainable cod farming vs. opea sea cod fishing.  I’ve been looking to some random TV quotes that depict public perceptions of corporations and responsible business in order to gain some non-academic perspective. In addition to the F Word, I have also found quotes from The Cosby Show and from NUMB3RS that are applicable to the subject.  I may use them in the chapter headers throughout the thesis to draw CSR into pop culture, particularly since a lot of marketing deals with pop culture and the ability to harness brand images and identity in the public psyche.

If anyone has any good ideas/quotes/interesting informational sources, feel free to leave comments here on the web site.  So far, my biggest (and only) participant has been Dany, who has not only added his own thoughts to the discussion, but has given me more fodder to develop my own thoughts on the subject.

FT WEEKEND MAGAZINE – FEATURE: Spend, spend, spend. Save, save, save
By Alan Beattie, Financial Times
Published: Jan 27, 2007

Buy a red T-shirt to fight AIDS. But does it really help
By Ben Arnoldy, The Christian Science Monitor
Published: Mar 12, 2007

Both of these articles are interesting analyses of the Project (red) campaign, founded by Bono. I however, take a little more issue with the article from the Christian Science Monitor and am thus choosing to focus on that here. The in-store advertising at Gap outlets repeatedly demonstrates that “half the profits” on the Gap (red) line will go to fund Project (red) contributions. And while Mr Arnoldy makes a good point in saying that there’s a lack of transparency by failing to disclose what “half the profits” are, he seems to forget that some contributions are better than nothing, regardless of what their numbers might be.

My personal stance is to agree with Ms. Smith. As stated in the Financial Times article, the idea behind Project (red) goes past mere cause-related marketing. As I’ve been reading in various books, any company can simply cut a cheque to have its corporate logo attached to a charity of its choosing. The idea behind (red) however, is cause-related consumption. This cause-related consumption takes note of the statistic that shows that, ceteris paribus, people more likely to change their consumption patterns to a brand that is socially responsible. This is where someone like me fits in. They see the idea of what (red) does and that consumption of the (red) design looks trendy, thus they will opt to spend the $28 in order to help fight AIDS in Africa, having made a difference on their purchasing behaviours.

For the sake of Mr. Cortez’s argument though, let’s assume that when you subtract the materials, labour, and design of the basic Gap (red) t-shirt, they receive $14 profit. Even that 50% profitability figure seems like a low number to me.

Half the profit ($7) is 25% of what the shirt costs to purchase. It would be hard to argue that 25% of purchase cost is a shabby number, particularly given that American Express (red) is only donating 1% from purchases made by people who have the (red) card and that the AMEX card is only available in the UK. Apple iPod is giving only $10 of $200 iPod (5% of product sale). Converse is donating 15% of net sales (which is pre-profit, meaning less). The only (red) brand that otherwise shows such high donation percent of retail cost is the $17 of a $60 RAZR phone (28%) only at Sprint in the US.

This means that for all of Mr. Cortez’s concerns about how much of his $28 is going to fight AIDS in Africa are less than justified, when compared to (red)’s other partners. The fact of the matter is, it’s more likely he wouldn’t have written the Global Fund a cheque on his own accord, nor would he spend $28 on any other shirt at Gap. By purchasing his shirt, he has at least become an active participant in the idea of corporate philanthropy through consumption.

Either way, the result is that the (red) campaign has raised the $25 million for AIDS prevention and treatment. And it’s hard to argue those results, regardless of what numbers Gap is actually providing for half its per shirt profits (and those ($28) shirts are on the cheaper end of the gap (red) line). If the 25% was applied to the higher priced products, then Gap is still writing the global fund a large cheque.

its been quite a few days since the last time i posted and ive had a couple of different things ive wanted to discuss, ranging from thesis readings, to advance album reviews, and the whole likes.  thats not to say that i couldnt have written multiple postings, however it gets kind of tedious to write those postings the way i do.  thus, i blew it off.  however, i said that i would still maintain routine postings, and such as i am.

my parents came down to visit almost two weeks ago, and i had the pleasure of accompanying them to see the drowsy chaperone at the marquis theatre.  im always a little skeptical about broadway musicals, however my parents wanted to see it and i figured it couldn’t be as corny as something like tarzan or even the producers.  the end result was that i happened to enjoy it more than i had anticipated.  there were three key things that led to my enjoyment of the play.

1) the music – all too often, broadway musicals follow the rogers & hammerstein formula for introducing music into the plot of a story.  in addition, the music is obviously written for a pit orchestra, making the songs of “camelot” seem out of place.  in chaperone however, the setting of the play within the play puts all the relevant musical numbers in a 1920s context, which naturally evokes a ’20s big band sound, befitting of a pit orchestra.  the end result is that the musical numbers not only relate to the period, but they make for good songs.

2) the man in the chair – bob martin, one of the original writers of the play, casts himself as the “narrator” character.  the premise of the play revolves around this character frequently breaking down the “fourth wall.”  by doing this, he allows himself to set the pace of the show, as well as set the concept of the play within a play.  while this concept could have been pursued easily, and in a cliched manner, martin adds a completely innovative and creative concept, key to the show’s success.

3) the use of the record as the plot vehicle – this plot device goes hand-in-hand with the usage of the man in the chair.  by conceiving the play within the play as an old recorded show, martin allows for his own interpretations on the play and is able to speed through all the musical numbers of a typical broadway play.  as the actors are playing out on stage what is happening on the record, it also makes for some interesting acting challenges, such as a skipping record, the wrong side of the record is played, etc.

like i said, i wasnt sure what i was going to make of it going in, but had a rather good time.

as for myself, the first half of the semester is winding down and i am leaving tomorrow afternoon to go back to CT until the 7th.  on the 9th, there is the big east career fair, where i am hoping to hand out more resumes and some cover letters in hopes to get myself into an internship position for the summer.  originally, i wasnt sure how international business/marketing was going to fit in a market for finance/accounting majors, however in a discussion with a friend today, i found out that even some of those companies have sustainability reporting divisions.  not only would working at them become crucial to my thesis understandings (of which i am making good progress and even developed my 8-part outline), but would benefit me careerwise as well in the field of csr.

whilst i am home, i hope to get done some thesis reading (perhaps a blog post or two), as well as make some minor edits to my resume, and possibly work on a few cover letters to prospective employers.  though i havent actually commenced actual writing of the thesis, i’m pleased with how my readings/research have been going and now that i have a working outline (my advisor was right, it came the form of a some spontaneous breakthrough as i reading a book on management and labour in europe), it will be even easier to piece together just what information becomes relevant to developing the logical inductive reasoning of my argument.

that said, it’s time for class.  keep reading…

Here I develop the breakthrough I came up with in the shower the other morning:

Thus far, I have read about nine different countries and have started reading about a tenth. My previous thesis entry dealt with the notions of Finnish, Danish, and Norwegian CSR. Each country has seemed to have a distinct personality in its approach to CSR. Continuing along those lines, I have since learned about approaches in several other countries.

In the U.K. for instance, the government seems to be dependent on business and a greater sense of institiutionalism. In Ireland however, it seems to follow that CSR is not high on the corporate agenda — the result of antidisestablishmentarianism towards the Anglican Church and the British Crown. Instead, there has been lesser apathy toward CSR as the Irish Roman Catholic traditions tend towards a more capitalist nature.

In Belgium, the bi-cultural historic nature has led to a more progressive corporate agenda optioning toward CSR, but a lack of corporate transparency and communication seems to undermine this notion. In the Netherlands, CSR is heavily engrained in the business agenda, particularly with respect to environmental issues. The Dutch aim for greater transparency and self-regulation, but actively participate in dialoguing on the issues via political means.

The French tend to look at the role of social responsibility as that partaken by government. This is heavily descended from the mistrust of labour relations and the paternalistic roles of the state since the end of the Second World War. However, since the corporate/labour relations have warmed only recently, the general population expects the government to exert more paternalistic pressure on both parties.

By contrast, in Germany, there is more of a laissez-faire, apathetic attitude toward CSR. German apathy toward CSR seems different from that of the Irish however, steeped namely in the inherent tradition of corporatism and the belief that government will mediate between the various groups. Since neither group seems to be budging and the government has not particularly involved itself in promoting socially responsible agendas, the German concept of CSR has become rather stagnant unless institutions find themselves pressured by greater EU agendas.

This has all led to the breakthrough I’ve been talking about. Though there are some major and minor variations in the themes that I have read about so far, there is also a general arc that seems to be suggested to me. On the whole, there is a difference between mere communication and an obligation to be transparent. In other words, CSR is not just about a company being accountable and expressing these results in communication – it is about providing a level of transparency that leaves accountability inherently open and visible to all stakeholders.

As I will be attempting in this thesis to draw comparisons between American and European companies, these differences may show themselves namely evident in property rights entrenched in various national constitutions. In America, the right to private enterprise and private property has been the result of a form of capitalism that only finds itself regulated when catastrophe strikes the economic markets. The result is that many American corporations seem to find themselves, on the offset, less responsible to the public interests.

Take for example, the infamous Wal-Mart. Over the past several months, I have broached to various parties my disapproval of them – particularly over their ability to disclose the bare, regulated minimum of data and continuance to opaquely mask the various parts of their operations that have otherwise drastic effects on U.S. economic indicators. In response, many of these people have told me that as a private company, Wal-Mart has a right to NON-disclosure of certain things.

While this is an American legal truism, it leads to a certain American scepticism and distrust of corporations (myself included). Instead, Wal-Mart communicates a message that is askew in its lack of transparency and willingness to become transparent. Consumer apathy feeds this effect, leading Wal-Mart to continue its opaque misgivings. The root cause of the slow change in corporate practice is both historically and constitutionally based and through these lenses, will most likely remain unchallenged.

This stands in opposition to European companies, where their expectations to follow social welfare and corporate society are the norms. These companies feel an obligation to society to be transparent and to communicate that transparency through actions and words. As a result, European corporations tend to be more highly trusted – even over government in some countries. The relationship between the corporation and all of its stakeholders thus becomes a pattern of cyclical interdependency.

As in America, the concepts of private property and private enterprise are entrenched in national constitutions, however the European allocation of resources tends to lean toward statist business models and thus, in European models of CSR there is more commitment for private corporations to work with NGOs as well as with governmental bureaucracies to bring about social change.

I now pose the following question: In the United States, the NBC national news broadcast is the same homogeneous broadcast from New York to Chicago to Los Angeles. However over the same distances in Europe, the national news broadcast will vary from Warsaw to Vienna to Lisbon. Given that the same geographical distances in Europe encompass over 20 nations, whereas the same space in America encompasses one nation, are there any implications on the meaning of CSR to American corporations as opposed to European corps?

Stay tuned for another update. Next time, I’ll be briefly talking about Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. Comment, question, discuss away…