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David Rueckert — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 22:16:06 -0500

Recently at work, I was asked to join a discussion panel as a Baltimore representative in a corporate effort to find ways to satisfy employees where survey results presently said our employer was falling short. I have emailed the leader of the group twice, and called him once, to ask when and where our meetings would be held. I have not heard back yet. Naturally I feel that this employee review group is just posturing by my employer and that it will take a very long time to see anything, if at all, from this initiative. I guess I'm more cynical than I originally thought.

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David Rueckert — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 22:00:33 -0500

Presently as a student in economics, I think it is interesting to consider the New Orleans economy as a model to apply to long-run theory, specifically the Solow Growth Model. According to Solow, the only real factor of production that leads to an increase in the income potential of an economy is technological innovation - which is a product of savings and investment. If we were to truly work to empower groups of people, communities, I think teaching proper investment strategies would feed a community longer than providing products to satsify consumption habits.

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David Rueckert — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 21:47:10 -0500

To make reality based leadership more authentic, I believe the trend of government intervention in the private marketplace needs to be curbed significantly. Once leaders are fully exposed to the positive and negative outcomes of their business decisions, leadership roles will be empowered to a greater extent. This means that fair trade and bail out practices should be done away with. Business leaders should not be compelled to act in any way, or to continue business in any way, because the government chooses to be involved.

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David Rueckert — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 21:32:15 -0500

Today a private economic reporting group announced that the US has been in a recession since Dec. 2007. I anticipate the 'green' initiative to take a back seat to the 'get by' initiative. For households, this makes a lot of sence because managing survival is at any household's best interest; but companies who have been learning to balance between profitability and social responsibility in business practices will need to choose which business models they believe in most.

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David Rueckert — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 21:26:07 -0500

Sampath, It's important to remember that demanding innovation in socially responsible business practices drives invention which leads to new industry and job creation. THe whole process of reinvention based on new standards is healthy for the economy. Instead of focusing on who will be left out based on cost of maintaining environmentally friendly products, you should also consider the new industry, training, and jobs, etc that CSR can create.

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David Rueckert — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 12:42:52 -0500

If all stakeholders are going to really benefit from Alice's great proposal, shouldn't a formalized reporting process be established to promote transparency of CSR? This strategy certainly levels the playing field by investing big business leadership in the community "trenches" of nonprofits. To fully realize the 'winning' aspects, a 3rd party intermediary should regularly share with businesses and the communities who is involved in this leadership sharing. I hope that businesses recognize the long-term investment benefits of investing their leadership resources in community nonprofits.

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David Rueckert — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 12:34:45 -0500

Alice's proposed strategy would have a leveling effect: the leadership typically exclusive to big business would be pumped into the nonprofits that operate on a neighborhood level. It would be great if evolving Transparency requirements included a reporting element that shared which businesses matched their executives with nonprofits. Such a report would magnify the 'winning' aspect of this strategy.

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David Rueckert — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 12:01:34 -0500

Thanks for your reflections on your service to New Orleans Jeff. It makes me wonder what needs to happen to motivate someone to self-identify as one who can make a difference in a community. It's one person that makes a difference - not a business entity. I lean toward the idea that corporate values are a product of the individuals within it. If individuals are willing to invest time, evergy, resources to the betterment of humanity, then the corporation assumes those values.

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David Rueckert — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 11:40:07 -0500

I agree that as stakeholders we demand commitment and passion from leaders so that we can trust them. Expectations, from consumers, largely determine the vitality of an economy. If we expect that our business leaders around the world will probably participate in illegal, or suspicious, activity, and that there is risk in investing financial resources, the market consequentially suffers. Sadly, societal trends lead me to believe that voluntary honesty in big business leadership cannot be expected as the norm.

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David Rueckert — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 11:17:12 -0500

Sampath, corporations recognize the value of brand loyalty they are purchasing when they invest resources in going green. It may not make sense on the bottom line in the present quarter, but as consumers recognize socially responsible corporations they'll patronize those businesses rather than the corp. that cut costs in the short term to the detriment of society. CSR is really a long-term investment.