Elanso

好生意(好的生意)

Jan 17th 2008

From The Economist print edition

Illustration by Ian Whadcock（引自伊恩.怀特蔻可）

IN THE lobby at the London headquarters of Marks & Spencer, one of Britain's leading retailers, the words scroll relentlessly across a giant electronic ticker. They describe progress against “Plan A”, a set of 100 worthy targets over five years. The company will help to give 15,000 children in Uganda a better education; it is saving 55,000 tones of CO2 in a year; it has recycled 48m clothes hangers; it is tripling sales of organic food; it aims to convert over 20m garments to Fairtrade cotton; every store has a dedicated “Plan A” champion.

在英国头号零售商马克斯—斯宾赛公司（以下简称M&S公司）伦敦总部的大堂里，文字迅速的从巨大的电子屏上滚过，而那些文字描述的正是公司的“A计划”。这个计划由一套包括100个有价值的5年目标组成，如公司将帮助15，000个乌干达儿童接受更好的教育，在一年内减少55，000吨二氧化碳排放，回收再利用48，000，000个衣架，销售的有机食品增长两倍，以及将20，000，000件衣服回收转换为可再销售的棉花等。而且公司的每一个店铺都争当“A计划”的冠军。

The M&S ticker says a lot about the current state of what is commonly known as corporate social responsibility (CSR). First, nobody much likes the CSR label. A year ago M&S launched not a CSR plan but Plan A (“because there is no Plan B”). The chief executive's committee that monitors this plan is called the “How We Do Business Committee”. Other companies prefer to describe this kind of thing as “corporate responsibility” (dropping the “social” as too narrow), or “corporate citizenship”, or “building a sustainable business”. One Nordic executive glories in the job title of director, accountability and triple-bottom-line leadership. All this is convoluted code for something simple: companies meaning (or seeming) to be good.

M&S公司的电子屏充分反映了人们正普遍关注的公司的社会责任的现象（一下简写为CSR），以及它的实施现状。首先，没有人很喜欢“企业社会责任（CSR）”这种称呼。一年前，M&S公司启动了A计划(因为人们通常不用“B计划”这个词)，而不是CRS计 划。负责监察这项计划的首席执行委员会成这项计划为“如何运行商业委员会计划”。其它公司着倾向于称类似的计划为“企业责任计划”（他们去掉了“社会”二 字，因为这种限定会使计划过于狭窄），或者称之为“企业—居民计划”、“建设可持续商业计划”等。一位北欧的执行董事正是因为推行责任制和三重底线领导制 而获得成功。以上的一切都是在围绕着一个简单的命题：企业应该做好事。

Second, the scrolling list shows what a vast range of activities now comes under the doing-good umbrella. It spans everything from volunteering in the local community to looking after employees properly, from helping the poor to saving the planet. With such a fuzzy, wide-ranging subject, many companies find it hard to know what to focus on.

其次，电子屏上的滚动列表也显示了在“做好事”计划的名目下存在着巨大的活动范围。它的跨度从在社区从事志愿者服务到妥善照顾职工，从扶贫济困到拯救地球。而恰恰是这种过于宽泛模糊的主题，使得很多公司很难找到“做好事”这项计划的重点应该放在何处。

Third, the M&S ticker demonstrates that CSR is booming. Whether through electronic screens, posters or glossy reports, big companies want to tell the world about their good citizenship. They are pushing out the message on their websites and in advertising campaigns. Their chief executives queue up to speak at conferences to explain their passion for the community or their new-found commitment to making their company carbon-neutral. A survey carried out for this report by the Economist Intelligence Unit, a sister company of The Economist, shows corporate responsibility rising sharply in global executives' priorities (see chart 1).

第三，M&S的电子屏也证明了CRS正 在兴起。不管是通过电子屏还是海报，抑或是光鲜报道，大公司想向世人展示的都是一样的，那就是他们能够创造良好的同居民的关系。各公司都急于将这样的信息 展示在他们的网站上，将这样的信息运用到他们的广告战中。这些首席执行官们排着队的在会上发言，解释他们对于社区的热情，解释他们新的、能使公司更中性化 的承诺。在《经济学人》智囊团（《经济学人》的姊妹公司）为本篇报道做的一次调查中显示：“企业责任”观念在跨国公司的执行官心中的重要性和优先性都在急剧攀升（见图表一）。

None of this means that CSR has suddenly become a great idea. This newspaper has argued that it is often misguided, or worse. But in practice few big companies can now afford to ignore it.

这些并不全意味着CSR一夜之间成了伟大的构想。这家报纸认为CSR观念经常被误导，或者更糟。即便如此，在现实中也没有公司敢忽略它。

Beyond the corporate world, CSR is providing fertile ground for think-tanks and consultancies. Governments are taking an ever keener interest: in Britain, for example, the 2006 Companies Act introduced a requirement for public companies to report on social and environmental matters. And the United Nations promotes corporate responsibility around the world through a New York based group called the Global Compact.

在企业界以外，CSR观念同样为智库和顾问提供了肥沃的土壤。各国政府对此也越来越感兴趣，例如：在英国，2006年公司法要求上市公司提交关于社会和环境事务的报告；并且联合国也在通过一个以纽约为总部的名叫全球公约的组织向全球推广企业责任理念。

Business schools, for their part, are adding courses and specialised departments to keep their MBA students happy. “Demand for CSR activities has just soared in the past three years,” says Thomas Cooley, the dean of New York University's Stern Business School. Bookshelves groan with titles such as “Corporation Be Good”, “Beyond Good Company” and “The A to Z of Corporate Responsibility”.

作为商学院自身的一部分，他们增加课程和专门的系部满足来MBA学生的需要。纽约大学斯特恩商学院的校长说：“对CSR活动的需求在最近三年内不断攀升。”，书架上也堆满了名为《做个好企业》、《企业之外》、《企业责任各方面》之类的书。

Why the boom? For a number of reasons, companies are having to work harder to protect their reputation—and, by extension, the environment in which they do business. Scandals at Enron, WorldCom and elsewhere undermined trust in big business and led to heavy-handed government regulation. An ever-expanding army of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) stands ready to do battle with multinational companies at the slightest sign of misbehaviour. Myriad rankings and ratings put pressure on companies to report on their non-financial performance as well as on their financial results. And, more than ever, companies are being watched. Embarrassing news anywhere in the world—a child working on a piece of clothing with your company's brand on it, say—can be captured on camera and published everywhere in an instant, thanks to the internet.

CSR理念的兴起是多方面原因共同作用的结果。公司不得不维护自己的声誉，当然，同样也要保护他们做生意的环境。安然和世通公司的丑闻以及其他一些大公司的诚信缺失导致政府加大、加重了管理。严阵以待的非政府组织（NGOs） 时刻准备着与跨国公司一切不检点行为作斗争。无数的排名和评级对公司施加了巨大的压力，要求他们对财务结果和非财务表现进行报告。并且公司比以往任何时候 都更受关注。因为有了互联网，任何负面新闻，如一个孩子穿着印有贵公司标志的工作服，能被相机拍下，并且转眼之间就会满世界的发表出来。

Now comes concern over climate change, probably the biggest single driver of growth in the CSR industry of late. The great green awakening is making company after company take a serious look at its own impact on the environment. It is no surprise, therefore, that 95% of CEOs surveyed last year by McKinsey, a consultancy, said that society now has higher expectations of business taking on public responsibilities than it did five years ago.

现在，我们来考虑气候的影响，可能这正是最近CRS热的最大动力。当公司认真审视自己对环境造成的影响时，环保意识的觉醒影响着公司的发展。所以，不足为奇，麦肯锡（一个咨询公司）的一份调查报告称去年调查的CEO中有95%的人认为：现在，社会比5年前对公共责任事务有更多的期望。

Investors too are starting to show more interest. For example, $1 out of every $9 under professional management in America now involves an element of “socially responsible investment”, according to Geoffrey Heal of Columbia Business School. Some of the big banks, including Goldman Sachs and UBS, have started to integrate environmental, social and governance issues in some of their equity research. True, the finance industry sends mixed signals: it demands good financial results above all else, and in parts of the financial world—notably the private-equity part—skepticism on CSR still runs deep. But private equity itself is having to respond to public pressure by agreeing to voluntary codes of transparency.

投资者对此也表现更多的兴趣。举例来说，杰弗里.黑尔商学院认为：在美国每9美元的专业管理开销中应有1美元用于社会责任投资。一些包括高盛公司和瑞士信贷集团在内的大型银行已经开始把环境、社会和相关的治理问题作为一个整体，在他们的一些投资研究中加以考虑。诚然，金融业发出了复杂的信号，即一方面他们把良好的财务业绩看的高于一切，另一方面部分世界金融市场(尤其是私人资本)对CSR依然持有很深的怀疑态度；但是私人资本本身在同意自愿维护行业透明性的同时就不得不对公众施加的压力加以回应。

As well as these external pressures, firms are also facing strong demand for CSR from their employees, so much so that it has become a serious part of the competition for talent. Ask almost any large company about the business rationale for its CSR efforts and you will be told that they help to motivate, attract and retain staff. “People want to work at a company where they share the values and the ethos,” says Mike Kelly, head of CSR at the European arm of KPMG, an accounting firm.

除了这些外部压力外，企业也面临着因为员工所产生的对CSR的强烈的内部需求，以至于它已经成为人力资源竞争的重要组成部分。问及任何一个大的公司，他们为CSR所做的努力是为了什么？得到的回答将是为了激励员工，吸引员工，留住员工。毕马威会计师事务所欧洲分部CSR的负责人麦克.凯莉说：“人们想在一个拥有着共同价值观和道德观的公司工作。”

Too much of a good thing?

好事千百面？

Since there is so much CSR about, you might think big companies would by now be getting rather good at it. A few are, but most are struggling.

因为CSR活动涉及很多方面，并且随处可见，你可能认为大公司对于这类的活动游刃有余了。其实，只有部分公司做得不错，而绝大多数还在为之痛苦的挣扎。

CSR is now made up of three broad layers, one on top of the other. The most basic is traditional corporate philanthropy. Companies typically allocate about 1% of pre-tax profits to worthy causes because giving something back to the community seems “the right thing to do”. But many companies now feel that arm's-length philanthropy—simply writing cheques to charities—is no longer enough. Shareholders want to know that their money is being put to good use, and employees want to be actively involved in good works.

现在的CSR由如金字塔般垒叠的三个层面组成。最基础的部分是传统的企业慈善事业。公司通常会将税前利润的1%作此用途，因为回馈社会是一件他们认为正确的事。但是现在，很多公司发现这类仅仅写支票给慈善团体的速战速决似的慈善行为不再足够了。股东们想确定他们的钱的确被得到很好的利用，并且员工们也想积极的加入做好事的行列中。

Money alone is not the answer when companies come under attack for their behavior. Hence the second layer of CSR, which is a branch of risk management. Starting in the 1980s, with environmental disasters such as the explosion at the Bhopal pesticide factory and the Exxon Valdez oil spill, industry after industry has suffered blows to its reputation. Big pharmacy was hit by its refusal to make antiretroviral drugs available cheaply for HIV/AIDS sufferers in developing countries. In the clothing industry, companies like Nike and Gap came under attack for use of child labor. Food companies face a backlash over growing obesity. And “Don't be evil” as a corporate motto offers no immunity: Google was one of several American technology titans hauled before Congress to be grilled about their behavior in China.

当公司的某些行为遭受非议时，光靠捐钱是不能解决问题的。因此，CSR的第二层面即为风险管理的一部分。从二十世纪八十年代起，随着如博帕尔农药厂爆炸、埃克森瓦尔迪兹石油泄漏之类的环境灾难的发生，一个又一个行业的声誉受到打击。大的制药企业因为拒绝为发展中国家的艾滋病患者和携带者提供低价高效的抗逆转录病毒药物而受到攻击。在服装行业，像耐克和盖浦这样的公司因为使用童工而遭受供给。食品行业的公司也因日益增长的肥胖问题而步履维艰。即便谷歌将“不作恶”作为企业的座右铭也无济于事，它就是几家因为一些在中国的行为耳受到国会质疑的美国科技巨擘之一。

So, often belatedly, companies respond by trying to manage the risks. They talk to NGOs and to governments, create codes of conduct and commit themselves to more transparency in their operations. Increasingly, too, they get together with their competitors in the same industry in an effort to set common rules, spread the risk and shape opinion.

所以，公司试图进行风险管理的回应总是显得有些晚。他们对非政府组织和各国政府说会建立行为准则，并承诺增加自己商业行为的透明度。他们与同行业中的竞争者一起合作，共同努力，制定共同的准则，分散风险，形成舆论，并且这种趋势在不断加强。

All this is largely defensive, but companies like to stress that there are also opportunities to be had for those that get ahead of the game. The emphasis on opportunity is the third and trendiest layer of CSR: the idea that it can help to create value. In December 2006 the Harvard Business Review published a paper by Michael Porter and Mark Kramer on how, if approached in a strategic way, CSR could become part of a company's competitive advantage.

前面所述的很大程度上都只是防御性的，但是一些公司认为CSR为我们提供了更多成为行业佼佼者的机会。对于机遇的强调正是CSR的第三个层面，也是时下最流行的一个层面。2006年12月，哈佛商业评论就发表了一份由迈克尔.波特和马克.克雷默撰写的题为《战略角度下CSR如何转化为企业的竞争优势》的文章。

That is just the sort of thing chief executives like to hear. “Doing well by doing good” has become a fashionable mantra. Businesses have eagerly adopted the jargon of “embedding” CSR in the core of their operations, making it “part of the corporate DNA” so that it influences decisions across the company.

这种观点正迎合了首席执行官们的口味，“做好事得好报”也已成为一个时髦的口头禅。企业也热切的希望CSR能够融入他们的核心业务中，能够成为企业DNA的一部分，这样CSR就会影响企业的所有决策。

With a few interesting exceptions, the rhetoric falls well short of the reality. “It doesn't go very deep yet,” says Bradley Googins, executive director of the Boston College Centre for Corporate Citizenship. His centre's latest survey on the state of play in America is called “Time to Get Real”.

因为一些有趣的例外，华丽的辞藻在现实面前也显得黯淡。波士顿大学企业居民关系中心的执行主任布拉德利.谷金斯认为：CSR“发展的并不深入”。他的研究中心最近一次对CSR在美国运作情况的调查被称为：“面对现实的时刻”。

There is, to be fair, some evidence that companies' efforts are moving in a more strategic direction. The Committee Encouraging Corporate Philanthropy, a New York-based business association, reports that the share of corporate giving with a “strategic” motivation jumped from 38% in 2004 to 48% in 2006. But too often corporate strategy is not properly joined up. In the car industry, Toyota has led the way in championing green, responsible motoring with its Prius hybrid model, but it has lobbied with others in the industry against a tough fuel-economy standard in America. Surveys point to a big gap between companies' aspirations and their actions (see chart 2). And even corporate aspirations in the rich world lag far behind how much the public expects business to contribute to society.

客观的看，一些证据表明公司在CSR上的努力是朝着更具战略性的方向。“企业慈善促进委员会”（一个新的总部在纽约的商业协会）报告说：因战略动机所进行CSR行为的企业从2004年的38%跃升为2006年的48%。但往往企业战略不能妥善的融合。在汽车产业，丰田引领着绿色运动之路，负责普瑞斯混合动力车的研发，但同时，他也与行业的其他企业一起游说反对美国强硬的燃油经济标准。调查指出公司的意愿和他们的实际行动之间有很大的距离（见图表2）。并且即便是在富裕国家企业的意愿也与公众所期望的企业对社会的贡献之间存在着巨大的差距。

According to Mr Porter, despite a surge of interest in CSR, in most cases it remains “too unfocused, too shotgun, too many supporting someone's pet project with no real connection to the business”. Dutch Leonard, like Mr Porter at Harvard Business School, describes the value-building type of CSR as “an act of faith, almost a fantasy. There are very few examples.”

波特先生认为：尽管大家对CSR跟风，但在大多数情况下，它仍是"过于分散，想霰弹枪，不能集中目标，太多人支持与生意毫无关联的宠物项目" 。波特先生，哈佛大学商学院的戴茨.雷纳德同波特先生一样，认为价值塑造型的CSR是一种信仰，是一个幻想，目前只有极少数成功的例子" 。

Perhaps that is not surprising. The business of trying to be good is confronting executives with difficult questions. Can you measure CSR performance? Should you be co-operating with NGOs, and with your competitors? Is there really competitive advantage to be had from a green strategy? How will the rise of companies from China, India and other emerging markets change the game?

或许这并不令人惊讶。执行官们面临着“做好的企业”所带来的各种困难问题。你能测出CSR运行的效果吗？你是否该和非政府组织以及你的竞争者合作？一个环保战略真的能给你带来竞争优势？从中国，印度和其他新兴市场崛起的公司将如何改变这场游戏呢？

This special report will look in detail at how companies are implementing CSR. It will conclude that, done badly, it is often just a fig leaf and can be positively harmful. Done well, though, it is not some separate activity that companies do on the side, a corner of corporate life reserved for virtue: it is just good business.

这篇特别报导详细探究了公司是怎样推行CSR的。我们可以得出这样的结论：做不好，CSR则往往仅仅成为一块遮羞布，并且这是断然害的。做的好，虽然，CSR并不是由毫无瓜葛的公司行为组成，但它的确为美德在企业生活中预留了一隅天地，那就是：做好生意。

Ps：“做好生意”是“做好的生意”，而不是“do business successfully”