Author: waynevisser

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Time

Time

Prose by Wayne Visser

~ Time is our greatest gift ~

Are you wearing a watch?
How many clocks are there in your home or office?
 
Our lives are ruled by time it seems.
We have carved up time, sliced it and diced it, kneaded and squeezed it.
Yet our misguided attempts to get more out of time have only left us feeling divided, fragmented, stretched and pressured.
 
We have tried to dam the flow of time, to freeze it and channel it, to make it work for us.
Yet in our futile attempts to change the nature of time, it is us who are left feeling manipulated, directed, inflexible and overworked.
 
We have striven to become masters over time, yet we are more slaves to time today than ever before.
 
What is your vision of the rule of time?
Do you see time as a cruel dictator, a heartless machine, a grim reaper?
Or is time a benevolent king, a patient guide, a gentle midwife?
 
We make time in our own image, projecting our view of the world, our life’s experiences, externalising our inner beliefs.
For many therefore, time is not unlike the God of the Old Testament – a supreme power to be worshipped and feared; a jealous and vengeful deity, who demands sacrifices and unquestioning servitude.
 
And yet, could time not also be like the God of the New Testament – loving and caring, nurturing and forgiving?
For is it not time that sanctions birth and nourishes growth?
Is it not time that bears fruit and heals wounds?
 
Without time, the evolution of life would never have occurred.
Without time, great civilizations would never have been built.
 
Time has the ingenious quality of being perfectly scalable – it fits with equal elegance the vast sweep of creation’s history and the intimate details of our individual lives.
Time is an instrument of perspective, both a telescope and a microscope on life and the universe.
As we look through the lens of time, we understand the workings of the word better, and we are more able to appreciate the unfolding of our own lives.
 
Time is the web that connects us to our past and spins us into our future.
Where do your threads lead?
Where have you come from and where are you going?
 
Time weaves the fabric of our reality on the loom of space.
Yet how we use time will determine the unique patterns and colours of our life. 
And like yarn, time is elastic.
A moment can seem like eternity and lifetimes can pass in an instant.
This is but one of the many secrets of time.
 
We think we can plot time.
Yet time is not measured in seconds or hours, years or millennia.
Time is measured by the quality with which it is spent.
The more of ourselves we bring to time, the more it returns to us.
 
Time well spent is rewarded with rich memories.
Like a favourite song or film, we can return to our time savings and spend them over and over again, reliving their quality and vitality.
Naturally, our memories shift as we change, but then so does everything in our world.
 
Time is not an objective fact; it is a subjective experience.
No two accounts of time are ever the same, for we are the instruments on which time plays its symphony.
Just as a note of music is never played twice, so no experience of time is ever duplicated.
 
What is your unique sound – the interpretation of time that is your life?
 
Like the orchestra, we all need to be sensitive to the timing of the conductor, to listen to the larger score, to be alive to the music we are being asked to play, and to make our contribution in ways which produce harmony rather than dissonance.
 
If we play the music of time well, we might even glimpse into worlds beyond space and time, where we see time for what it really is – an illusion conjured for our education and amusement.
 
So use your gift of quality time wisely today, and don’t forget to play.
 

Wayne Visser © 2005

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Touch

Touch

Prose by Wayne Visser

~ Only when touched do we truly come to our senses ~

What are some of your fondest memories?
Chances are, they were when you were touched in one way or another.
 
Do you recall the soothing touch of your mother, brushing away your tears and kissing it better?
Or the touch of your lover, gently caressing and passionately intimate?
Or the touch of your child, hugging you tightly and saying I love you?
Perhaps it was even the considerate touch of a stranger, taking care of you when you were most vulnerable?
 
Not only is touch one of the five senses, it is the one we cannot do without.
Babies who are not touched die.
Adults who are not touched die inside.
 
We all crave a loving touch.
It makes us feel wanted, looked after, comfortable with who we are.
 
Untouchables are the outcasts of society, condemned to live forever as subhuman.
Solitary confinement – being beyond the reach of others – is the ultimate punishment.
 
Of course, touch is not just physical.
When we say someone or something touched us, we mean that we are moved, emotionally affected.
 
Touch is the language of the heart.
Our loved ones are usually those who touch us most deeply, touch the places we most shield from the world, the sides of ourselves we hide for fear of rejection.
 
Touch is the antithesis of rejection; the essence of acceptance.
We often say, especially during times of crisis, hardship or tragedy, that we need to reach out to others.
For we cannot hope to touch someone unless we are not prepared to reach out to them first.
Sometimes, we have to reach through pain, bitterness, anger, resentment and fear.
But when we do, touch has the power to melt our frozen attitudes, to thaw our chilled emotions.
 
We all have the power of the healing touch, which is often the first step on the road to recovery in an ailing relationship.
 
One person can initiate touch, but only two can sustain it.
The magic of touch sparks best when it is mutual, reciprocated.
Therefore we talk about staying in touch with our family and friends.
 
We touch others through communication.
Touch is a two-way exchange, a flow of energy.
When we lose touch with someone, or are out of touch with our feelings, there has been a short circuit, or a disconnection from our power source.
 
Paradoxically, someone who we regard as being out of touch with reality we call slightly touched.
Perhaps we simply mean that their connection is to a source different than our own, outside the grid of accepted norms.
 
Not all touch is the same, which makes it all the more special.
There’s the woman’s touch – that nurturing influence so much needed in the world and in our lives.
There’s the Midas touch – the knack some people have to attract good fortune.
 
What is your unique touch?
In what way do you change those you come into contact with?
What mark, what impression, what pattern do you leave behind?
 
Throughout your life, and this very day, you will be leaving your special fingerprint on all the people, places and things that you touch.
It is up to you whether you leave a trail of fond memories or of criminal evidence.
 
So take care today, for as Leonardo Da Vinci’s painting in the Sistine Chapel reminds us, there is something potentially divine about touch.
 

Wayne Visser © 2005

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Wildlife

Wildlife

Prose by Wayne Visser

~ We were all born to be wild and tricked into being tame ~

Do you enjoy the great outdoors? 
Have you ever been on safari? 
Do you have a favourite wild animal? 
 
There is something about life in the wild that we find irresistibly attractive – we are drawn to it. 
It reminds us how incredible nature is, from the smallest microbes to the largest mammals. 
 
The more we learn about the complex web of life, the more awestruck it leaves us. 
If you are an engineer, you can only marvel at the design perfections. 
If you are a scientist, the intricate interplay of diverse elements is fascinating. 
If you are an entrepreneur, the innovation of species to find their niche will amaze you. 
For the military strategist, the battles for survival in nature are an endless source of ideas. 
And for the artist, the manifest beauty of creation is a wellspring that never runs dry. 
No matter who we are or what we do, it is near impossible not to be inspired by wildlife. 
 
It is humbling to contemplate our place as humans on this earth – one species among countless others; one species threatening the existence of so many, through ignorance and arrogance. 
Ironically, the very wildlife we are destroying holds the key to our own salvation. 
 
Animals in the wild, living in dynamic harmony with their surroundings and each other, are exemplars of the balance that we have lost. 
Not that nature is without its fair share of violence and seeming cruelty, but it lacks our excessive appetite for greed. 
 
Wildlife is intimately in tune with the cycles of life – the rhythms of the sun and the moon, the changing of the seasons and the inevitability of birth and death. 
By contrast, somehow we have lost touch with nature’s longings, fallen out of sync with her moods and become deaf to her music. 
 
Wildlife can not only help us to re-establish our resonance with nature, but also inspire us in a highly personal and individual way. 
All the ancient tribes of the world knew the secret power of animal totems. 
Animals were their teachers, their guardians. 
So much so that the line between animal and human was not sharply drawn like it is today, but blurred, even erasable. 
Many believed that they would be reincarnated as their totem, and their tribal shamans had the mystical gift of shapeshifting – of changing from human into animal, and back again. 
No wonder they had such a deeply held respect for wildlife. 
 
Do you have a totem animal? 
Is there a creature from the wild that inspires you, whose traits serve as a role model for your own life? 
Could it be the compassion of the elephant that moves you? 
Or the resourcefulness of the fox? 
Or the teamwork of the wild dog? 
 
If you don’t already have one, why not choose a totem today? 
Let it be a symbol of what you value most, a reminder of the ideals you strive for, a metaphor for the characteristics in people that you admire. 
It may be the start of a surprisingly enriching journey of discovery, as you learn more about the animal, and in turn, about yourself. 
 
Perhaps it will reawaken some of the wildness in your heart, your desire to be free. 
We are all looking for the courage to break out of our cages, to no longer be bound by the expectations of others. 
We yearn to follow our instincts about what is good and right for us. 
 
The lessons of wildlife can help you to become that person you know you can be, to see the lion inside the pussycat, and to realise that today is your day to roar. 
 

Wayne Visser © 2005

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Sustainable Business Futures

Sustainable Business Futures:

Setting the Global Agenda for Corporate Responsibility and ‘Ubuntu’ Capitalism

Article by Wayne Visser

Within the space of a decade, South African business has moved from being pariahs of the world to leaders in the global corporate responsibility movement. This section highlights the significant progress which has been made by the private sector, as well as the potential for South Africa to continue to shape a new agenda for capitalism across seven key dimensions.

Legal Reform

Building on the ANC’s Reconstruction and Development agenda (which in turn was based on the Freedom Charter), human rights, sustainable development and corporate transparency became enshrined in the 1996 constitution and embedded in what is widely regarded as some of the most progressive legislation in socio-economic and environmental development in the world. For example, the environmental rights now enshrined in the Bill of Rights are hailed worldwide.

While many countries still rely on outdated legislation, the wave of reform over the past decade in South Africa has resulted in brand new statutes on ecological responsibility (e.g. the National Environmental Management Act), occupational health and safety (e.g. the Mine Health and Safety Act), investment in human capital (e.g. the Employment Equity Act), governance (e.g. the Promotion of Access to Information Act), ethics (e.g. the Prevention and Combating of Corrupt Activities Act) and socio-economic development (e.g. the Broad-based Black Economic Empowerment Act).

By inextricably linking social, economic and ecological development in its legal framework, South Africa is showing the world that the old conflicts between environmental conservation, social development and economic growth can be resolved by adopting a new model of integrated sustainable development. The foundation for improved quality of life has therefore been laid and in the next 10 years in South Africa we can expect to see:

  • Civil society demonstrating increasingly healthy activism to bring about environmental and social justice;
  • Government continuing to enact and refine progressive legislation and to enhance its enforcement capacity; and
  • Business becoming the primary vehicle for ensuring that integrated sustainable development is delivered on the ground.

Corporate Governance

When the Institute of Directors in Southern Africa (IoD) published the King Report on Corporate Governance in South Africa in 1992, it was the first of all the governance codes in the world to stress the importance of wider stakeholder interests beyond narrow shareholder demands. This global thought leadership was once again demonstrated when, in its revised King Report in 2002 (King II), the IoD included a whole chapter on sustainability reporting, including extensive referencing to two leading-edge international standards, the Global Reporting Initiative’s Sustainability Reporting Guidelines, and Accountability’s AA1000 framework.

The King II requirement that “every company should report at least annually on the nature and extent of its social, transformation, ethical, safety, health and environmental management policies and practices” has already paid dividends. Surveys by KPMG show that 85% South Africa’s top 100 listed companies in 2003 were already reporting on sustainability-related issues, compared with only 48% in 1997. This remarkable progress is assisted by the fact that the Johannesburg Securities Exchange has made compliance with King II a listing requirement.

In King II, therefore, we see that South Africa’s progressive legislation is backed up by a voluntary …

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[button size=”small” color=”blue” style=”tick” new_window=”false” link=”http://www.csrinternational.org”]Link[/button] CSR International (website)

[button size=”small” color=”blue” style=”info” new_window=”false” link=”http://www.waynevisser.com/books/corporate-citizenship-in-africa”]Page[/button] Business Frontiers (book)

Cite this article

Visser, W. (2004) Sustainable Business Futures: Setting the Global Agenda for Corporate Responsibility and ‘Ubuntu’ Capitalism. In South Africa 2014: The Story of Our Future, edited by Bret Bowes, Guy Lundy & Steuart Pennington, SA Good News: Johannesburg.

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Corporate Sustainability in South Africa

Corporate Sustainability in South Africa:

A Ten Year Review

Article by Wayne Visser

What have ten years of democracy meant for the corporate sustainability agenda? This section looks back at what have been the main catalysts for change since 1994, the trends where substantial progress has been made and the key areas where companies still lag international best practice.

Catalysts for Change

Legislative Reform

The wave of legislative reform initiated by the post-apartheid government fundamentally changed the landscape of corporate sustainability. Between 1994 and 2004, approximately 60 entirely new or substantively revised statutes were introduced which had direct implications for corporate management of safety, health, environment, socio-economic development, labour, governance and ethics issues. Some of these, such as employment equity and black economic empowerment, reflected the aspirations of the ANC’s pre-election Reconstruction and Development Programme (RDP) agenda, while others, like sustainable development and corporate governance, strongly echoed international trends.

Globalisation

At the same time, South Africa’s re-entry onto the international staged forced many companies to raise their sustainability standards to meet global market expectations. As a direct result, there was a substantial increase in environmental management certification and sustainability reporting, as companies like BHP Billiton, Anglo American and Old Mutual, which became Fortune 500 companies, and SABMiller, Lonmin and Dimension Data, which became FTSE 250 companies, quickly upped their game to conform to the corporate governance requirements of the New York and London stock exchanges and the corporate sustainability requirements of various social and environmental investment indexes.

Stakeholder Activism

Newly empowered by the law and supported by international NGOs, South African civil society also became visibly more active in challenging companies on the basis of the public’s social and environmental constitutional rights. Cases in which companies became the target of such stakeholder activism included the likes of Thor Chemicals, AECI, Caltex, Iscor, WasteTech-Enviroserv, Sasol Mining, Cape plc, Gencor, Anglo American, De Beers and GlaxoSmithKline. Not surprisingly, there has been a parallel trend among companies of improved public transparency, increased stakeholder involvement and active pursuit of public-private partnerships.

Codification

Given these pressures to demonstrate their corporate sustainability, South African companies have followed the international trend of codification, i.e. adopting standards and guidelines as a form of voluntary self-regulation on social, ethical and environmental issues. The codes which have had the most impact include ISO 14001 (for environmental management), the King Code (for corporate governance) and the Global Reporting Initiative (for sustainability reporting), while the influence of other frameworks like those on social accountability (e.g. AA 1000, SA 8000) and general corporate citizenship (e.g. the Global Compact, the OECD Guidelines for Multinationals) have been more limited.

Trends

Over the last decade, corporate sustainability has steadily broadened from an initial focus on philanthropy and environmental management towards including health, safety, labour, community and broader socio-economic issues. By the time Trialogue surveyed the top companies in 2004, 100% regarded corporate citizenship (reflecting the contemporary broad definition of corporate sustainability) as a priority, with 52% giving absolute priority status and 32% high priority.

Corporate Philanthropy

Trialogue estimates that the total expenditure on corporate social investment (CSI) in South Africa  …

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Related websites

[button size=”small” color=”blue” style=”tick” new_window=”false” link=”http://www.csrinternational.org”]Link[/button] CSR International (website)

[button size=”small” color=”blue” style=”info” new_window=”false” link=”http://www.waynevisser.com/books/corporate-citizenship-in-africa”]Page[/button] Corporate Citizenship in Africa (book)

Cite this article

Visser, W. (2004) Corporate Sustainability in South Africa: A Ten Year Review. 2004 KPMG Survey on Integrated Sustainability Reporting in South Africa, KPMG: Johannesburg.

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Five Corporate Sustainability Challenges That Remain Unmet

Five Corporate Sustainability Challenges That Remain Unmet

Article by Wayne Visser

There is no doubt that business is doing far more than ever before to tackle the sustainability challenge, for example by recognising its social responsibilities, reducing its environmental impacts, guarding against ethical compromises, making its governance more transparent and being more accountable to its stakeholders. Evidence appears in plain sight: a plethora of voluntary codes, management systems by the truckload, volumes of sustainability reports, socially responsible indices and funds, and an increasingly conscious business press.

All well and good, but – and this is a “but” that could prove to be a showstopper – all of this activity has failed to turn the tide on some of the most crucial inhibitors to sustainable development: ecological decline, poverty, greed, trust, and hope. Without significant progress on these five issues, the corporate sustainability crusade is doomed. In this article, I present evidence of these gaps that still exist and propose the shifts that are needed to address them.

The Eco Gap

According to the World Resources Institute’s latest report, World Resources 2002-2004: Decisions for the Earth – Balance Voice and Power, one billion people depend on fish for protein, yet 75 percent of the world’s fisheries are over fished or fished at the biological limit. Some 350 million people are directly dependent on forests for their livelihoods, yet global forest cover has declined by 50 percent since pre-agricultural times. More than 40 percent of the world population live in water-stressed basins and 65 percent of global agricultural lands show soil degradation. This is not about saving cute fluffy animals or pretty flowers; this is the stuff of survival, which is the true meaning of sustainability.

The link back to business is obvious. It is our consumptive lifestyle, which companies are spending more than $446 billion annually to stimulate with advertising, a nine fold increase since 1950. And we aren’t showing any signs of slowing down; just the opposite in fact. Private consumption expenditure topped $20 trillion in 2000, a fourfold increase since 1960. Approximately 60 percent of this consumption is by only 12 percent of the world’s population, namely those living in North America and Western Europe. If we are seeing rapid environmental decline now, what is going to happen when 10 billion more people convert to the Western consumptive lifestyle? Something’s got to give.

The point is that, despite all the efforts of companies in shifting towards sustainable strategies, the numbers are all still headed in the wrong direction. And partly, we permit this to happen by allowing business to skate away with mere cosmetic makeovers when wholesale transformation is needed. For example, how many corporate sustainability reports disclose cumulative emissions? None. They report on annual emissions, which often lure the reader (and management) into a false sense of security. The figures may be declining from year to year, but if you fill a glass with polluted water at a slightly slower rate, ultimately it is still going to overflow.

If we are going to avoid hitting the wall of ecological thresholds, beyond which our life support  …

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[button size=”small” color=”blue” style=”tick” new_window=”false” link=”http://www.csrinternational.org”]Link[/button] CSR International (website)

[button size=”small” color=”blue” style=”info” new_window=”false” link=”http://www.waynevisser.com/books/business-frontiers”]Page[/button] Business Frontiers (book)

Cite this article

Visser, W. (2004) Five Corporate Sustainability Challenges That Remain Unmet. Ethical Corporation, Issue 31, July.

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Ubuntu Capitalism

Setting the Global Agenda for Ubuntu Capitalism

Chapter by Wayne Visser

Extract from South Africa 2014: The Story of Our Future

Within the space of a decade, South African business has moved from being pariahs of the world to leaders in the global corporate responsibility movement. This section highlights the significant progress which has been made by the private sector, as well as the potential for South Africa to continue to shape a new agenda for capitalism across seven key dimensions.

Legal reform

Building on the ANC’s Reconstruction and Development agenda (which in turn was based on the Freedom Charter), human rights, sustainable development and corporate transparency became enshrined in the 1996 constitution and embedded in what is widely regarded as some of the most progressive legislation in socio-economic and environmental development in the world. For example, the environmental rights now enshrined in the Bill of Rights are hailed worldwide.

By inextricably linking social, economic and ecological development in its legal framework, South Africa is showing the world that the old conflicts between environmental conservation, social development and economic growth can be resolved by adopting a new model of integrated sustainable development. The foundation for improved quality of life has therefore been laid and in the next 10 years in South Africa we can expect to see:While many countries still rely on outdated legislation, the wave of reform over the past decade in South Africa has resulted in brand new statutes on ecological responsibility (e.g. the National Environmental Management Act), occupational health and safety (e.g. the Mine Health and Safety Act), investment in human capital (e.g. the Employment Equity Act), governance (e.g. the Promotion of Access to Information Act), ethics (the Prevention and Combating of Corrupt Activities Act) and socio-economic development (e.g. the Broad-based Black Economic Empowerment Act).

  • Civil society demonstrating increasingly healthy activism to bring about environmental and social justice
  • Government continuing to enact and refine progressive legislation and to enhance its enforcement capacity
  • Business becoming the primary vehicle for ensuring that integrated sustainable development is delivered on the ground

Corporate governance

When the Institute of Directors in Southern Africa (IoD) published the King Report on Corporate Governance in South Africa in 1992, it was the first of all the governance codes in the world to stress the importance of wider stakeholder interests beyond narrow shareholder demands. This global thought leadership was once again demonstrated when, in its revised King Report in 2002 (King II), the IoD included a whole chapter on sustainability reporting, including extensive referencing to two leading-edge international standards, the Global Reporting Initiative’s Sustainability Reporting Guidelines, and Accountability’s AA 1000 framework.

The King II requirement that “every company should report at least annually on the nature and extent of its social, transformation, ethical, safety, health and environmental management policies and practices” has already paid dividends. Surveys by KPMG show that 85% South Africa’s top 100 listed companies in 2003 were already reporting on sustainability-related issues, compared with only 48% in 1997. This remarkable progress is assisted by the fact that the Johannesburg Stock Exchange has made compliance with King II a listing requirement …

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[button size=”small” color=”blue” style=”info” new_window=”false” link=”http://www.sagoodnews.co.za/”]Page[/button] South Africa: The Good News (website)

Cite this chapter

Visser, W. (2004) Setting the Global Agenda for Ubuntu Capitalism, In B. Bowes, S. Pennington & G. Lundy, South Africa 2014: The Story Of Our Future, Johannesburg: South Africa The Good News, 349-351.

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Meaning, Work and Social Responsibility

Meaning, Work and Social Responsibility

Article by Wayne Visser

Surprisingly little has been written about the search for meaning in a workplace or business context, and nothing, in my knowledge, has made the explicit link to corporate social responsibility (CSR). It is surprising, partly because meaning has been a serious topic of research and application for at least fifty years now, following the seminal work of Viktor Frankl and others, as have the fields of industrial psychology and CSR. But it is more surprising still, simply because work is where we spend about a third of lives. If meaning cannot be found in the workplace, our ability to lead a fulfilling life is seriously impaired.

The importance of understanding how work can contribute to meaning in life seems more critical now than ever before. Anecdotal evidence is mounting that people in the West are increasingly feeling a sense of existential crisis in their working lives. On the one hand, they are expecting more from their work experience, including that it will nurture personal development and self actualisation. On the other hand, they are finding the capitalist, corporate model of work to be lacking in a meaningful higher purpose, or to put it another way, the modern workplace and economy is devoid of a sense of soul.

Some may argue that this growing frustration in the Western workplace is a vindication of Karl Marx’s (1975) concept of the alienation of labour through capitalism, whereby work “does not belong to his essential being; that he therefore does not confirm himself in his work, but denies himself, feels miserable and not happy, does not develop free mental and physical energy, but mortifies his flesh and ruins his mind”.

Modern social commentators like Charles Handy are less extreme, arguing for reformation rather than revolution. In his book, The Hungry Spirit, which is subtitled “Beyond Capitalism – A Quest for Purpose in the Modern World”, Handy calls for capitalism to embrace the notion of social capital (and I would add ecological capital as well) in addition to the more traditional economic capital. He also emphasises the need for citizen companies, which demonstrate greater accountability and a restored balance between the rights and responsibilities of business.

The question remains, however, whether these ideas have any grounding in the theory of meaning on the one hand, and management theory on the other hand. According to Frankl’s logopsychology and logophilosophy, work – doing, or as he referred to it, realising creative values – constitutes one of three paths to meaning. “As long as creative values are in the forefront of the life task,” he noted, “their actualisation generally coincides with a person’s work”. In fact, his other two paths to meaning may be equally applicable in the work situation, even if less common, namely being, or the experience of values (e.g. love, truth, beauty), and perceiving, or the adoption of constructive attitudes (especially in the face of suffering).

Frankl’s notions of work as ideally being an expression of a life task are not dissimilar to iconic industrial psychologist Abraham Maslow’s conclusions about self-actualising individuals. Writing …

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Related websites

[button size=”small” color=”blue” style=”tick” new_window=”false” link=”http://www.csrinternational.org”]Link[/button] CSR International (website)

[button size=”small” color=”blue” style=”info” new_window=”false” link=”http://www.waynevisser.com/books/making-a-difference”]Page[/button] Making a Difference (book)

Cite this article

Visser, W. (2003) Meaning, Work and Social Responsibility. Positive Living E-Zine, International Network on Personal Meaning, September.

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Corporate Responsibility in a Developing Country Context

Corporate Responsibility in a Developing Country Context

Article by Wayne Visser

In this article, I want to explode a few myths about corporate responsibility in developing countries. Most of these myths exist as a result of the feeding frenzy that inevitably occurs every time the media has hunted down and sunk its teeth into one or other juicy story of corporate exploitation. The myths are also sustained, however, by whole legions of largely well-intentioned people in developed countries who have vested interests in promoting their particular brand of the truth about corporate responsibility.

Myth 1: Economic growth is not good

Over the past decade or more, there has been a growing backlash against the economic expansionist agenda of many developed countries and multinational corporations. And rightly so: Blind pursuit of GDP growth or market growth often fails to take into account many of its negative social and environmental impacts, as alternative indicators of progress, like the United Nations Human Development Index, the Index for Sustainable Economic Welfare (ISEW) and the Environmental Sustainability Index, have all amply demonstrated.

But it is a mistake to transpose this “growth is not good” argument into a developing country context. What the ISEW showed, in fact, was that GDP growth and quality of life in developed countries like the USA and UK moved in parallel until around 1970, when they began to diverge, with quality of life declining despite continued economic growth. Most developing countries have yet to reach that point of divergence. Economic growth and the expansion of business activities is still one of the most effective ways to achieve improved social development and environmental sustainability.

Myth 2: Multinationals are the biggest sinners

In today’s fishbowl world, when multinationals step out of line, they get slammed in the worldwide media. Typically, their reputations suffer collateral damage and they find themselves being targeted by consumer boycotts and liability suits. This is both appropriate and necessary as a counterbalancing force in today’s supra-territorial society, given the overwhelming size and power of global corporations and the still relatively poor institutional frameworks of regulation and governance to ensure proper accountability.

But on balance, these sensational cases are the exception, rather than the rule. On the ground in developing countries, multinationals are generally powerful forces for good, through their investment in local economies, creation of jobs, upgrading of infrastructure, provision of basic services and involvement in community development and environmental conservation. The cumulative social and environmental impacts of smaller companies, which operate below the radar of the media and out of reach of the arm of the law, are typically far larger than that of the high profile multinationals.

Myth 3: Multinationals are the biggest saviours

While multinationals are typically not the worst offenders in developing countries, neither do they have as much influence over national development as many critics seem to assume. Development is a complex phenomenon, which fifty years of multilateral frustration has proved beyond question. Adequate systems of governance and economic stability are probably two of the most critical enablers, a fact that countries in Africa have finally realised with the launch of the African Union and  …

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[button size=”small” color=”blue” style=”download” new_window=”false” link=”http://www.waynevisser.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/article_myths_devcos_wvisser.pdf”]Pdf[/button] Corporate Responsibility in a Developing Country Context (article)

Related websites

[button size=”small” color=”blue” style=”tick” new_window=”false” link=”http://www.csrinternational.org”]Link[/button] CSR International (website)

[button size=”small” color=”blue” style=”info” new_window=”false” link=”http://www.waynevisser.com/books/the-world-guide-to-csr”]Page[/button] The World Guide to CSR (book)

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Visser, W. (2003) Corporate Responsibility in a Developing Country Context. Ethical Corporation, Issue 20, August.

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In Search of Business on the Elephant Trail

In Search of Business on the Elephant Trail

Article by Wayne Visser

In a previous article, I talked about the need for companies to “shapeshift” – to change their underlying natures – from embodying the characteristics of a lion (a competitive, selfish predator) to being more like an elephant (a more cooperative, harmonious creature). This analogy is based on the book I co-authored with Clem Sunter entitled Beyond Reasonable Greed: Why Sustainable Business is a Much Better Idea! (Human & Rousseau Tafelberg, 2002).

The question still remains, however: what does an elephant company look like? Like trying to convince caterpillars that going into a cocoon is a good idea, it helps if we can show the remarkable end result, namely a beautiful butterfly flying free. That is why, in this article, I want to highlight some companies that have already gone a long way down the elephant trail; businesses that have begun transforming themselves into agents of positive change in a world that desperately needs visionary leadership.

There are seven critical areas in which elephant companies distinguish themselves from lion companies, namely: values, vision, work, governance, relationships, communication and services. We will explore each of these themes briefly and give examples of those companies and business leaders that are blazing a trail for others to follow. So, hang on to your whiskers, the shapeshifting is about to begin.

Values: It’s in His Kiss

Values are exactly what they say they are – a reflection of the things we value. In a corporate context, they are not motherhood and apple pie statements in annual reports, or candyfloss principles framed on the boardroom wall. If you want to know what values a lion lives by, the answer lies not in his well-groomed mane or his charming smile; as the rock ‘n roll classic goes: “It’s in his kiss!” In other words, company values are betrayed by the way they behave.

Let’s take the issue of equity in the workplace as an example. It is a fact that the gap between rich and poor has widened in the past fifty years, with three billion people (half the world’s population) still living on less than $2 a day. And yet how many companies look to themselves as one of the sources of this growing inequity? How can it be otherwise when, in 1960, Chief Executives in the United States earned on average 40 times more than the average worker, but by 1990, this factor had gone up to 80 times and today is around 120. Taken to an extreme to illustrate the point, do you know that it would take one Haitian worker producing Disney clothes and dolls 166 years to earn as much as Disney president Michael Eisner earns in one day. In lion companies, the benefits always seem to trickle upwards to feed the fat cats.

By contrast, America’s popular ice-cream chain, Ben & Jerry’s Homemade Inc, chose equity in the workplace was one of their fundamental values. Importantly, it didn’t stop with words, but rather translated into action. The inspirational founders of Ben & Jerry’s insisted on a top to bottom salary …

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[button size=”small” color=”blue” style=”download” new_window=”false” link=”http://www.waynevisser.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/article_elephant_trail_wvisser.pdf”]Pdf[/button] In Search of Business on the Elephant Trail (article)

Related websites

[button size=”small” color=”blue” style=”tick” new_window=”false” link=”http://www.csrinternational.org”]Link[/button] CSR International (website)

[button size=”small” color=”blue” style=”info” new_window=”false” link=”http://www.waynevisser.com/books/business-frontiers”]Page[/button] Business Frontiers (book)

Cite this article

Visser, W. (2003) In Search of Business on the Elephant Trail. Namaste, Volume 21, July/August.

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