How Companies Can Work Their CO/RE To Drive Societal Impact
By Tucker Warren and Francis Bouchard
In an era of 24-hour news, companies’ stakeholders are more aware and engaged than possibly ever before, as consumers and employees alike are seeking higher levels of transparency and purpose. Some might care as much about the farmer who picked the strawberry as the quality of its taste.
The confluence of commercial success and broader societal obligation is more intertwined than ever before. Expectations are evolving and values-based leadership is becoming more prevalent. Those realities make it difficult to find a company that doesn’t already have some sort of societal impact practice. Some companies do so through a corporate social responsibility (CSR) program, which focuses primarily on philanthropy and employee engagement. Others create a shared value (CSV) model, which includes altering operations and supply chain structures. Both have significantly contributed to bettering environmental, social, and governance issues.
There is an emerging trend, however, that allows companies to maximize societal impact efforts and become policy leaders without looking too far beyond what they already do best. Corporate responsibility — or CO/RE — is a multi-functional approach that begins with companies first identifying their core expertise and applying these strengths to tangential causes. By focusing on their CO/RE, companies establish true leadership authority on a given issue and forge partnerships that can motivate large-scale change. It’s important to note CO/RE doesn’t have to replace CSR or CSV; it can complement those efforts as well.
A recent paper from HPS details this process and explores how three companies — JPMorgan Chase & Co., Toyota, and Zurich — have benefited from adopting a CO/RE approach. JPMorgan Chase & Co. went beyond financing economic recovery. It applied its data and analytical capabilities to support economic empowerment in Detroit. Toyota’s operational excellence as exemplified through its Toyota Production System program has helped both nonprofit and government agencies improve efficiency processes. And finally, Zurich’s leadership in flood resiliency enabled the company to forge numerous partnerships with government and nonprofit partners, and to now provide assistance to flood-prone communities around the world.
Looking at each case, we found incorporating a CO/RE approach involves four key steps:
1. Articulate your company’s core expertise
2. Widen the aperture to apply that expertise to a tangential societal challenge
3. Develop compelling thought leadership to enrich public dialogue and engage partners
4. Identify opportunities to scale impact through policy or other platforms
As companies strive to incorporate broader societal aims into their business models, the CO/RE approach to leveraging core competencies offers a high-value/high-impact path to engaging employees, building community partnerships, and driving societal change. Moreover, the leadership platform built from these efforts can influence social causes on a wider scale, positively reinforcing a company’s reputational image, and expanding its stakeholder and partnership reach.
CO/RE doesn’t have to replace CSR or CSV, but absolutely offers a meaningful complement that helps align corporate strategy with societal impact.
Tucker Warren is Partner at Hamilton Place Strategies. Francis Bouchard is Managing Director at Hamilton Place Strategies.
