CSR Lessons to be Learnt From Global Riots, Says IMD Prof: MBA News

The rioting that has spread throughout the world in recent times highlights lessons from yesteryear that still need to be learnt in order to avoid potential catastrophe, says a professor from Switzerland's IMD Business School.

"Radical change is called for," says IMD's Professor Jean-Pierre Lehmann. "Many of the demonstrators are vociferously protesting about inequality. It is not that inequality per se is considered harmful, but that this inequality arises from gross injustice. Virtually everywhere, inequality arises because of inequality of opportunity."

This inequality of opportunity has been seen many years before, Lehmann points out. However, what was previously predominantly social and political problems that caused the public to rise up, has now become more relevant to corporations. As a result, the role of corporate social responsibility, and the teaching of it, should be taken far more seriously by many global businesses.

Corporate Social Responsibility to Douse the Flames

"One of the books that most marked me when I was young was The Fire Next Time by the late African-American author James Baldwin, which appeared in 1963," continues IMD's Lehmann in a blog post. "It takes the form of a letter to his nephew describing the scene in the US at the time, the injustices committed against 'Negroes' (as was the term then) and how complacent and smug most of white America was, especially American business leaders. They were thus oblivious to the fire - the conflagration - that was coming."

"Most of the so-called CSR [corporate social responsibility] programmes that companies proffer tend to be little more than cosmetic. If business leaders could really step up to the plate in a significant manner, this might have some dousing effect on the embers. For example, if global business leaders undertook to eradicate corruption, not simply with words, but by, for example, having Transparency International carry out audits, then progress might be achieved."

"History does not repeat itself, but we should try to learn. The sparks I see today bring me back to the prophecy of James Baldwin in the early 60s and the apprehension that we may soon see a global fire next time."