The Managing Director of Nestle Ghana Limited, Mr Moataz El Hout, has stated that the company will not use its Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) programmes as marketing and branding tools.
“We do not believe CSR is marketing, we do not believe CSR is about branding”,adding that “we believe in using our CSR to transform the lives of the societies we serve and we are doing just that”, he added.
Mr Hout said this in an answer to a question from the Graphic Business as to what the company perceived CSR to be.
The occasion was an editors forum under the auspices of Nestle Ghana Limited, meant to create a platform for editors of the print and electronic media to interact and share ideas with the management of the company.
Many other companies in the country have embarked on many activities, including the provision of school blocks, school furniture, exercise books and places of convenience.
However, all these are branded in the logos of the companies. Some also brand the structures completely in their corporate colours, a practice some experts describe as marketing strategies and not CSR.
This has made the definition of CSR even murkier as each company defines CSR the way it best suits its intention.
According to Michael Hopkins, CSR is concerned with treating the stakeholders of a company or institution ethically or in a responsible manner.
‘Ethically or responsible' means treating key stakeholders in a manner deemed acceptable according to international norms.
Social includes economic and environmental responsibility. Stakeholders exist both within a firm and outside. The wider aim of social responsibility is to create higher and higher standards of living, while preserving the profitability of the corporation or the integrity of the institution, for peoples both within and outside these entities. CSR is a process to achieve sustainable development in societies.
[Carroll, 1979; 2008, 500]: "The social responsibility of business encompasses the economic, legal, ethical and discretionary expectations that a society has of organisations at a given point in time."
European Union defines it as: "A concept whereby companies integrate social and environmental concerns in their business operations and in their interaction with their stakeholders on a voluntary basis."
Mallenbaker Definition is that; "CSR is about how companies manage the business processes to produce an overall positive impact on society"
The World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) also defines CSR as "Corporate Social Responsibility is the continuing commitment by business to behave ethically and contribute to economic development while improving the quality of life of the workforce and their families as well as of the local community and society at large".