GUEST BLOG: Framing the future

by Philip Corrigan, General Manager of iNua Partnership

Embedding social engagement into your overall business strategy is the best way to embark on a path toward sustainable value creation.

People’s expectations for businesses are driven by a combination of factors such as government regulation, consumer demand, and the level of mistrust in business (often influenced by news headlines and corporate scandals). Some expect that companies must avoid negative social and environmental impacts completely while others demand that companies address broader societal issues. Many believe that those companies who do proactively try to solve a social problem will soon return to ‘business as usual’. Building trust is key to collaborating with society.

Furthermore, and in light of one’s explicit profit motive, it’s understandable for external stakeholders to be cynical about companies taking action of this kind. This low consumer trust creates a difficult dilemma that companies will need to address: businesses can’t do more if society is combative toward their business-motivated incentives for getting involved. A self-reinforcing cycle of trust in business and trustworthy and pro-social corporate behaviour must prevail. Companies need to expect to face the harsh glare of societal expectations and the call for greater competitive restrictions that accompany a culture of mistrust toward business.

Planning for that confrontation as early as possible is crucial. If you want to maximise your achievement and investment, you can’t simply be reactive. You must lead, and that requires you to be ready, well informed, and proactive. You can’t make an impact on something that you don’t understand. Social issues that appear to have surfaced abruptly might actually have been predicted if the company had actively listened to and openly communicated with key stakeholders. Such communication needs to be built on transparency and action, not spin. The minute you start to spin your message, you risk unravelling. Communication is about speaking in a language society understands.

Unfortunately, you can’t just become socially responsible overnight. Strong executive leadership is needed to jump-start a proactive approach to social engagement. Businesses need to take a leadership role in addressing societal problems and be motivated to play an active role in helping to solve the problems a sector may face.

At iNua Health for example, the first step we identified was to recognise the need to take part in the discussion about a certain societal problem. We proactively invite other stakeholders to provide feedback, communicate proactively and be transparent about their plans so that we can create an even better overall solution to the problem, be it regarding the provision of nursing home beds or the standards of care within a home for example. We know that most social issues are too big for a government or any other stakeholder to tackle alone.  Collaboration drives positive change as businesses work with NGOs, governments, civil society, and other companies.

This is a quote from Bill Weldon, the former chairman of Johnson & Johnson. “We all have to contribute to sustainable solutions over time —not any one group can do it alone. You cannot assume that everyone else will address the problem and that you do not have to engage. If we do not align ourselves and work in a collective way on these social issues, everybody will be worse off.”