Is Corporate Social Responsibility Dead?

Executives from around the globe are hunkering down at the Hyatt Hotel for the next few days to chew on corporate social responsibility.


China seems to be dominating the discussion. Mattel head honcho, Robert A. Eckert, was a keynote speaker. Didn't attend the session, but I'm sure he fielded lots of questions about their recent recall troubles.

There was also a panel discussing China's responsibility in Darfur.

I caught the end of a panel debating whether corporate social responsibility is on the outs. Spoke to one interesting panelist, a CSR consultant who's a Filipina working in Equatorial Africa. A lot of her clients are in Asia, mostly mining and mineral companies.

Her take is that with globalization, it's harder to be a good corporate citizen, since the context for it changes from place to place and culture to culture. She says some firms, especially if they're in China, look at competitors with fat bottom lines who trash the environment and wonder if they're hurting their bottom line playing by the rules.


I'm heading to the conference tomorrow. More to come.