Corporate Social Responsibility

1 Corporate Social Responsibility and Sustainability Management Strategy Presentation to the Symposium of the Business Institute for Sustainable

Development, Seoul, 28 September, 2006

Honourable Chung Sye Kyun, Minister of Commerce Industry and Energy Honourable Lee Chi-Bum, Minister of Environment Mr Kim Sang-Hee, Chairperson of the Presidential Commission on Sustainable Development Mr Sohn Kyung Shik Chairman of the BISD’s Board of Directors Mr Yoon Eun-Key Vice President of the Seoul School of Integrated Science and Technologies Distinguished guests I am delighted to have this opportunity to talk to you about strategies for integrating corporate responsibility and sustainable development into mainstream business practice. I have been asked to make my remarks of a practical nature rather than theoretical or conceptual. I am very happy to this and want to share with the results of recent research I have undertaken among senior executives in a number of leading multinational companies. I particularly want to focus on how to develop managers and leaders with the skills and knowledge required to make sustainable development a core part of management practice. Let me begin by outlining the major topics I intend to cover. First, I want to briefly outline the complex business environment facing companies today. My point is not to argue why or if companies should respond to social and environmental challenges – I think we all recognise that the issues facing society today are so important and so pressing that companies must act, in concert with government and civil society. However, if companies are to take action, they must have a clear understanding of the limits of their responsibility. This is the second theme of my presentation – presenting a simple framework for understanding corporate responsibility and sustainable development.

Ashridge Business School

http://www.ashridge.org.uk

2 I then want to go on to explore how companies are defining what this...