Businesses today are increasingly expected to deliver some sort of social value in addition to shareholder value, or, at the very least, to not create harm to society. Whether they realize it or not, whether they actively manage it or not, pretty much all companies with market, financial or human resource connections to Europe and North America have a Social Value Brand or SVB To keep updated on postings and events go to www.csrtraininginstitute.com and sign up for the newsletter. If interested the CSR Knowledge Centre http://bit.ly/CSRknowledge contains a series of short, pragmatic articles on CSR Strategy, Management and related areas.

1. Helping business to
serve shareholders AND society
SIMULTANEOUSLY
-by Wayne Dunn
Social Value Brand
www.csrtraininginstitute.com/knowledge-centre

2. Social Value Brand
Social Value Brand (SVB)
Businesses today are increasingly expected to deliver some sort of
social value in addition to shareholder value, or, at the very least, to
not create harm to society.
Whether they realize it or not, whether they actively manage it or not,
pretty much all companies with market, financial or human resource
connections to Europe and North America have a Social Value
Brand or SVB
This is true whether they are a mining company operating in remote
jungles, a high performing Consumer Goods Company, a globally
recognized service sector brand or even a professional sports league.
It is also true for entire industries.
You might ask, what is a Social Value Brand? It is simply how your
company or industry is perceived in relation to creating value for
society as well as value for shareholders.
You might also ask, how important is a Social Value Brand? For
some it is quite important actually.
For all it is more important today than it was ten years ago, and will
be more important in five years than it is today.
If attracting top talent to your company is important, the fact that
73% of Americans want to work for a company that is doing social
good should move SVB up your priority list.
If you are a mining company your SVB can be the difference between
being able to operate and being shut down through loss of permits, or
even by direct community activism. Some jurisdictions actually require
a community vote to support development of a mine. Are you ready
for that?

3. If you are a consumer goods company your global supply chain
is likely fraught with labour force, human rights, environment, health
and safety and other potential issues that you are working hard to
manage. Complex issues in long and complex supply chains.
Sudden events like fires, factory collapses, sub-contractor screw-ups,
or something out of the blue can suddenly put negative pressure on
your SVB and impact sales and relationships. A carefully nurtured
SVB can provide a reputational capital reserve that can give your
market facing brand some resilience to these inevitable situations.
If you are a globally recognized service brand your Social Value
Brand can give you a strategic edge in attracting and retaining talent.
And, SVB development activities can provide valuable professional
development opportunities for your team.
And professional sports leagues? Yes, social value brand is an
emerging issue there too. Look at the heat football has taken over how
it managed domestic violence issues with players, or how concussions
and other safety issues are becoming increasingly important, or
violence in hockey, or environmental impact of sporting events. SVB
issues are increasing in importance, and catching the attention of key
leaders and decision makers.
With the growing importance of social value brands you would think
that management of them would also be of increasing importance.
You would be right, but you would likely be surprised at some low-
hanging opportunities that are there for the taking.
Here are some examples that I think are ripe for action…
Nike’s SVB Opportunity
Take a company like Nike, a clear global leader in athletic apparel
and athletic performance gear. Nike actually creates a lot of social
value every day.
Social Value Brand

4. Nike is a huge supporter of community sports and youth sports. Nike
also supports aspiring and accomplished athletes who themselves
provide incredible amounts of volunteer support to youth and sports
and charitable causes.
Together these actions create a lot of latent social brand value, but
little seems to be invested in developing it so that Nike’s publics and
constituencies recognize the social value that Nike helps foster.
You may ask, why is this important? People buy Nike for athletic
performance and the star power of its athletes. True. On the margins
a strong SVB may help drive some sales, but likely not much.
But, what about when a supply chain issue develops and suddenly
global attention is focused on labour, or safety or human rights practices
of some obscure contractor in Nike’s supply chain (remember Nike
and the child labour issues of the 90s). When the sh*t hits the fan a
strong SVB can provide the reputational capital that will limit market
impact and facilitate speedy recovery.
What is ironic is that with all the social good that Nike is creating
already it would likely take little additional effort and cost to develop
a robust SVB.
NHL’s SVB Opportunity
The National Hockey League has taken a global leadership position
in sustainability management and reporting. The league and its
franchisesareactivelyandprogressivelymanagingtheirenvironmental
footprint. The league recently produced a strong sustainability report.
(see a short analysis of it here)
At the same time the league, its franchises and players are producing
social value in many ways.
Social Value Brand

5. Whether it is the league’s work with Cancer, LGT issues or a range of
other important social causes and issues, or the individual franchises
support to a range of community causes and charities, or the work of
individual players and their support to youth, minor hockey, charity
and development, there are many valuable social impacts emanating
from the NHL and its teams and players.
Yet, despite the success of its sustainability report and the significant
societal impacts, the League and its franchises are doing little to
develop a strong social value brand from all the social value creation
work it is doing.
Extractive sector SVB opportunities
The mining and petroleum industries were actually early achievers in
social value creation!
Yes, they do have a legacy of negative social value impacts (and
some continue to this day). But, today companies and major industry
associations are making major progress on social value creation.
Examples abound of progressive community engagement and
development, whether it is Uranium emining giant Cameco and it’s
leadership to facilitate a half billion dollar annual business activity
Indigenous Peoples in northern Saskatchewan, or Golden Star’s
efforts to support family level palm oil businesses in Ghana, or Placer
Dome’s leadership that ‘changed the social face of the South
African mining industry’ (see Analysis and Stanford Case Study
here).
For the most part the extractive sector is quite accomplished at
maximizing local/project level social value brand impacts from its
investments and operations. On an industry level organizations
like ICMM (website), CIM, PDAC and others are working to create
industry wide SVB.
Social Value Brand

6. A closer examination though will reveal that few companies are
pro-actively building their SVB at the corporate level where it could
provide increasing value in financing, employee recruitment and
retention and other key areas.
Conclusion
Similar stories can be told for other industries. There are many social
value brand opportunities where much of the work is already done
and paid for.
As societal pressure for social value creation increases you can expect
businesses and industries to pay increasing attention to their Social
Value Brand.
Some will use it as a differentiator in markets, others for employee
recruitment and retention and others will use it more like an insurance
against impacts of mistakes that are pretty much inevitable.
However it is used, Social Value Brand is something that tomorrow’s
leaders will pay more attention to than today’s, and today’s leaders
that do pay attention and get their SVB right will have improved paths
to success, today and tomorrow.
Social Value Brand

7. Professor Dunn brings a practical and realistic approach to CSR, blending theory and
practice to develop realistic models and approaches to address real-world challenges
Dr. Ellis Armstrong
Former CFO, BP Exploration
…coherent, thoughtful, stimulating and insightful… state of the art! The network of
participants from the public, private and civil society sectors was incredible, some of
the leading experts in the field.
Kojo Busia, Ph. D.
Snr. Mineral Sector Governance Advisor
United Nations Economic Commission for Africa/UNECA
…pragmatic blend of theory and practice, very applicable to helping organizations
meet real-world challenges.
Frank McShane
Manager, Corporate Responsibility Policy and Ethics, Talisman Energy
… readily available to provide support to organizations like Amref that are seeking
partnerships, and looking to bring about positive change in a collaborative and concrete
way. Wayne and the CSR Training Institute helped us to identify and connect with
potential partners and are always available. The training, the expertise, the network
and the overall support are world-class.
Onome Ako
Director of Strategic Partnerships, Amref Health Africa
“The program enhanced the CSR knowledge and strategic skills of our Kosmos Energy
Ghana team, and offered the participants a platform for networking with professionals
from other organizations across Africa and Ghana.”
Reg Manhas
Sr VP Kosmos Energy
Very much helpful Wayne; some of the tips and questions you gave will be an extremely
helpful guide in the process of developing a CSR Strategy for my company.
Emmanuel Aubynn
Regional Social Responsibility Manager, Newmont Africa
The CSR Program was excellent. A key aspect of my work is to encourage and support
private sector development that contributes to Ghana’s overall socio-economic
growth. The learning that I and my staff take away from attending this program will
help us immensely with this responsibility. I highly recommend this program.
Hon. Rashid Pelpuo (MP)
Minister of State for Private Sector Development and Public Private Partnerships
(Ghana)
New and exciting insights into the theory and practice of CSR… great faculty and
participants, very diversified. An excellent learning experience, very practical and
useful. I’m very happy I was able to participate in it.
Hon InusahFuseini (MP)
Minister of Lands and Natural Resources (Ghana)
WHAT OTHERS SAY ABOUT OUR WORK

8. Should Business Serve
Helping business to serve society and
shareholders, SIMULTANEOUSLY.
Should Business Serve
WAYNE DUNN, PRESIDENT AND FOUNDER
SHAREHOLDERS?
SOCIETY?
IT SHOULD SERVE BOTH.
Wayne Dunn is President & Founder of the CSR Training Institute and
Professor of Practice in CSR at McGill. He’s a Stanford Sloan Fellow
with a M.Sc. in Management from Stanford Business School.
He is a veteran of 20+ years of award winning global CSR and
sustainability work spanning the globe and covering many industries
and sectors including extensive work with Indigenous Peoples in
Canada and globally. His work has won major international awards
and has been used extensively as ‘best-practice’ by industry and
academia.
He’s also worked oil rigs, prospecting, diamond drilling, logging,
commercial fishing, heavy equipment operator, truck driver and
underwater logging, done a couple of start-ups and too many other
things to mention.
Wayne’s career includes big successes, and spectacular failures. He
hopes he’s learned equally from both.
www.csrtraininginstitute.com