I’ve been working with a talented intern who writes Chinese copy that I edit and tweak in Chinese before translating and rewriting in English. Then she modifies the final Chinese product. Below, I include the English version of a sidebar that ran in April’s Enterprise section.
CSR: Where Do We Go Now?
By Sarah Chen
Only two years ago, when Premiere Wen Jiabao released the first CSR report at the State Grid Company, did top-level Chinese leadership suggest the nation adopt universalized CSR practice. “Industry should take responsibility for society and voluntarily accept social supervision,” he said.
At the time, Li Weiyang, China State Grid CSR Department Head, listened attentively. For the past two years he has worked to further the CSR concept in China. Late last year, the state company released its “National Grid Implementation CSR Guide,” which speaks, from the managerial level, about how to invigorate dialogue and cooperation between corporations.
Li believes that one of the catalysts of CSR development in China is the radical change in the country’s economic structure—the most profound being the promotion of separation of government and enterprise, which has led to independent industry and created the demand for meaningful CSR practices. CSR is simply the natural choice for a country with industries seeking to globalize via cooperation with multinationals or through export deals.
Or, as Guo Peiyuan, general manager of Syntao, a Beijing-based CSR consulting company would put it, there is no other choice. Today’s speed of information has brought about societal change, he says, in which companies are put under scrutiny not only by their consumers, but also by the media and NGOs. As such, companies now face greater transparency than ever, and with that comes a certain pressure to perform with greater ethics.
However, when considering CSR in China, the special circumstances and challenges of the nation must be taken into account. To many companies in developed nations, CSR is an effective public relations tool, but China is a country with struggling industries and a huge gap between rich and poor as well as wealth chasms among regional divides. The government must evaluate how to apply appropriate standards to various regions, says Guo.
In the meantime, multinationals may serve as leaders when it comes to Chinese CSR, but problems arise when these multinationals don’t localize their message or disagree with what should constitute as an important aspect of CSR in China. For example, to Westerners, global warming is an important issue for major industries to consider, but to Chinese, it is easier to get the message across by talking more concretely about conserving resources and eliminating emissions.
To put it simply, it’s improbable to simply take and translate CSR development without considering differences in cultural background and the limitations of a nation’s resources.
To resolve these problems, there must be greater communication, says Guo Peiyuan.
Recently, that communication came in the way of a recent surge of meetings. Several large model multinationals hooked up with organized political bodies, university scholars and NGO representatives in Hong Kong and other Chinese cities to share and discuss points about how business is shaping up in Asia and how business operations can enhance understanding. They also discussed how companies can localize responsible practices.
These talks also served as an educational tool. Li points out that most Chinese are unfamiliar with CSR because society currently has no way to promote effective CSR tools and industry lacks models for universal study. Academic management and economic programs should also adopt CSR studies into their curriculum, he says, to develop deep and meaningful research.
Guo asserts that industry must continue to play a vigorous role in universalizing CSR, but in order to do that business must find its own impetus. The government’s duty is to provide a market that allows industry the room to implement CSR procedure.
The challenge now is to make this trend stick. Experts agree that starting with realistic goals and evading the pitfalls of formalism to create good comprehensive strategy is a good start for China. In the final analysis, CSR must be viewed as a tactical choice in industry’s development and an effective long-term management method for the company – and for the world.
Leave a Reply