EPISODE #4:

It’s Simple: How to Engage in Corporate Citizenship with Carolyn Berkowitz

Or listen to this episode on Apple Podcasts.

It’s 2020! What New Year’s resolution did you make for the year? I resolved to try harder to have a positive impact on my world as this new decade dawns.  

Easier said than done, right? But Carolyn Berkowitz, my guest on this episode of the Conscious Culture Café claims it doesn’t have to be hard!

She describes how companies can approach social responsibility and citizenship without lots of complexity and expense. However, her advice applies to each of us as we think about how we work and live. Afterall, citizenship is about everyone. 

“It’s all about how you make your money and how you spend your money,” according to Carolyn, who is the president of the Association of Corporate Citizenship Professionals. 

Whether you are thinking of starting a corporate citizenship program in your company or considering your actions as a worker and consumer, Carolyn’s words of wisdom will hit home. 

Carolyn offers intriguing ideas for how to start citizenship or corporate social responsibility programs without a lot of complexity and expense. And she shares stories of companies that are making a gigantic impact even though they are not large, rich corporations. 

And what if you don’t run a company? Her tips are thought-provoking for every one of us as we work and buy.    

Here is a snapshot of a few topics we cover in this podcast…

• All companies have a purpose – they need to get back to basics to describe it. 
• Why companies are unnecessarily afraid of starting a corporate social responsibility program and how to get over it. 
• Simple and inexpensive impact strategies for businesses
• Why every company should commit to doing less harm AND doing more good. 

If you are interested in more information, here are some additional links related to this episode: 
ACCP’s website
https://www.accp.org/Blog-ACCP/CSR-Case-Data.aspx – You will find a blog and a free tool!
https://www.accp.org/Blog-ACCP/CSR-Brand-Strategy.aspx – Blog on how to integrate CSR into your brand strategy.

EPISODE #4 TRANSCRIPT

Kathy Miller Perkins: Did you know that the vast majority of global corporations say citizenship is important, but a very small percentage actually make it a priority and incorporate it into their strategy. So, our episode today is all about corporate citizenship and how to incorporate it into your organization. I am so excited to welcome Carolyn Berkowitz, the president and CEO of the Association of Corporate Citizenship Professionals, better known as ACCP. I met Carolyn a little over a year ago right after she took the position at ACCP and we’ve stayed closely connected ever since. So Carolyn, welcome to the Conscious Culture Cafe.

Carolyn Berkowitz: Hello Kathy, I’m thrilled to be here with you.

Kathy Miller Perkins: Before we get started on the meat of the episode today, tell me a little bit about your backstory, Carolyn. How did you end up a year ago in the position you’re in?

Carolyn Berkowitz: Well, I’ve spent my, mostly, my entire career around corporate responsibility. I worked closely with corporations in several national nonprofits focused either on youth development or on community building and decided to make the switch to the corporate side of the equation where I led CSR at Capital One for 12 years. And when I was there at Capital One, my team and I developed and implemented strategies that supported the company’s growth and development from a credit card company, which probably you all remember, a top five national bank, to now an online and digital leader in financial services. So when I had the opportunity to come and help shape and lead the field of CSR into its next growth phase by heading up ACCP, I literally jumped on it.

Kathy Miller Perkins: Wonderful. Let’s stop and identify what CSR stands for.

Carolyn Berkowitz: Corporate Social Responsibility. There are many names that people will use for this. And the names run in fads a little bit. So often we’d call it Corporate Citizenship. Some call it corporate social responsibility. Lately, the term sustainability and social and environmental sustainability has taken hold because there are many sides to this equation. In every case. It is about both how a company makes its money and how a company spends its money in ways that support the sustainability of both the earth and society.

Kathy Miller Perkins: Great. So all of these titles pretty much say the same thing. They pretty much mean the same thing.

Carolyn Berkowitz: I use them interchangeably.

Kathy Miller Perkins: Okay, great. That’s exactly what I wanted to know. All. So tell me what’s happened to you in your first year. What have you learned in your first year with ACP, Carolyn?

Carolyn Berkowitz: Well, let me tell you a little bit about what ACCP is. We are a membership association for companies that are committed to corporate citizenship and are really a career-long resource for the purpose driven professionals that make up those companies. What ACCP does is advance the field of CSR and serve as a strategic resource so that these professionals can do the most good either in their companies, in their communities and/or around the world. We have 213 member companies today of all industries and sizes, Fortune 500, smaller mid-size companies, and even startups and each of them gains access to practical insights and relevant tools and connections that help them to improve their results and ultimately to expand their impact.

Kathy Miller: Are they all in the U.S. Carolyn, all your members?

Carolyn Berkowitz: Our members can be international companies and USA companies, but they all have operations in the United States.

Kathy Miller Perkins: All right, that makes sense. So what can you tell me about this? There’s a discrepancy between how many companies say corporate citizenship and CSR is important and what they actually do with corporate citizenship. Fewer companies actually incorporate corporate citizenship as a priority into their strategy. So what’s that discrepancy all about? What can you tell me about that?

Carolyn Berkowitz: So, you know, I think there are a few primary reasons. First of all, the expectations of stakeholders, dramatically even over the past two years, continues to change by double digits almost every year. And so I think companies underestimate the consequences of lagging behind their peers in this dimension. I’ll throw out a couple of statistics from the same study by Cone Communications from 2017; 89% of consumers would switch brands to one that is associated with a good cause, given similar price and quality.

Kathy Miller Perkins: Wow. Yeah. It is astounding.

Carolyn Berkowitz: Consumers are voting with their feet for that, and second of all, in terms of talent, 76% of millennials would choose to work for a socially responsible company even if the salary would be less than what they would make at other companies. Another astounding fact. I think that companies don’t necessarily know these facts and that is one reason why there is a lag. I think the second is more probably practical. Perhaps companies don’t prioritize citizenship because they either think it’s too hard or too expensive. I don’t think it has to be either of those things to get started.

Kathy Miller Perkins: So is it mostly just the big companies right now that take on corporate citizenship or is it mostly small companies or is that all across the board?

Carolyn Berkowitz: Almost all the big companies are doing something. And those companies that are born out of a social mission now actually have that in their DNA and they are not necessarily even thinking about how do I do it. They exist to do it. Companies that have a long history but haven’t had to face this challenge, mid-sized companies or smaller companies or some larger companies, that have focused in one area and the demands of the business have changed dramatically as talent and competition have changed, are finding the need to “true” back to creating these kinds of initiatives inside their companies.

Kathy Miller Perkins: So there’s a growing interest. It sounds like.

Carolyn Berkowitz: There’s a hugely growing interest each year with investors, with employees, with consumers and customers as stakeholders. Each and every one of those stakeholder groups is absolutely demanding, and at an increased pace, that companies are socially responsible.

Kathy Miller Perkins: Oh, that’s great for your organization. You’ve got a good service to offer.

Carolyn Berkowitz: We help people do this work better, do it more efficiently, do it more effectively. In part because we believe that companies will be more successful and in part because we believe that the world will simply be a better place when companies are doing this and doing it well.

Kathy Miller Perkins: Yeah, they go together, don’t they? Well, so you said that you think one of the reasons that companies may not be doing this, even though they think it’s important is because they think it’s too costly or it takes too much energy. Can you say a little bit more about that? You said you don’t necessarily believe that is true. Can you tell me more about that?

Carolyn Berkowitz: Yeah, I think that companies can do this at almost any price if they are thinking strategically. And while strategy can be complicated, what I would love to do for you and your listeners is to break down some of the components that go into developing strategy. Folks can understand that it neither needs to be overly complex nor overly expensive.

Kathy Miller Perkins: That’s great. Take it away.

Carolyn Berkowitz: Right. I think that when one is thinking about a CSR program and a company is thinking about what it needs to do first, I think the first task is to understand their company’s social mission. And companies often don’t think that they have a social mission, right? Make money. I’m in business to make a product. I’m in money to provide a service. Right. Fundamentally, that product or service exists to improve lives in some way or another. And so I think that the social mission exists already and companies need to think about how their product or service improves lives in order to zero in on that. So I’ll start with banking, which is my background.

Carolyn Berkowitz: Take banking, which is my background. The company that I worked for thinks of itself as being in the business of changing lives. So from helping consumers and businesses save and borrow to financing a car or a home. It’s not a leap to see how banking can improve lives. But so could a great pair of running shoes and so could a breakthrough in medical equipment or cybersecurity. It’s really about thinking what, what does our product do that makes the world better?

Kathy Miller Perkins: So it’s not like companies have to make up a new purpose. It’s already there. It’s a matter of discovering it or articulating it. Sounds like.

Carolyn Berkowitz: That’s right. And I think companies get into trouble when they make up a new purpose, they need to really go downstream and think about how it changes lives. I think the second thing that a company needs to think about as it is considering how to enter this work is what is a social or environmental issue that if it was solved, would improve the context for their business? So I’ll go back to banking again and say we know that a huge percentage of small businesses fail in the first five years, generally because of a lack of access to capital or to the set of skills that might help them grow.

Carolyn Berkowitz: So naturally, if there were more skills and resources and more companies that had access to micro loans or SBA loans, a company might not just be contributing to the community but would have a stronger customer base. And so we’ll go back to sneakers for a second; if more people exercise regularly, the incidence of heart disease and obesity would be reduced. And the shoe company might even sell more shoes, thus enhance the context of doing business.

Kathy Miller Perkins: That’s great. So it’s so closely integrated. The company’s purpose and the contribution to the world as well as the context for making money are really closely integrated, it sounds like.

Carolyn Berkowitz: That’s right. They are

Kathy Miller Perkins: And do you think that the companies that are apprehensive about getting started with corporate citizenship, do they not see that connection? Do they not know where to start? What do you think?

Carolyn Berkowitz: I think many do and I think many are not necessarily schooled in how to think about a CSR strategy. It is, it is not intuitive to necessarily think what problem in the world needs to be solved in order for us to do better. A company could think, well, that is a selfish behavior. But it isn’t a selfish behavior. It is a win-win, lift all boats behavior. What do our stakeholders expect from us and our shareholders expect from us in terms of making money or in terms of clearing away the obstacles to doing business and what do we do better than anybody else in terms of contributing to society. And those things, when thought about that way, really create a whole set of new “ah-ahs”.

Kathy Miller Perkins: So that would be the beginning of their starting a program really is to think about, okay, very good

Carolyn Berkowitz: That would be the beginning of the journey. I think then there’s a third thing that might help a company think about strategy and that is what’s your company’s core competency? So what does your company do best? What’s your unique competitive edge? I think about things like innovation or marketing, creating experiences. And if you think about layering your social purpose with a business issue that you need to solve as a company to do well. And then on top of that a core skillset, you now have an efficient, effective idea for a CSR initiative. So one more time go back to small business banking. It has the social mission of improving lives. It has an issue with the sustainability of small businesses. Now think about the core competency. Say banks have strong digital platforms. If you were to layer on top the digital platform, there’s a strategy in the making. What if, for example, the bank built a digital learning and support platform for small businesses who lack access to capital. That’s why I say it could be done at various levels of resourcing providing that it contains these three elements. Because when a company does what it already does well and it is thinking about how to improve its business, the initiative will inherently and naturally be much more efficient.

Kathy Miller Perkins: Well, and it just sounds like, I mean, every company needs to think about strategy and really you’re talking about strategy and, and not strategy separate from social responsibility but integrated.

Carolyn Berkowitz: That’s right. Integrated aligned strategy that takes a look at not only the bottom line or the product quality, but also the social context.

Kathy Miller Perkins: Interesting, can you give an example of a smaller company that might be able to do something or, or maybe already has done something for a fairly low budget?

Carolyn Berkowitz: Yes. I met a really interesting guy at a sustainability conference earlier this year from a small company, well probably a midsize company, in the market, which is called Spellman High Voltage. This guy that I met, Mark, is a third-generation entrepreneur in the company and the company manufacturer’s power supply for scanning technology. So, if you think about medical devices that scan or security devices in airports, et cetera, that scan is the technology that Spellman High Voltage creates. And Mark’s grandfather started the business, his father is currently the CEO and in Mark’s portfolio, now as a VP, he’s working to build out a meaningful environmental and social portfolio, as one of his many duties. And they have really put a wonderful stake in the ground to create long term responsible and sustainable growth.

Kathy Miller Perkins: So how have they done that?

Carolyn Berkowitz: So they are just at the beginning of their CSR journey as a company that has about 2,000 employees in nine plants around the world. But Spellman has taken a few steps that I think are really impressive and instructional. So the first is an environmental certification, which has more to do with how the company does its business and an additional CSR initiative in that they are ISO14001 certified. Which is a long way of saying that they have committed to an environmental management system that manages environmental aspects of their specific business and businesses fulfills their compliance obligations and meaningfully addresses their environmental risks and opportunities. They are one of the first in the industry to be certified this way. It is a management discipline that they have committed to undertaking that will continue to improve their operations in an environmentally sustainable way.

Kathy Miller Perkins: So they’ve made the commitments to run their business this way.

Carolyn Berkowitz: That’s right. They’ve made the commitment to run their business this way.

Kathy Miller Perkins: Has that been really costly for them?

Carolyn Berkowitz: Well, the certification itself costs some, mostly in the training and operations, but for the business to be sustainable over three more generations, they simply have to manage the environmental resources that they are working with. They are not sustainable if they don’t. And so they have determined that it is essential to the sustainability of their business operations to take these steps.

Kathy Miller Perkins: That’s great. So that’s a great example of how doing the right thing makes sense for the business too. That’s in a medium sized company.

Carolyn Berkowitz: That’s right. So the next thing that they did beyond the day to day operation of their business in a more sustainable way is that they created and are executing something they call the Spellman High Voltage electronics clean tech competition. But it is a worldwide research and design challenge for pre-college aged youth and they have done this for three years. The program encourages a scientific understanding of real world issues and helps integrate environmentally responsible energy sources. And it is designed to inspire students to make them aware of the impact that science and technology have on the 21st century world, but also to provide a set of ideas for the future that this company or others may in fact implement over time. And, finally, it identifies and starts to build the future workforce of young people who might do this.

Carolyn Berkowitz: So every year the company identifies different issues that’s grounded in the core technological competency areas that they need in engineering and students are asked to solve a different problem. The 2019 challenge was towards a greener tomorrow. This year, the third year, the clean tech competition received applications from 550 student teams from 39 countries. That’s a lot of students and a lot of countries and this year they doubled their investment to solve two issues and so they now had two problems going as a way to scale back. The third component of it is that they partner with the National Academy of Science, Engineering and Medicine on the program, which is a very influential group that will continue to help this company build its profile and its credibility in the marketplace.

Kathy Miller Perkins: So they get something out of it. They get innovations for the world, they support students. They’re doing a lot of things with relatively small amount of capital investment.

Carolyn Berkowitz: I don’t have the exact numbers, but the outlay of expense from someone who has looked into what it cost for companies to do this and has done a lot. The outlay of expense appears to be primarily in the prize money and in marketing. In last year, 2018, they spent half as much prize money as they spent this year. And so for, what I’m going to gather, is under $100,000 and last year, likely in the $50,000 range, they had enormous outcomes. So what was it worth to the company? They generated ideas that could help their business grow. They are building a future workforce of the most talented young minds and making those people aware and loyal to their very small company and they’re getting outsized press coverage for a company of their size and connecting that press coverage to innovation. That is a lot.

Kathy Miller Perkins: It is a lot for a relatively small investment.

Carolyn Berkowitz: Think about what society is getting. Young people are creating 550 different innovative solutions to environmental issues. Any one of those as you and I know could create dramatic change and inspire new investments that couldn’t be measured in value today. 1,600 kids and their mentors are developing themselves and gaining experience that will make them valuable contributors to the workforce and to society and thousands more are being inspired by what these kids are doing. And they walk away from bare exposure to the competition with this broader understanding of why green tech is so important or how they too could make a difference. That’s not measurable either.

Kathy Miller Perkins: No, right, what an impact. That’s great. That is really interesting. So what I’m hearing you say is that really any size company can have a corporate citizenship commitment, that it’s really not that hard to get started because every company has a purpose. It’s a matter of thinking about what they can do as a business to fulfill that purpose and have an impact on society while also having an impact on their own company.

Carolyn Berkowitz: Exactly, you talk so often about the sustainability mindset and you use that in your book. And I think that this story shows that the sustainability mindset can easily be embedded and is embedded in this one small companies grow and culture and is fundamental to both how they make their money and how they spend their money.

Kathy Miller Perkins: Right, right. So what are the takeaways do you think, for our listeners from our stories today and your thoughts?

Carolyn Berkowitz: So I think there’s a few different takeaways and I think as one wants to get started or if one is already on this journey, these are the things that they need to think about. The first is to talk about your social purpose. Almost every company has one, and if you flip the lens and look at it from the other side, you will pretty quickly see that yours does too. Then I think there is taking a look at how you make your money, and could you do less harm in terms of the way you produce your products and services, whether it is environmentally or in any other dimension of your company’s operations. How is it that you can be sure that you are doing less harm? And then I think the third piece that I would love to see companies do is to think critically about how they might actually do more good. Can you invest in efforts or in programs that by asking yourself these few strategic questions could have a strategic impact both on society and on your company?

Kathy Miller Perkins: That’s great. That’s wonderful advice for our listeners. And thank you so much for sharing your experiences today. One of the things I want to mention, Carolyn, is that I know that a number of our listeners are interested in becoming more involved individually in corporate social responsibility and corporate citizenship. And I know you have lots of advice for individuals who want to do this. Would you be willing to come back and do another episode for us just on careers in this, in this field or in this area?

Carolyn Berkowitz: I would love to. I could make a full-time job just responding and connecting with all of the individuals who express interest or who want to be a CSR professional, regardless of their age or the stage of their careers.

Carolyn Berkowitz: And I think as the demand from consumers and stakeholders increases, so will the job market demand. So will the field expand? And so I would be happy to talk about what some of the ways are for individuals to gain some of these experiences while that demand is growing and or to gain these experiences from wherever they currently sit in their job or in school or in a company.

Kathy Miller Perkins: That’s right, that’s an important message because everybody can make a difference regardless of their job title.

Carolyn Berkowitz: And everybody can think strategically about the kind of difference that they can make.

Kathy Miller Perkins: I’m looking forward to that next episode, I know our listeners will too. So thank you for today and we look forward to hearing from you again, Carolyn.

Carolyn Berkowitz: Thank you for having me Kathy.