Corporate Social Responsibility Sells - But Who’s Buying?

By: Ferdinand Sy

By an overwhelmingly unfair margin, ambition-driven successful people are more often than not are inclined to be inconsiderate bastards. If this is the case, then why are we letting them be the captains of our industry? If some had successfully melded principles with profit, why then is corporate social responsibility still having trouble becoming an indispensable cornerstone of our modern corporate world?

Though many business entities “claim” that they have adopted corporate social responsibility for many years now, and yet their claims are more often than not needs to be taken with more than an occasional helping of a grain of salt. From the thinly disguised racist sentiment “We can’t afford diversity during a recession?” battlecry that also became a de facto anti-Obama sentiment during the turbulent campaign days of the 2008 US Presidential Elections. Not to mention the tacit approval of the “established” American financial institutions of subprime mortgages to clients who can never fiscally handle such transactions.

So is corporate social responsibility part of capitalism’s reform process in our post subprime mortgage economy? Or will Karl Marx be proven right again this time that capitalism really can’t reform itself. Well, the ultimate future shape of our global economy will mostly depend on us consumers. If we only buy products from companies that practice corporate social responsibility and ethical business governance, then there is still hope that capitalism can still indeed reform itself. Karl Marx was probably right in hinting that we the people still have the run of the place.