Paul Klein's blog

“I once went down to Neil’s ranch and he rowed me out into the middle of the lake—putting my life in his hands once again. He waved at someone invisible and music started to play, in the countryside. I realized Neil had his house wired as the left speaker, and his barn wired as the right speaker. And Elliot Mazer, his engineer, said ‘How is it?’ And Neil shouted back . . . ‘More Barn!’” —Graham Nash, talking about how Neil Young first played him Harvest...

The end of corporations giving money to charities and getting nothing in return is close at hand.

As the pressure to quantify all results intensifies, businesses are finding that the most meaningful social change happens when they stick to the business of business. This is evident in the way corporate social responsibility has evolved. Once primarily a vehicle for corporate philanthropy, CSR as it is practiced today usually consists of...

It’s ten years into companies’ efforts to engage in corporate social responsibility (CSR) and the returns for business still aren’t good enough.

On the one hand, CSR isn’t going away anytime soon. It’s an important business discipline that has become the equivalent...

The most important thing I’ve learned over the last year is that social change has real business value. While corporations that are seen to be “responsible” benefit in many ways including improving reputation, attracting employees, and increasing market share, the real value goes to corporations that understand their social purpose and profit from making social change.

“We talk about the penetration of new markets that are profitable, we talk about saving money through energy efficiency and conserving resources, we talk about the markets for new products and services that...

According to a report released yesterday by Human Rights Watch, private security personnel employed at the Porgera gold mine in Papua New Guinea (PNG) have been implicated in alleged gang rapes and other violent abuses. The Porgera Joint Venture (PJV) mine has produced billions of dollars of gold in its twenty years of operation, and  is operated and 95 percent owned by Barrick Gold, a Canadian company that is the world’s largest gold producer.

Barrick’s response to this finding has been commendable and should...

North American corporate cause sponsorship spending should expand by 5.0% in 2011. According to the IEG Sponsorship Report, this will be “driven by marketers seeking to earn goodwill from consumers and other stakeholders still recovering from the recessionary economy”.

A majority of Canadians consider themselves to be ethical consumers and are willing to spend more for products and services from socially responsible companies. An Abacus Data, survey conducted in late 2010 revealed that most...

“Purpose is now the fifth P of marketing. It’s a vital addition to the age-old marketing mix of product, price, place, and promotion,” said Mitch Markson, chief creative officer, Edelman, and the founder of Edelman goodpurpose.

Last week, Edelman released the 2010 Goodpurpose Study. The study conducted in 13...

What do a small chocolate maker, a global tire manufacturer, a natural-foods company and an insurance company have in common? They all believe that acting with integrity is helping their businesses perform better.

The recession was caused by a culture of capitalism that was characterized by an all-consuming pursuit of profit that put integrity on the back burner and made irresponsible business practices acceptable. As the recession eases, our expectations of corporations have changed radically. Today, we expect corporations to have a social purpose, and we need new ways to assess performance that are not just in black or red.

How should we account for the feelings that employees have toward their employers? What are the best ways to measure the bottom-line impact of a partnership with a community organization? What is the value of authenticity and transparency? What is doing the right thing really worth?

While there are no easy answers to these questions, integrity has become a common denominator to many of the intangible assets that together are adding up to a new idea about what business success looks like. And return on integrity is a new measure that will help redefine how business operates.

PricewaterhouseCoopers recently launched a global call to action for business integrity. Its framework for integrity involves: establishing integrity as a C-suite and boardroom priority; putting integrity at the core of a company's mission and making it a business, not a moral issue; establishing company codes and standards based on models recommended by leading standard-setting organizations; establishing internal controls to ensure compliance; and reinforcing standards with rewards and compensation schemes.

Within the community investment community there’s still too much thinking about the money that goes in and not enough about what’s coming out the other end in terms of social capital.  In Canada, a good illustration is the recent debate about salaries for executives in non-profit organizations.

In today’s issue of Charity Village’s Village Vibes weekly e-newsletter there’s an excellent piece by Andy Levy-Ajzenkopf about...

The post I wrote on Sunday about the institutionalization of corporate responsibility and the need for more innovation seems to have struck a chord. It’s also made me think more about how specific aspect of corporate responsibility have become ubiquitous and, as a result, may have lost a degree of meaning and impact.

 Employee engagement is a good example. One the one hand, this area is one of the first elements of corporate responsibility to have a been documented as a business driver and direct contributor to key business metrics including recruitment, retention, productivity,...