Mark R. Kramer, the founder and Managing Director of FSB Social Impact Advisers, said that business tycoons and other large companies or businesses, can still indulge their philanthropic deeds while earning a profit or two by making the Corporate Social Responsibility the core of their company. He also added that “social programs are part of good business strategy”.
Corporate Shared Value has taken the Corporate Social Responsibility to a new level by strengthening it further. According to Kramer, the traditional CSR model is used by many companies for several reasons: a) From a sense of moral obligation to give back to society; b) Out of “enlightened self-interest” as a way of facilitating business operations; c) As a way to pacify critics and eliminate obstacles to doing business; or d) To protect the reputation of a company or brand in the long-run.
Nestle` is proud to say that Kramer and Porter made them an example of a global food company that practices CSV for more than a hundred years now, which is one of the main reasons why the company is still growing prosperously. Since Nestle` works closely with their local farmers and training them – for free, on how to yield better production of their food products, both Kramer and Porter point out that Nestlé benefits as a company by taking care of the welfare of the small farmers. Here in the Philippines, Nestlé uses the same approach in working with small coffee farmers in the production of its coffee products.
Kramer and his co-author of an award-winning study entitled “Strategy and Society: The Link Between Competitive Advantage and Corporate Social Responsibility” (published in the Harvard Business Review, December 2006), Porter, believed that Creating Shared Value (CSV) can benefit both the company and the society, as well. It’s called symbiosis, which refers to a mutually beneficial relationship between two living organisms. The relationship exists to ensure the survival and growth of both organisms.
