Ladies and Gentlemen, There are several aspects to corporate social I welcome this opportunity to participate in responsibility as a strategy for gaining competitive the international dialogue on corporate social advantage. The commercial applicability of a good responsibility (CSR) and to share with you how Statoil reputation is one. Companies that act in accordance is developing this concept in practice. with principles of good corporate citizenship may reap a reputational dividend. Ensuring that a company has a Corporate social responsibility covers the good reputation in markets where consumers are whole range of a company's interaction with society at increasingly socially aware, has been proven by large, from health, safety and environmental protection experience to be of considerable economic importance. to conditions of employment, industry and labour Also, a growing number of investors now set social standards, social development and human rights, It is a responsibility criteria for the use of their funds. And rather amorphous concept that means different things the same selectivity can also be a feature of the to different people. employment market: a high profile on social responsibility will help to attract valuable competence.
Some would dismiss corporate social responsibility as an oxymoron and argue that Some seem to think that you can manage corporations should focus solely on business. Milton reputational risk largely with smoke and mirrors. They Friedman did that 30 years ago, stating that talk dismissively of corporate social responsibility as cheap window dressing aimed more at changing "there is one and only one social responsibility of perceptions than at improving the reality. But any business - to use its resources and engage in activities substantial gap between perceptions and reality - designed to increase its profits." between words and deeds - is not sustainable for long.
There is no place to hide in today's interconnected But business is not all about maximizing world. A good reputation can therefore basically only profit. Peter Drucker talks about business as a life be created and maintained by results. Talk is no longer rather than a livelihood. He and others remind us that cheap. Words have consequences. Corporations must one important quality of the world's most successful walk the talk. Otherwise they will have to pay. and resilient companies is their tendency to have core values and a sense of purpose beyond making money. Corporate social responsibility today implies both a deeper and a wider engagement than previously Corporate social responsibility is partly about with the societies in which companies operate. such values. This is what some would call the ethical Through
