“Business cannot succeed in societies that fail,” is one of 10 messages that the World Business Council for Sustainable Development operates.

However, apart from few individual corporate initiatives, Lebanon still lacks a comprehensive strategic framework to promote sustainable development. This represents the core of Corporate Social Responsibility, CSR Lebanon founder and CEO Khaled Kassar told The Daily Star in an interview.

CSR, which Kassar defines as a voluntary approach that a business enterprise takes to meet or exceed stakeholder expectations by integrating social, ethical and environmental concerns into its core business objectives, is nearly nonexistent in the corporate policies of Lebanese firms.

Kassar says a big gap still exists between theory and practice when it comes to the adoption, planning and implementation of socially responsible policies.

“Unfortunately, few or almost nonexistent are Lebanese firms with an announced CSR strategy or those who issue an annual CSR report separate from their financial reports. We lag behind many Gulf countries in these terms,” Kassar says.

With the exception of few advertising campaigns launched recently in Lebanon to promote a pollution-free or green environment, Kassar says the private sector lacks the knowledge to incorporate CSR in workplace management, human resources, marketing and public relations.

“Am I the only one”? became a popular slogan after a recent television commercial by BankMed portrayed civilians using this phrase to justify unethical driving conduct such as annoying car honking and tossing garbage from car windows.

Kassar said such commercials were a step toward the promotion of CSR, adding that one should differentiate between occasional advertising campaigns with commercial objectives and sustained CSR policies.

BankMed is not alone to take the initiative, Kassar says, naming Indevco group as one of the institutions in the industrial sector to implement CSR.

“But we are still expecting to receive from those institutions annual CSR reports,” he adds.

“Institutions should understand the importance of CSR in the success of any business. Some still confuse CSR with charitable work but CSR is business-related and key to success.”

A striking example of the pivotal role CSR activities play in the success of corporate businesses was the case study of Digicel, an Irish-owned mobile telecommunications operator that was spared during riots that broke out in Haiti in 2008.

In April 2008, storefronts to the left and right of Digicel shops were smashed after food riots broke out in Haiti’s two largest cities where angry crowds looted stores in the poorest country of the western hemisphere to feed their starving families and as a message to capitalist companies.

But Digicel stores were left intact after people banded together in small groups to protect the shops of the firm that contributed to youth education and sports by building schools and sponsoring the national team.

Kassar says the Digicel case study is an example of one the many benefits of investing in CSR, which touches four areas of any business: the workplace, marketplace, community and environment.

In the workplace, the implementation of CSR would lead to higher productivity, innovation and the improved recruitment of a quality workforce and its retention while improving the business reputation with local communities and in the media, Kassar says.

In the marketplace, CSR activities would boost customer loyalty, increase competitiveness and consequently growth and profit while reducing environmental waste.

Lamenting Lebanon’s weak public sector and deteriorating social living conditions, Kassar says it is up to the private sector to take the lead and play a pivotal role in promoting socially responsible policies.

Though the CSR Lebanon project found support from the Association of Lebanese Banks and Central Bank Governor Riad Salameh, Kassar believes that the private sector should do more in terms of corporate social responsibility.

Another area where Lebanon lags behind the rest of the world is the education sector where CSR is yet to be incorporated in university curricula.

With the exception of the American University of Beirut Fund to promote CSR, which Kassar describes as “a weak program,” Lebanon’s educational sector has yet to catch up with the global trend and the top business school in the world.

Next Thursday will see the second CSR Lebanon Forum entitled “Banking and Finance 2012: The Social Risk.” It will take place at the Bristol Hotel in Beirut with the aim, Kassar explains, of encouraging banks to boost eco-friendly related assets, to invest in rural development, social, environmental projects and youth education programs.

Read more: http://www.dailystar.com.lb/Business/Lebanon/2011/Nov-24/154991-pri... 
(The Daily Star :: Lebanon News :: http://www.dailystar.com.lb)