By July 20, 2012, five days into the Third Collegiate Corporate Social Responsibility Summer Camp, students already gained a thorough understanding of CSR in the IT industry, Chinese traditional values, CSR development in America, and marketing ethics. Ms. Langhua, Director of CSR Communication Dep  artment in Ruder Finn PR Consulting (Beijing) Co.,Ltd, hosted a seminar on the relationship between CSR and public relations.
Ruder Finn, Inc., based in New York, is one of the largest independent spreading companies in the world, and has agencies in most countries. Through those global networks and cooperative partners, Ruder Finn has already provided comprehensive and diversified communication services for over 250 companies, governmental institutions and non-profit organizations. At present, Ruder Finn has set offices in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Hong Kong. Furthermore, it has established close relationships with mass media around China and is a leader in governing public relations.
At first, Ms. Lang introduced and explained the evolution of CSR. CSR 1.0 is the corporate orientation; CSR 2.0 is the corporation’s dealings with shareholders, while CSR 3.0 involves the public. The most important feature of CSR 3.0 is coexistence of opportunities and challenges. This also reflects that corporate social performance is directly related to corporate economic performance. Although corporations are required to be highly transparent, they should also be equipped with a sense of higher responsibility and should make information public in a timely manner.
Later, Ms. Lang detailed the corporation’s basic motive for fulfilling social responsibility. On one hand, modern networking is developing very quickly and network platforms such as Twitter and Renren are exerting more influence on social society. On the other hand, the development of networks speeds up exchanges throughout the world. Besides, networks provide more channels for people to keep informed and participate in social events.
In addition, active shareholde  rs also compel corporations to focus on social responsibility. Interactions between companies and shareholders are increasingly intensified, and therefore, companies should take their own image and social responsibility into consideration. Along with economic modernization, the threshold of economic participation is lowered and the market becomes more transparent, making positive company actions unveiled by consumers.
However, there are also some negative phenomena that occur when companies strengthen social responsibility awareness and fulfill social responsibility actively. For instance, several corporations often mistake their business duties as social responsibilities. To solve this problem, all parties should work together and make sure companies understand that social responsibilities do not simply translate to mean corporate duties.
In the second half of the seminar, Ms. Lang explained relevant cases as IKEA, “Red Chalk Plan,” “Clothing Sending Project” and L’Oreal. Through these real life examples, students can better understand the relationship between corporate social responsibility and public relations, and understand the influence exerted on present CSR by social news media.
Before the lecture ended, Ms. Lang patiently answered all the students’ questions.
(By the third group) |
