M Institute co-founder Paul Druckman is attending the European Multi-stakeholder Forum on CSR (corporate social responsibility) in Brussels from where he sends this note outlining a couple of things that CSR groups could do to help medium enterprises engage with the concept.
I send this note while attending the European Multi-stakeholder Forum on CSR in Brussels on 10th February 2009. The Forum brings together about 250 people from key stakeholder groups, including employers and business representatives, trade unions, investors, academics, civil society organisations and public authorities. The aims of this meeting are to review progress on CSR in Europe and globally, and to discuss possibilities for future joint initiatives.
From the perspective of the medium enterprise, there was an unexpected focus on medium enterprise during the morning session. Some of the issues raised and proposed included:
- CSR uses the term “corporate” and this can be a problem in medium enterprise where that term implies large corporates
- The link between CSR and public procurement is essential when thinking about medium enterprises
- SMEs need tools and instruments to implement CSR, this cannot be simply downgraded large corporate tools.
UEAPME, the European employers' organisation focusing on SMEs, has a CSR focus which seems to be on diversity. Check out http://www.csr-for-smes.eu.
The multi--stakeholder forum concept, such as this one, is fascinating as each stakeholder brings such different perspectives, but with the tendency being to focus on society, rather than business issues. This may be unfair, but it is certainly my impression so far today.
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