Open Road

Monday Nov 5th 2007

TV Times

There has probably never been a more challenging time to be involved in public affairs in the broadcasting industry.  But we should take a step back and wonder whether the system itself is working in the interests of the viewers.

The BBC Trust consulting on the remit and scope of bbc.co.uk. (Yet another) Ofcom inquiry into public service broadcasting – the last one completed only two years ago.  More Ofcom reviews of news and children’s programming.  The Competition Commission reviewing Sky’s stake in ITV.  OFT looking at the regulation of ITV’s advertising sales. 

Debate on corporate responsibility, sustainability and globalisation

Peter Brabeck-Letmathe, the Chairman and CEO of Nestle spoke recently at the Annual Tomorrow’s Company Lecture.

He was forthright, challenging and robust on a range of issues relating to globalisation, corporate governance, CSR and sustainability and drew on the recent report on Tomorrow’s Global Company

Set out below are some his assertions.  What do you think?

Wednesday Oct 31st 2007

Times they are a changing on tax and immigration?

Conventional wisdom since 1997, confirmed in 2001 and 2005, has been that if the Tories run on tax and immigration, they will only motivate their core vote and cannot win a general election.

Gordon Brown has been a fervent believer in this view and in the last three elections, it was probably true.

But is it still true?

Thursday Oct 18th 2007

CSR - Cynical Social Responsibility?

A piece in the Times recently suggested that there is a joke going around corporate social responsibility that the C stands for cynical.  Apparently this is ‘an indication of our mistrust of the growing number of ways that companies compete to look good’.

See:

Is the bottom line helping this mother and child?

And:

Guidelines: how to ensure that companies are really doing good

In the same piece, a researcher from Ethical Consumer magazine is quoted as saying: ‘CSR is all too often an ethical figleaf in response to increased activism and consumer awareness.  On one level, giving money to good causes is great, but I am uncomfortable linking the idea of donating to good causes and buying a product.  It distracts people from the real issues.’

The Times was talking about a Unicef campaign to eradicate tetanus in the developing world that is supported by a donation by Procter and Gamble.  For every packet of Pampers nappies sold in the UK from October to December last year, P&G donated enough money for a tetanus vaccination.  The initiative funded 7.4 million vaccinations.

This is a good illustration of a far wider debate.  Unfortunately the debate is often very badly informed and its nature will end up damaging the prospects for what everyone wants to see – responsible corporate behaviour.  This would be a huge shame.  So why are some of the sceptics about CSR inadvertently undermining responsible corporate behaviour?

Wednesday Oct 17th 2007

Pakistan: A General Meltdown

Don’t be fooled, the latest chapter in the story of Pakistan is, at root, a simple and age old tale: a desperate man is doing all he can to hold on to power.