Lilly's community support is about more than charity
Is there more to giving than writing a few cheques?: What do the people who live in the same area as your business think about you? If a MORI poll is anything to go by, not much. The survey, conducted across the UK, revealed that 72% of the public believes that industry and commerce do not pay enough attention to the community in which they operate.
One way companies can change all that is to embrace the notion of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). But what exactly is CSR? Isn't it simply a posh term for writing out a few cheques to charities? Well, no. In fact, far from it. Corporate Social Responsibility is about a lot of things but most of all it's about recognising something that Sir Adrian Cadbury wrote: "Companies are part of society and their ability to achieve their business aims depends on the health of the society in which they operate."
Companies who embrace the CSR idea do so by introducing positive policies in such areas as respecting the environment, encouraging education, helping people into employment, looking after the health and safety of the workforce, respecting human rights, and being a good neighbour.
In practice this means getting involved wholeheartedly in schemes like a project by Shell to create a nature reserve on its land at Stanlow. Eli Lilly & Co in Speke have an ongoing scheme of neighbourhood involvement of which one example is their co-sponsorship of the Marie Curie Field of Hope in Halewood, raising money for cancer care. Dave Urbanek, site General Manager says: "It's so vital for business and community to work together and it's very much a two-way relationship with both parties benefiting enormously. We have so much we can learn from each other and this is especially apparent when we host visits or when our people go out to local schools and community groups."
The whole issue of Corporate Social Responsibility is something that the Business Leaders group is keen to discuss and develop. Contributions to the debate are welcome.
