Greetings! I am impressed with the great vision SAP holds in terms of corporate governance. GRC is a great leap which has caught my complete attention. Being inspired with this platform I intented to be a part of ur blog and do contribute in the near future… so till then hope we have more interesting topics on GRC

Let me take this opportunity to take the discussion a bit further, by touching upon a couple of points “laterally” and spin it up from different angles, and eventually focus on the premise , which Amit , had put across – CSM is there to stay and its really serious.

First, CSM is in no way a fad,..not anymore. The term existed at least 50 to 60 years before, probably not coined this way , until a decade before. If one reads the work done by Edward Demings on TQM , Six Sigma and the concepts of Lean , the concepts of CSM were reiterated over and over again. For example Honda started designing a car running on water(H2O) in 1975 , not because of the amazing idea of water being used as the alternative fuel, but that ,it can create a better balance , will have bigger social and environmental impact, as it resonates with better Lean concepts , management and change.

And after 3 decades today, manufacturing companies like LG, Samsung and even Power companies like POSCO have stepped up the gas to accelerate into a better sustainable future. Let me put forward these links below to prove the same:

http://www.azom.com/news.asp?newsID=2179 – Posco

http://www.lge.com/about/sustainability/management_system.jsp – LG

While the example of Honda and concepts of TQM and Lean may sometimes sound a but biased , may I request you to read the book The Body and The Soul , by Anita Roddick , who most know was the owner of The Body Shop. 50 years ago(before going public) she harped on the use of recycled paper , advertise social causes in company stores, advertized the banes of animal testing, and above all use of products which were environment friendly and bring the concepts of biodegradibility. I know of conglomerates whose products most of us use everyday, who although have never even done a bit of what she did. The point being, you can grow, but can’t keep growing all the time, with the same principles.

Want to take a look at the principles of The Body Shop? http://www.thebodyshopinternational.com/About+Us/Our+History/

Well , the corporate world is a cold , unassuming , non emotional place where business happens, and all humans like us have followed the same , until probably a decade back when Business Leaders started prophesying downfalls if they didn’t shift gears to a much more sustainable model.

Let me move forward on some thoughts , which most people know today :

“When you pick one end of a stick, you automatically pick up the other end”

With respect to this blog , this means; what you do here for business , also affects others. Just like an intricate ecological case study where a small oil slick can affect a huge human race.

The good thing is Business Leaders have understood the thought , “You sit where you stand”. People have widened their horizons to understand CSM models , and how they can be a great market positioning for the company. Amit had mentioned companies like GE and others shifting their gears. Yes, definitely, there are tons of companies moving in that direction, and so has the university :

Heres a link that exemplifies how a FAD actually is a big responsibility in todays world , with books being written and universities researching the topic :

http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/cgi-bin/abstract/112718273/ABSTRACT?CRETRY=1&SRETRY=0

The last bit , here, I would like all of you to note the last of the 7 principles propounded by Stephen Covey. Remember he mentioned about the “ spiral of growth” where he illustrated ; growth can be based on Universal Laws and the cycle instead of repeating concentrically , can actually grow as a spiral. That is Corporate Sustenance truly spoken.

A very important law in that spiral is the 7th law known as Sharpening the Saw. There are times when Corporate Business needs to take a break and think what they need to sharpen to create a better, sustainable model , holistically. CSM is indeed an effort to do the same. They are much bigger than the financial numbers that analysts crunch to create a gamut of information used on Wall Street for investment purposes.
I urge people to add a criteria on CSM as a must mention during stock listing.

In short CSM is the way to a better Growth Strategy. It is also a great oppty for software companies to make sure things are monitored and analysed properly around the company. CSM should be considered as a vertical like sales, manufacturing etc.

It was great to meet you at the CRO Conference in Chicago.

I look forward to following up with you regarding the GRC/CSM applications within the advertising, publishing, media and printing idustries that ISC interacts with.

Please let me know when I might schedule a demo of the SAP’s GRC offerings.

Best,

Don Carli
Senior Research Fellow
The Institute for Sustainable Communication
250 East 40th St. 26D
New York, NY 10016
Office: 212-922-9899
Cell: 917-742-5328
E: dcarli@sustaincom.org
http://www.sustaincom.org

Corporate culture / commitment to running businesses ethically must be set by the senior executive team (tone at the top). Once this commitment has been made, these ethics are then cascaded throughout the organization both in doing business as usual, but ethics are also formalized in terms of policies and training. Software can embed controls into your processes, making sure that business as usual is done in line with accepted norms and thresholds. Software can also play an important role in communicating and documenting acceptance and understanding of policies, as well as in providing training on behavior expected of employees with regards to sexual harassment, bribery, etc.