BT has had a disappointing response from the public to its first social report.
Chris Tuppen, BT’s corporate manager for social and environmental
programmes, said the landmark document, published in July, had
attracted little response from ‘real stakeholders’ (defined as
‘ordinary members of the public’) as opposed to ‘professional
stakeholders’ (who make it their job to push companies on corporate
responsibility issues).
‘We’ve had some small amounts of
feedback, and some of that has been useful and encouraging,’ he said.
‘But a significant proportion of those people wanted to know the
purpose of producing the report and some thought it was a total waste
of shareholders’ money.’
Real stakeholders were as yet
unconvinced by the process of social reporting, he concluded, but
added: ‘If we are to become a more successful company, I’m convinced
public reporting is an important part of achieving that. Real
stakeholders are less interested in social reporting and more concerned
about how the company is actually performing.
‘Social
reporting is still worth doing as a response to the professional
stakeholders, who clearly have an influence over how the company is
perceived.’
