American companies have been urged to regard campaigns by
non-governmental organizations as ‘early warning systems’ of trouble
ahead rather than as a thorn in their side.
Rachel Thompson, European director of CSR for public relations
consultancy APCO Worldwide, told a Business for Social Responsibility
conference in New York that too many companies, especially in the US,
see NGOs as anti-capitalist foes that are unrepresentative of public
views and just out to cause trouble – when their preoccupations can be
a valuable pointer to the concerns of consumers and employees. ‘One
company I worked with had a lot of problems with NGOs, and they noticed
that many of the issues that were being raised by the NGOs were then
coming up a long time later through their consumers and the media,’ she
told delegates.
‘They blamed this on the NGOs but actually the issues were real
problems, and the NGOs were acting as a very good early warning system.’
Once the company realized this, it began to view pressure groups as
potential allies, not enemies. ‘When it found an issue lurking in its
supply chain it then did something unexpected by inviting an NGO in and
saying, “We’ve got this problem. What are we going to do about it?”
That changed the perception of the relationship between the two.’
Thompson also told delegates that internal corporate communication on
social and environmental matters was now too ‘brochure-centred’,
relying too much on leaflets, codes, mission statements and reports.
Instead it needs to be more ‘people-centred’, based on ‘actually
getting employees in and talking to them’.
