We’ve all heard it before: “Corporate responsibility is not as important in B2B companies!” “B2B companies don’t have to talk about their corporate citizenship”, or even, “we can’t build our brand reputation with CSR like a B2C company can.”
We know that business to business companies do face unique challenges in communicating their corporate citizenship efforts. It is particularly challenging to focus communication on what your clients and main constituents most want to know. Unlike your B2C counterparts, your clients all have their own clients and corporate citizenship priorities to honor. So how can B2B companies strike the balance between the interesting story and the story their clients want to hear? Is anyone even listening?
Despite the myths that CSR is more challenging in B2B companies than in B2C companies, our presenters this month will address how they are simply differently challenging. Several factors may even work in your favor if you are a B2B company wondering what citizenship efforts would be most resonant with your audience. For example, supply management principles often require B2B companies to engage in an even more participatory relationship with clients, and research suggests that transparency encourages loyal and trusting client relationships.
Of course, referring to the common misconceptions of citizenship at B2B companies as myths implies that we are prepared to bust them. Join us on March 5 to watch Tori and Brandy do it!
Tori Kaplan is the Assistant Vice President of Corporate Social Responsibility at CSX Corporation, a leading supplier of rail-based freight transportation in North America. The company has been recognized as a Top 10 Company in the S&P 500 on both the Carbon Disclosure Leadership Index and the Carbon Performance Leadership Index. A few highlights of their efforts include a 75% decrease in GHG emissions, 90% improved fuel efficiency since 1980, and a robust product recycling program. Tori herself is engaged in all three of the important functions that shape the overarching CSR strategy at CSX: corporate citizenship, community outreach, and engagement of the more than 30,000 employees across the network. She will share her successful efforts to reconcile the demands of stakeholders with the programs the company executes.
Brandy Wilson is the Enterprise Sustainability Program Manager at CH2M Hill, a global leader in consulting, design, design-build, operations, and program management. Since joining the firm 17 years ago, Brandy has witnessed the evolution of sustainable engineering at CH2M HILL and has led adoption of sustainability practices in daily operations. She will share her tailored communication strategy for their sustainability report in the B2B context and also how they set up their reporting to respond to supply chain sustainability surveys that they regularly receive.
Click here to register for this March 5, 2014 webinar. Please send any questions you have for our presenters in advance of the webinar to Liz Rogers at elizabeth.rogers.3@bc.edu.
