By Prof. dr. André Nijhof & Nika Salvetti
“I’ve never heard so many CEOs talk politics. Richard Branson says that’s a good start.”
This quote was recently published online and it illustrates the presence of the corporate voice in reaching the ambitions laid down in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) set by the United Nations. Whereas the first RIO-conference was dominated by heads of state, the COP-21 in Paris illustrates that CEOs where the first to speak out about ambitious goals towards the future. However the quote of Richard Branson triggers a more fundamental question. Should we listen to CEOs when it comes to climate change, alleviating poverty, injustices in the world and the other topics of the SDGs? Traditionally CEOs are in charge of the strategy of their corporation, should they now also be involved in politics?
Partly Yes, because corporations should be part of the debate about the appropriate norms to make progress towards the SDGs. The reason is that for many of these issues new potential business opportunities are created in a domain where regulation by national governments cannot be effective. This results in what is called the `the global regulatory gap’, creating direct dialogues between civil society organizations and corporations resulting in new norms – in the form of standards, codes, alliances and sometimes regulation – being developed by these actors, which directly or indirectly influence public policies. The sector initiatives like the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil and the Rainforest Alliance are influential examples. This development is described in literature as the transition from liberal democracy to deliberative democracy (see Scherer and Palazzo, 2007).
And partly No, because if CEOs come with an open or hidden agenda focusing on driving sales and profit maximization there is no guarantee that the provision of other fundamental goods and services to targeted beneficiaries – like access for all to health care, equal distribution of resources, i.e. drinkable water, or living without fear of terrorism – will be reached. There are just too many examples where ultimately it seems that only the companies involved benefitted at the end of a project.
This creates an interesting playing field for international diplomacy. On the one hand we need to involve companies and on the other hand there is always the risk that involvement of CEOs turns out to be old-fashioned lobbyism focusing on corporate benefits. How to balance this? Maybe the best advice is to make it personal. Amitai Etzioni argues with his I & We paradigm that every person has a part focusing on self-interest and at the same time has a part that values the connectedness between people and contributing to collective goods. Learning how to differentiate ‘good from bad’ CEOs, making personal intentions part of the conversation and joint action might be some of the most important skills of the modern diplomat in the age of sustainability.
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Prof Dr André Nijhof is full professor in Sustainable Business and Stewardship and is visiting professor at Chang Gung University in Taiwan and the University for Peace in Costa Rica.
Nika Salvetti is a PhD candidate and practitioner in the field of CSR, Sustainability, Social Responsibility where she worked on in different developing countries such as Bangladesh, Uganda, Guatemala, as well as in Costa Rica, the overall Balkans and Middle East. |
Notes:
For the quote of Richard Branson, see: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/ive-never-heard-so-many-ceos-talk-politics-richard-branson-roth)
Andreas Georg Scherer and Guido Palazzo (2007), Toward a Political Conception of Corporate Responsibility: Business and Society Seen from a Habermasian Perspective, The Academy of Management Review, Vol. 32, No. 4, 1096-1120
