When talking corporate responsibility, who better to spark discussion than someone who was previously helped lead the US?
At a CEO summit at Loyola University Chicago’s new Schreiber Center on Tuesday, former secretary of state and retired Army general Colin Powell talked corporate social responsibility with leaders at Baxter, Wintrust, AT&T Illinois, and KPMG. The hour-long discussion, moderated by Pam McCoy, associate dean at Loyola Quinlan, focused mostly on morals when running major companies. But the corporate leaders also discussed how rapidly scaling startups, such as Facebook and Uber, can build social responsibility into their DNA from day one, and how business schools can best instill the importance of social responsibility in their students.
“Social responsibility of a corporate nature has to be continuous, it has to be real, it can’t be episodic…it has to be led by the top,” said Powell.
Since his stint as Secretary of State under George W. Bush, Colin Powell has made a career discussing leadership and business, serving on several boards of directors and is a strategic limited partner at Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers in Silicon Valley (he has an MBA from George Washington University).
In his opening remarks, he discussed the importance of starting a habit of social responsibility from the beginning, so it remains a part of the company as it scales. For example, he pointed out that Salesforce grew from a small startup to the massive company while retaining its sense of social responsibility because of a pledge the founder made early: 1 percent of employee time will be spent volunteering, 1 percent of software products will be made available to nonprofits, and 1 percent of their income would go to charity. That’s something they’ve stuck with since the beginning, even as they grew in size and profit.
A big part of maintaining that kind of thinking in business is starting at the bottom, the group agreed. Business schools need to weave the importance of social responsibility into curriculum right away. Bob Parkinson, CEO of Baxter, said part of that is pointing out the social and economic benefits of a successful venture. “I think we can do a lot more to recognize that business in many ways is an moral undertaking,” he said.
A member of the audience asked how to ensure young people running some of today’s most lauded startups–Facebook, Uber, and Snapchat for example–keep that mentality in mind.
Powell admitted that it does present a new sort of problem. For example, Mark Zuckerberg famously donated $100 million to Newark Public Schools, but the school district has since struggled to turn the influx of finances into better schools.
“All of them are willing to do something but they don’t know how to direct the resources they have,” said Powell.
Again, the panel went back to laying early foundations.
“The guys who go to the top, they have gone so fast they don’t know where they’ve been or where they are going,” said Ed Wehmer, CEO of Wintrust.”[But] they get it. They talk all the time about giving back.”
“We can do a better jobs in schools of teaching them this responsibility,” he said.
Beyond that, the panel added the importance of creating a robust pipeline. Be sure you’re measuring impact, added Shaun Budnik, partner and audit innovation leader at KPMG. Use resources to ensure that local schools have broadband access, said Paul La Schiazza, president of AT&T Illinois. “There shouldn’t be a school in Chicago that is not partnered with some corporation in Chicago,” added Powell.
For those in the room, a variety of CEOs and business leaders, he said that also means setting an example and instilling the importance of responsibility in every employee.
“It does begin at the top, but it doesn’t stay at the top,” he said. “Make sure you’re touching every person at the organization.”
This article was taken from here.