Jordan Times
Friday, September 13, 2004
Businesses profit from
community involvement
By Sarah McGregor-Wood
AMMAN — Corporate responsibility is a growing trend among the Kingdom's business
community with an increasing number of companies getting involved in event
sponsorship, charity donations and community development programmes in a bid to
boost both their standing in the community and their revenues.
MobileCom, the Arab Potash Company and CitiGroup are among the many companies to
have developed corporate responsibility programmes, while Jordan Telecom (JT)
has gone one step further and set up a separate social development fund. The JT
Fund has an annual budget of half a million dinar, which it is using primarily
to promote Internet awareness in the education sector.
“Since we were set up in 2001, we have provided Internet training to 150,000
schoolchildren and 20,000 teachers,” Mohammad Hiyari, the fund director, said.
“We are also sponsoring some new initiatives this year, including youth
awareness projects through the Jordan River Foundation. We want to make a
profit, but we also want to give something back.”
The fund even went as far as taking its Internet Bus, equipped with 20
Internet-ready PCs, into Iraq at the end of the war to provide communication
services to NGOs and locals.
Although corporate responsibility programmes have obvious benefits for local
communities, research shows that businesses also stand to gain substantially
from their donations. According to a survey by Business in the Community
released at this year's Middle East Forum on Corporate Responsibility in Dubai,
over 70 per cent of European business leaders said they believe that sustained
social or environmental engagement can significantly improve profitability for
their businesses.
It can also help improve a company's public image, with 27 per cent of consumers
across 25 countries saying they have punished companies for being socially
irresponsible, and another 21 per cent saying they had considered doing so,
according to Environics International's Annual CSR Monitor.
British Tobacco, Barclays Bank and Nike are among a number of companies whose
business practices have attracted negative publicity and who have then used
visible corporate giving to rehabilitate themselves.
According to a research by the Work Foundation, as well as helping companies
publicly atone for any past mistakes, businesses that respond to increasing
international pressure to be more socially, ethically and environmentally
accountable are likely to achieve increased energy efficiency and attract better
qualified staff.
In a 2002 survey by the foundation, 80 per cent of employees said they wouldn't
work for an organisation if they didn't believe in its values.
For some companies, a sense of corporate responsibility is nothing new. Royal
Jordanian says it has been involved in community development projects since its
creation some 40 years ago. “It gives us good exposure, and it's right that we
play a role in the community,” explained the company's PR Director Imam Rihany.
At the other end of the scale, relative newcomer Fastlink has already developed
a large-scale corporate responsibility programme.
“Fastlink is a Jordanian success story and feels very strongly that it should be
giving something back to the community,” said Suzanne Asanah, director of
corporate communications.
“As we are a telecoms and a technology company and we've focused a lot of our
sponsorship and community programmes in that area. The projects we have invested
in, such as our work with INJAZ or digitising the science curriculum for
schools, have been a success and we feel this is more return on our money than
anything else.”
Distribution company Aramex says it now spends more money on its corporate
responsibility programme than it does on advertising. The company also runs
community-based programmes in its other countries of operation, including
Lebanon and Dubai.
Despite the apparent win-win situation, with local community projects attracting
substantial funding while companies boost their profile and profits, suspicions
occasionally linger about whose interest is being best served.
Local business conglomerate, the Nuqul group, which attended the Dubai Forum
believes that cynicism on this issue is misplaced. “You don't get involved in
this type of activity unless you care,” said Ghassan Nuqul, the group's vice
chairman. “That is what I said at the forum. Yes, of course we hope there will
be benefits for our company, but that shouldn't stop us from getting involved
and spending money where it is needed in our community.”