“Small/Medium Enterprise?” Why bother delineating this different type of business when it comes to how business relates to the community or environment? “Corporate Social Responsibility” (CSR) is still taking form in societal consciousness for the most part. It is still not fully rooted in the minds of the general population. And then there is the more inclusive “Business Social Responsibility” which attempts being a bit more overarching . So why add another acronym or term to the mix?
One of the challenges with the terminology we’ve developed in this field is how it affects our thinking, and consequently how easy it is to lose sight of different demographics as a result. For instance, the same oversights that would apply to populations of people if we didn’t break them down into sub-categories can happen if we don’t stop to think more specifically about different types of organizations or businesses and the extraordinary diversity they encompass.
Small/Medium Enterprises (SMEs) - i.e. those businesses that are not large corporations - think and operate very differently from their behemoth brethren, and thus the distinction is necessary when it comes to concepts of social responsibility and how those concepts can be implemented.
At this point there are no organizations out there like BSR that are working specifically with SMEs. Though they would claim to - and to their credit, BSR has a lot of good information for businesses or nonprofits of any size - their membership is made up mostly of multinationals.
While much of my time is spent working and thinking with large companies like the ones BSR works with, a huge part of my job is developing ideas, resources, and meaningful connections for SMEs and their employees.
This is a very nascent field in general, and an even more infantile project in our work at Idealist.org
Do people out there have ideas? Know of others working with these concepts or types of organizations?
How do we get pizza delivery persons and accountants in small or medium firms to take meaningful action in their community - be it philanthropic or volunteer based?
How do we reach them and talk to them in a way that meets them where they are?
1 response so far ↓
1 Jake // Feb 6, 2008 at 5:32 pm
One of the thoughts we’ve tossed around is trying to get a pizza shop to attach local volunteer opportunities on their pizza boxes when they deliver.
We want ways for people to engage their communities where they don’t necessarily have to change how they spend their time dramatically.
Every person and/or occupation has a starting place…
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