.The Heart of Business

I’ve told this story before:  When Lenovo was just getting it’s act together as a global company I recommended to our CEO Bill Amelio that we dedicate 1% of our earnings to philanthropy. It was an easy sell.

This week an article in Business Week suggests that, unless you meet that 1% threshold, you aren’t taking Corporate Social Responsibility seriously.

Quoting from the article:

To reverse the downward trend in corporate giving, we need a cadre of self-motivated and sensitive CEOs to lead the way. We need men and women who will match actions with words by carrying out combined corporate contributions and community-relations initiatives that are supported by adequate resources and time, rather than by more chest-beating ad campaigns and press releases.

Indeed.

Lenovo’s CEO Bill Amelio wrote an Op Ed piece in the International Herald Tribune today, talking about the rise of a global middle class and the challenges and opportunities it presents.  Clearly Mr. Amelio has been reading the Heart of Business, as he says, “it is difficult to accept that we should deny others a chance at prosperity because it may challenge our own comfort.”  Here here!

But I do think the more people climb out of poverty, the more we who are already wealthy by global standards (that’s basically everybody reading this) will need to re-evaluate how we live.  Everybody wants to live like us, and the earth can’t support that.  Maybe innovation will solve that problem.  And maybe good old-fashioned noble sacrifice will also have to be employed.

To see how many earth’s we would need if everybody lived like you, play this game on American Public Media’s web site.  Very eye-opening.

There is something about this article that I find very interesting.  Roger Kay talks about how the computer industry players have launched recycling programs to improve their margins.  Henry Hicks calls it one of Lenovo’s growth strategies.  Yet there is only a brief mention of the environmental benefit.

The end-of-life problem in the computer industry is not new.  But until relatively recently many computers were simply tossed into landfills.  This means we as a society have literally been throwing away gold.  And silver and platinum and copper and plastic and glass and all sorts of other valuable materials.   Why was all of that EVER thrown away?

We are waking up to the concept that McDonough and Braungart have been writing and talking about for years, that we really need to rethink the idea of waste.  In their words,”waste equals food” in nature, and waste should also equal “food” in industry.  As in this example, the computer industry is planning to make money by sorting through this “waste,” and turning some if it back into “food.”  This also means keeping harmful materials out of landfills, ensuring customer data security, refurbishing some systems and reclaiming materials from others.

So in what other ways are we as a society throwing away gold?  Can we envision a day when we approach zero waste, when nearly all products at the end of their lives can be used as industrial “food?”

An interesting discussion going on at the Tactical Philanthropy site.  Check it out and comment.

In addition to the reasons outlined on that site, I also think giving helps to reduce the bad influence money and possessions can have over your life.  Giving it away asserts your power over money.  A wise man once said “the things you own wind up owning you.”  In some strange way, giving stuff away puts you in control.

We have thousands of employees in Asia, so the natural disasters that occurred over the last couple of weeks caused my voice mail light to blink wildly and my email account to clog up with people asking different variations of the same question: what can we do to help?

(I would like to think that this would have happened even if we didn’t have thousands of employees in Asia, but the closer something hits to home the more people feel compelled to respond).

It’s a difficult question for any CSR / philanthropy practitioner.  You have your plans, your budgets, your programs, and suddenly there is a great and immediate need that forces you to set aside your best-laid-plans and respond.   But should we  respond to such an extent that we cripple our ongoing programs, in Lenovo’s case those which help people work their way out of poverty?  Isn’t extreme poverty also an emergency?

Fortunately our employees didn’t wait for us to philosophize about this question, but jumped into action.  Within hours hundreds lined up to give blood, and donated over $100,000 to relief efforts.

On a corporate level we made an additional financial donation of 10 million RMB (about $1.5 million US) and set up a web page, with the help of our friends at Triangle Community Foundation, to collect donations from anybody interested in helping to rebuild after the rubble is cleared.

Often in a crisis like this people give money immediately to help with relief efforts, but donations wane later when rebuilding efforts commence.  So our intent is to find a way to use individual donations to help build a school to replace one of the many that collapsed during the earthquake.

If you would like to join in this effort, you can donate by credit card at the Lenovo Hope Fund donation web site.   Be sure to choose “Lenovo Hope Fund” from the drop down list if you want to contribute to the school project.

Several people sent me a link to this recent article in the Wall Street Journal, which describes a study by researchers at the University of Western Ontario on consumer choices and price tolerance for “ethical products.” The article is certainly worth reading, so go ahead; I’ll wait here.

For those of you who prefer a summary, here it is: Research shows that you might be able to make more money if you are ethical. What a relief! I have been looking for a good reason to be ethical. Without this research who knows what I would have done?

I am very glad that the authors found that people will pay more for products produced with ethical standards. That is undoubtedly good.

What is not good is the suggestion that in order for businesses to behave ethically, there must be some kind of payoff.

There is too much discussion today about the ROI (return on investment) of corporate social responsibility. It’s as if we need a financial reason to not use child labor, to not be a detriment to the environment. I think it is a bad trend to teach business leaders to think this way.

Another manifestation of this trend is the plethora of books and articles and marketing campaigns which tell us that stopping global warming and saving the environment will be easy. Consider these book titles, gleaned from a cursory search on Amazon:

Easy Green Living: The Ultimate Guide to Simple, Eco-Friendly Choices for You and Your Home

It’s Easy Being Green: A Handbook for Earth-Friendly Living

It’s Easy Being Green: One Student’s Guide to Serving God and Saving the Planet

Gorgeously Green: 8 Simple Steps to an Earth-Friendly Life

The Lazy Environmentalist: Your Guide to Easy, Stylish, Green Living

Living Green: A Practical Guide to Simple Sustainability

Simple Prosperity: Finding Real Wealth in a Sustainable Lifestyle

I particularly like the last title… not only is a living a sustainable lifestyle “simple,” it can make you rich! Fantastic news!

I’m not an expert, but I am pretty sure that “reversing” global warming, or even halting or slowing it, is not going to be anything like easy. I am pretty sure it will require huge changes in the way we live and do business. But that’s not what these titles lead you to believe.

I suppose a book title like “The Huge Changes You Need to Make in the Way You Currently Live to Have a Snowball’s Chance of Slowing Global Warming” wouldn’t sell.

This is a bad trend. It seems to say that people will only do the right and sensible thing if (1) it is easy and (2) if they can make money doing it. Is this really what we’ve become?

What if this study had shown the opposite, that consumers don’t care, that they won’t pay more for “ethical” products? Does that mean anything goes? If there is no financial reason to be ethical, should we not?

Consider these rather obvious statements:

1. It is easier, more efficient, and less expensive to be unethical.
2. If we are concerned only about maximizing shareholder value, we will not be socially responsible.
3. You can reduce your labor costs by paying less than a living wage, using child labor, or even better, slave labor.
4. Generally speaking, it is cheaper to exploit the environment than to protect it.
5. In all cases it is more expensive to give to charity than to not give to charity.

Yes, you will benefit by being unethical. Otherwise, why would anybody do it?

I have a friend who is fond of saying “A firm can’t go out of business being socially responsible.” My response is, of course it can! If a business is so poorly conceived and badly managed that it can’t survive without child labor, then it deserves to go out of business, and nothing should be done to stop it.

Also, am I the only one who is bothered by the finding that people are still willing to buy unethically-produced products, they just expect to pay less for them?

To commemorate Earth Day last week we had a digital photography exhibit called “Our Amazing Earth” created by employees.  I was impressed.  Click below for a slideshow of some of my favorites.  Feel free to also download the photos, use them as a screen saver, etc.

I love the earth. I’ve lived here almost all of my life.

Lenovo really pulled out the stops on Earth Day this year. We installed birdhouses around our new campus, several employees signed up to purchase renewable energy from NC GreenPower, several more committed to support a local organic farmer by joining a Community Supported Agriculture cooperative, we started an “Adopt a Highway” team, and about 100 employees pledged to join the Climate Savers Computing Initiative. We also had a water-free car wash service and collected tons of old household electronics for recycling from Lenovo employees and others in the community.

Many of these things were pulled off by the “Green Team” I help to lead at Lenovo. So now I am suffering from an Earth Day hangover. I was out of control celebrating the earth, so for the last 48 hours I’ve been nursing a headache, staying indoors, and contemplating the real meaning of being green.

Perhaps it’s the fair trade organic coffee talking, but I am realizing that when it comes down to it, I really only love the earth because she keeps me alive. I drink her water, eat food that she grows, live in a home built from materials she provides, etc. I also enjoy referring to the earth as “her” and “she.”

Sure, I enjoy swimming in the ocean or fishing in the mountains while on vacation, but I can only enjoy the sun on my face, sand in my shoes, and catching my own food for so long. Nice to do for a week, but not a life I covet or would like to sustain long term.

Speaking of fishing in the mountains, once I caught a baby boy in a river in Alaska, took him home and raised him as my own. True story.

I flew over the Arabian desert once, and it was stunningly beautiful from the plane. I couldn’t take my eyes off of it. But I seriously doubt that I’d enjoy living there. The same is probably true of the Arctic Wildlife Refuge, or any place that begins with the word “Arctic.”

I used to claim that I enjoy the outdoors and camping and whatnot. I was just kidding myself. I’ve come to realize that I actually only enjoy the IDEA of camping, not the actual act of sleeping on the ground under a thin sheet of cloth. Or NOT sleeping on the ground under a thin sheet of cloth, which is more typical.

I go camping when my son’s cub scout troop requires it. Almost every time we go it rains, and I find that extremely not fun, so our family policy is now to stay home if there is rain in the forecast.

And yet with all of this derision for living “close to the earth” I consider myself to be something of an environmentalist. But not because I love spotted owls. Rather I want to protect the environment because my life, and the lives of my children and their children, and people all around the world are completely wrapped up in the health of the earth. This should be obvious.

I mention this because I suspect that I’m not alone. A co-worker sent me an irreverent but quite sensible Earth Day article in Salon.com that convinced me that at least one other person, the author, agrees with me.

This is nice to know.

In case you needed one more reason to do everything you possibly can to halt global warming, take a look at this news.

I’ve known enough Australians in my life to be able to say with confidence that they will not let this news deter them.

I was 13 when I bought my first book on Africa. It was a big book – way beyond my age-limited ability to read it all, but its size seemed to best capture how big my heart and passion were for the country at the time. It intrigued and excited me. My mother needed to see that voluminous book on my bedside shelf and release me to go there. She had to. It was my calling, surely she would see that.

She saw the book. She didn’t release me to go. Fair enough, I was 13 after all.

20 years later, I have just returned from my second visit to the Great Continent in six months, including Uganda last October on a mission and building trip with Watoto, and now South Africa on a Corporate Study Tour hosted by the Oaktree Foundation.

Oaktree is Australia’s first wholly youth-run aid and development organisation for which Lenovo is now (proudly) its Technology Partner. They are partnering with some remarkably smart and resourceful organisations on the front-line in developing countries like South Africa, and elsewhere around the world, to impact poverty through sustainable education and development programs.

Over the course of a week, the Oaktree team introduced me to some of the most inspirational people I have ever met. The tour took us to Johannesburg, Durban and Capetown and was structured around themes: Introduction to South Africa (when in Johannesburg, a visit to the Apartheid Museum is a must); HIV and AIDs; and Gender Violence and Inequality.

In South Africa, 700-1000 people die of HIV/AIDs every day. Every day. In one of the townships we visited in Durban, almost 70% of the population was affected. Despite years of government education attempts, there persists an insidious belief in some townships – you may have heard this - that a man can cure himself of HIV/AIDs if he has sex with a virgin. Like mine, your mind immediately thinks of young teenage victims. Your mind would not automatically stretch to imagine the horrible reality that babies as young as nine months old have been involved in this desperate, vain attempt at redemption.

I cried many tears for these children. I cried for the loss of their innocence; for the uselessness of their tragedy. I was deeply angry at the men, and at humankind that we could “allow” this to happen to our children. As I learned more about the the challenges facing this extraordinary country and its people though, I realised I could not damn these men without trial. They are desperate, more desperate than you and I could ever understand. Desperate because this virus means the affected man is being robbed of his dignity, his strength to work and support his family, his identity, his standing in his community. He will go to any measure to restore himself, even a shameful measure.

As a mother with young children myself, it’s a long stretch from such empathy to forgiveness, but it brought home to me the realities being faced here and throughout the developing world do not have easy fixes, and are not eased by hasty judgments.

These are desperate times. Crisis times. I was encouraged at the depth of thinking, research-based education programs and compassion that was driving so many of the individuals working at Oaktree and their partner organisations.

I have come back from this last trip more resolved than ever to do my part to make a difference – and to do that from within the corporate world. There is this great perceived divide in our society between idealism and capitalism. People seem to think you can EITHER change the world, OR work in business.

I want to challenge that. I believe you can do both. And that in fact the poor need us to do both, with equal advantage to them, and business. If Bill allows me - and if you’re interested?! - maybe I’ll go into my thoughts about that in more depth in another posting sometime!

Meanwhile, I should visit my parents’ place this weekend. There’s a book in a cupboard somewhere that needs dusting off.

My kids at home are the same age as these children I met in Johannesburg (aged 4 and 2) so was energising to spend some brief time together.

Oaktree hosted business leaders from various industries across Australia on the Corporate Study Tour to South Africa, including a visit to the World Changers Academy which is providing life-skills training to unemployed adults. I’m the one struggling with the sun.

Life-changing work happens on these donated computers at the World Changers Academy.

Heather Jones is Communications Director for Lenovo Australia & New Zealand.