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May 14, 2010
Capitalism 2.0 in Action
I attended the opening panel at the Clinton Global Initiative yesterday morning in New York City. Former President Clinton was joined on stage by four chief executives, including Jeff Kindler of Pfizer (disclosure: a client), Dave Cote of Honeywell, Ron Williams of Aetna and Jay Fishman of Travelers. Each of them represents an industry—pharmaceuticals, energy, insurance, health care-- under intense public scrutiny. Each had a different rationale for corporate involvement in the social sphere, from business development to employee engagement to community relations, but the universal message was that business has to participate in forging a better society. Here are some of the specifics:
1) Employees Are Prime Motivation—The Pfizer Health Fellows program offers employees a paid internship with an NGO for three to six months. Kindler gave the example of a Canadian employee who helped to create an infrastructure to manage disease, called Healthcare Huts, which had to be staffed by people who could read and write. The employee was able to persuade a village in Africa to have a woman be the leader of a Hut for the first time. Cote added, “By focusing on our employees, we get a multiplier effect from each act of corporate responsibility.” Fishman said that Travelers personnel volunteer in leadership training for school principals. “The culture of a school is set by the principal: you are not born as a leader, you are trained to do so.”2) The Triple Bottom Line—Kindler said that Pfizer is merging its corporate social responsibility report into its annual report. “We have to integrate the metrics of CSR into our business process, to measure our managers on more than the P&L.” Honeywell now has line items on its budget template for energy intensity and greenhouse gases emitted in production.
3) Supply Chain as Leverage—Williams noted that Aetna mandated that its vendors must offer health insurance to its employees. “They don’t have to buy that insurance from Aetna but we need to insist that they cover their employees.”
4) Advocates for Legislation—Aetna has pushed for mental health parity legislation to guarantee access. It is similarly involved in the bills addressing obesity and access to healthcare in minority communities.
5) Rationale—Fishman contends that “the best corporate engagement programs come from the heart, not for business reasons” but added that he is delighted with the 250 military veterans who have been hired by Travelers since 2001. Kindler said that Pfizer needs “to reach the 85% of people in the world we do not presently serve with our medication,” and deploys a range of strategies to do so. For instance, Pfizer sells a tuberculosis drug at a 60% discount and donates much of its malarial medicine. Its Prevnar vaccine “is being sold in partnership with GAVI (an alliance of private and public stakeholders in immunization); we have cut our price but do make some profit.” For Honeywell, “social responsibility is charitable giving where you provide products and services. It is also the evolution of our product portfolio, as we help the world move from more power generation to saving energy,” Cote said.
6) Culture—Kindler referenced Dov Seidman’s 2007 book, HOW, noting that “a company distinguishes itself by how it does business based on integrity and sustainability.” He has set aggressive health goals, such as eliminating trachoma, the cause of blindness for many in Africa, or training personnel to serve AIDS patients, well beyond the traditional business of selling medication. Williams said that “Aetna brings employees together to discuss key issues in chronic disease. We want to deploy them in their communities, to serve as thought leaders and catalysts.”
The issues we confront are complex and costly, requiring cooperation of business, government, civil society and media. How do you manage the HIV crisis in Swaziland, where 10% of males and 38% of the women have the disease? You confront the gender inequality inherent in local culture, while making available affordable medication, assure compliance through a well-trained cadre of motivated health workers, with funding from government and NGOs. Our job in PR is to facilitate connections among these institutions and to tell the stories in a compelling manner.
Posted by Edelman at May 14, 2010 12:22 PM |
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Comments
This is marvelous news that Pfizer understands that they have a responsibility to give back, and that the public expects it. No longer do companies score points for social responsibility -- they just lose them if they are not engaged with social issues around the globe or at least in their own community. The fiasco in Nigeria (and other undeveloped countries) created a measure of distrust so deep and so great that it will take years to erase the damage done by putting profit over human life.
Posted by: Laura Torgerson at May 15, 2010 12:01 PM
Pfizer or other companies must understands that they have a responsibility to give back something to the community, wherever they are.
Posted by: HelpALocalBusiness at July 30, 2010 4:42 AM