Fresh Angles Series: Gia Rapasadi and Developing Corporate Responsibility

Very good interview, there's a lot of information and much food for thought contained therein. Well done. QUESTION for GIA: You state that you don't believe companies do good things out of altruism, but rather good things are done to protect the corporate entity (and, I assume, the bottom line). Do you see a difference in behavior between public and private companies? The latter do not have to answer to shareholder demands, and so, one would think, they have more leeway to act altruistically. On the other hand, since private companies do not have to answer to shareholders, there may be less incentive to acting altruistically. What is your opinion on the public/private divide on this matter?

Thanks for your question Shaun. Ultimately, I do not see a distinction between public/private companies acting more or less altruistic. At the end of the day, both entities are pressured by stakeholder groups and that goes beyond just shareholders into NGOs, activists, and consumers. I will agree with you that ultimately, private and public companies behave based on different constraints and opportunities in operating their business but altruism is not part of this. For example,public companies are pressured by shareholders to quantify corporate responsibility initiatives, which can sometimes be challenging to show a direct connection (but a correlation can definitely be proven). On the other hand, public companies can be more innovative in how they communicate their CR strategy mainly because they have larger budgets and are in the public eye more (and here is where a good strategy would help guide them on how to be transparent). Private companies however, compete on a different scale. They still have a lot of opportunity to be innovativem but their budgets limit them in developing the type of CR programs that say a Wal-Mart-sized company could develop. Even if smaller companies are not in the public eye as much, they are still held by the same standards of ethical business practices. Sooner than later, corporate responsibility will be so mainstream, that a majority of companies will be integrating it into their business model. Shareholders of public companies are starting to understand the future value and private companies will not want to be left behind and will develop a strategy that fits within their business model and size. Hope this answers your question.