Corporate social responsibility is a hot topic right now. From carbon footprints to global warming to basic humanitarian concerns, the uprise of social media requires corporations to take their reputations seriously. In this episode, Founder Justin Recla talks about the importance of understanding the risk to your company if you aren’t considering corporate social responsibility.

 

 

Welcome to the In the Clear podcast, I’m your host Justin Recla, and today I’m talking about a concept that I think more and more people are ready for, and that’s the concept of corporate social responsibility, and what does that look like. So one of the things I really want to explore here is the concept that businesses in the past, you know, the idea of corporate social responsibility, was the fact, “Okay, did they give back? Did they have some sort of charity or organization that the business contributed to?” And that was great when it first came out; we saw a lot of businesses that were picking non-profit organizations that they wanted to support, and a lot of people really jumped on that bandwagon and started really supporting smaller businesses especially that were sponsoring or supporting a non-profit. But as the non-profit industry has continued to get a bad name, with non-profits not really being non-profit …

And by all means, that’s not the point here; by all means, a non-profit is just another business and they have to make money in order to continue to operate. But there’s a lot of non-profits out there that aren’t really spending the money that they get the way that a lot of people think that they should. And because of that, the idea of corporate social responsibility has really shifted, and I think more and more people are really starting to take a look at what does that mean for businesses? And what does that mean for you, if you are a business, or if you are an entrepreneur? What does corporate social responsibility mean for you?

Well when you look at things, especially from a due diligence perspective, really what people are looking for is, they’re really looking for transparency. They’re wanting to know who are the supporting, where is their dollar going to? And if most of it is going to profit, especially lining the pockets of the CEOs and the executives and so forth, I think more and more people are starting to make difference choices when they start to see behind the veil. And this is one of the reasons why we encourage transparency in business, because as society increases its consciousness, its own awareness, as more and more people help that shift in society, more and more people are going to demand transparency. It doesn’t take much; I mean, you just online and you do a search, and you can see some of the good and the bad on whoever it is that you’re looking into.

But bigger than that, it’s the people behind the businesses, and I’m seeing a lot of this right now, folks. We’re seeing a lot of it in the crypto currency world right now, and there’s a … It’s like it’s a new gold rush, right? There’s this new opportunity for people to make a lot of money in the crypto currency world, and unfortunately, some of these quote unquote “opportunities” that are coming out are not fully legit, and you can find the information out to a certain level, but when you start digging and you look and you discover some of the people behind these opportunities, you recognize that there’s some players that are involved that are in it for the buck, and they’ve got a patterned history of behaviors that show that they’ve been in it for the buck. And while there’s nothing wrong with making a dollar, more and more people are looking for that corporate social responsibility.

And part of that is operating in transparency, and so for the crypto currency stuff, one of the biggest things that you can do for yourself before you get involved with an opportunity is ask yourself, who are the people involved in the opportunity? What have they done? Who are they doing it for? What are some of the reasons why they’ve put this so-called opportunity together? And look at it from that perspective. And if you uncover some things that aren’t so savory, really stop and ask yourself, “Is this the right opportunity for us?” Because from a social responsibility perspective, there’s a lot of people out there that are willing to take advantage of people; they don’t really care about who gets hurt along the way. And so if that company or that opportunity or the business or whoever it is that you’re getting involved with is not willing to operate in transparency, then you should ask yourself, “Is this a company that I want to get involved with?”

I think more and more people are starting to hold the businesses that they engage to a higher standard, and that corporate social responsibility piece is part of that. Not only should businesses give back to different organizations or different events, or different, you know, but how are they contributing to the collective? How are they contributing to the circles in which they play in? That’s all part of that corporate responsibility piece. Like I say, more and more people are really, really starting to demand that. And for us over here at the Clear Business Directory, that really starts with transparency, and making sure that the people you’re getting involved with are who they say they are, and can do what they say they can do. And it’s just the right thing to do at the end of the day, if you think about it. People want to know who they’re engaging with.

There’s a lot of people, especially that are in the business and the entrepreneur world, that have gotten into business because they want to make the world a better place, right? And that in and of itself has created a whole market for the scamsters and fraudsters to prey upon. We see it all the time in financial opportunities, investment opportunities, I can say that in the crypto currency world we’re seeing a lot of that right now.

And when we get back from this break, we’re gonna take a look at how the concept of corporate social responsibility has changed. We’ll be right back.

Are you an entrepreneur who speaks at conferences? Have you attended a conference and seen someone on stage you know is guilty of bad business practices? If you want to stand out from the crowd and give your perspective clients peace of mind, then make sure your business is in the Clear Directory. All of our members operate in transparency and are screened annually for frauds and scams. Stand out from the crowd and get in the Clear Directory. Visit clearbusinessdirectory.com/join to sign up today.

Really folks, the big thing here is that corporate social responsibility has shifted, the idea of it has shifted to where it’s no longer just about the individual, but it’s really about that social collective; about not just, “Hey, look at us, we support this charity,” but more of a … Businesses have a social responsibility to really provide their clients and their customers peace of mind in knowing what it is that they’re buying. I think that’s one of the biggest issues that we’ve seen in the food industry, with product labeling, and then GMOs, and then of course the big push to redefine what the definition some of these labeling terms are. Things like high fructose corn syrup is no longer labeled as high fructose corn syrup; if it meets a certain standard, it can now be labeled as just fructose.

But ultimately at the end of the day, it’s still the same thing, and that is a … That really does their clients a disservice, and I think more and more people are catching on to those tactics that corporations, especially the big corporations, are using to mask their products; to mask who they are and what they’ve done, to mask what they’re putting into the things that you’re buying, to mask their experience. I mean, there’s businesses out there on the net, especially in the crypto world, that you can’t even find out who is actually running the opportunity. Now of course you do some due diligence and you dig into those opportunities, you find out who’s really behind it, and you see the partnered behavior of frauds and scams and Ponzi schemes and so forth.

And so really one of the best things you can do as somebody who is consuming anything, whether it be a product, or a service, or if you’re bringing a partner or an investor into your business, it really doesn’t matter. One of the best things that you can do to hold other businesses accountable to that social responsibility piece is to make sure that they are being transparent in their business. Look beyond the surface and that’ll speak volumes as to what level of corporate social responsibility they are playing.

So with that, this one’s short and sweet. I want to thank you for your time and for listening, and take that idea of corporate social responsibility into mind, and really play with that. Challenge yourself to what does that mean, and if you’re an entrepreneur or business owner, you can raise the bar by operating in transparency yourself. And there’s a lot that we can do over here at the Clear Directory to assist you with that. You have any questions on what that looks like for your business, or if you need assistance in verifying that another company is actually operating in transparency, and that they’re not hiding anything, we can assist you with that as well. So until next time folks, thanks for listening, and we’ll see you next week.