by Richard Brubaker
Last week the American Chamber of Commerce in Shanghai held its annual CSR awards. After 2 months of planning, scoring 25 award applications, and arranging for our keynote speakers, we welcomed over 100 people at the Children's Welfare Institute's Children's Palace in Shanghai.

Attendees represented large corporations like Amway, Corning, GM, IBM, Intel, KPMG, Medtronic, Nike, Starbucks, Warner Bros and NGOs were represented by groups like CereCare Wellness Centre, Huaqiao Foundation, MDA, WWF, Shanghai Sunrise and Smile Train.

The stage was set by William Valentino, General Manager, Corporate Communications for Bayer, who spoke on the critical nature of understanding and aligning corporate strategies and Corporate Social Responsibility strategies. Always a crowd pleaser, Bill laid the foundation by showing how it is possible for companies to balance the need to please stockholders and the need to be altruistic.

Dr. Eden Woon, VP of Greater China for Starbucks, followed Bill by taking the audience to the next step. Throughout his 20 minutes, members were able to see the steps Starbucks takes in constructing a comprehensive CSR program–whether it is getting employees into the community on a volunteer program, ensuring supplier compliance across the supply chain, or implementing strict governance controls across the organization.

Stefan Kratz of the Nature Conservancy Program brought a different perspective, that of the NGO, to show us what it looks like from the front lines. With Stefan working in the inner depths of the Yunnan province on several projects, he showed us the balancing act that he is performing when working between corporations, government officials, and doing the right thing for the long term sustainability of natural resources.

This year we saw a nearly 100% increase in the number of submissions for the awards. Last year we had a total of 14 applications from multinationals (zero Chinese), and this year we received over 25 multinational submissions (2 Chinese). The programs were much more comprehensive than last year, and we were able to see that many companies really were putting an effort into constructing strong CSR programs.

In reviewing the submissions, we first segmented the applications on SME, MNC, and Chinese companies so that we could judge apples to apples on an organizational level. We ran into a situation last year where 100% of the employees in a company were involved in programs, and that company had also ranked highly in other areas. However due to their inability to scale the program, they were unable to win the overall award. This year we made sure that would not happen.

Once segmented, we looked at four broad areas (Corporate Governance, Environmental Impact, Social Impact, and Workplace Practices) in judging the reach, impact, and sustainability of the various programs. there were between 4-6 criteria within each of these, and the total score determined the winner.

After all that, we were left with our winners:
1) Ford - 1st Place for an AMCHAM member company
2) Coca cola - Merit Award for an AMCHAM member company
3) Shanghai Pudong Development Bank - 1st Place for a Chinese company
4) Shanghai Aerospace Equipment Manufacturer - Merit Award for a Chinese company
5) PMI International Trading - SME Award
6) Amway - Innovation Award

One note on the programs themselves is that we are starting to see companies branch out more from the traditional programs. Amway this year had a very comprehensive program, and more than that, they really climbed out of the box and put together some innovative initiatives. As someone who runs an NGO in China, it is for me a highlight to see a company like Amway really go the extra mile (innovation won Mary Kay the overall award last year).

The fact is that while CSR is still in its infancy for many companies, the macro picture is that it is becoming a closely considered strategy in many boardrooms, but there is still room for improvement.

We on the AMCHAM CSR Committee are looking forward to reading through the 2007 submissions. We saw an amazing difference between last year and this, and we hope that next year will provide the same.

About the author:
Rich Brubaker, as the managing Director of China Strategic Development Partners, assists foreign companies develop and implement their China based market entry and sourcing strategies, including CSR strategies. In addition to his responsibilities at China SDP, Rich founded the charitable organization Hands on Shanghai to promote volunteerism among young professionals in the Shanghai community. Rich has a Masters in International Management from Thunderbird, The Garvin School of International Management and is the Vice Chairman of the American Chamber of Commerce Shanghai's Corporate Responsibility committee. He can be reached via email at rbrubaker@chinasdp.com or his blog here.

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