The delegations were led by Maziar Ebrahimi (Iran) and Serdar Dinler (Turkey). The high-level gathering included representatives from Iran’s biggest wholesale company, Nokia, software and IT companies and academics and a member of the Chamber of Industry. Turkish business was represented by participants including Finansbank and Turkey’s clothing manufacturers, to name only a few. Two UNDP (United Nations Development Program) Turkey project managers and the economic officer working for the US government in Turkey were in attendance, too.
I had the pleasure of participating in the event and its accompanying working group sessions and focused on the role of the media in promoting and engaging in corporate social activities and whether small and medium-sized enterprises can join the corporate social responsibility train.
Corporate Social Responsibility Turkey (CSR Turkey) introduced their upcoming baseline report. A key concern in Turkey is the link between the global financial crisis and corporate social responsibility, which makes it more difficult to convince entrepreneurs to “go social.” The authors of the report (Feride Dotan and Berkay Orhaner) said that corporate social responsibility is no marketing tool but should become part of every company’s business culture. The authors then stressed the responsibility of the media not only in writing about corporate social responsibility but in running projects, too, as corporate social responsibility is underrepresented in Turkey’s media organs bar one specific TV program as well as a few regular features in Turkey’s print media.
Involve all stakeholders -- not simply stockholders
The Iranian delegation also introduced the draft version of their 2009 corporate social responsibility report, which is based on a survey amongst Iranian business leaders. As fewer multinationals operate from within Iran, corporate social responsibility is often misinterpreted as charity or philanthropic work only and has not as yet become an integral part of Iranian mainstream business etiquette.
The Iranian Corporate Social Responsibility Development Center representatives stressed that the involvement of the workforce, the environment and quality management models could become critical issues in the near future.
After four working group sessions the meeting concluded, with participants stressing the fact that both Turkey and Iran have similar attitudes towards social work as well as a strong link to Islam as a proactive religion supporting charitable and philanthropic work. Both delegations underlined, however, that corporate social responsibility is something entirely different to charitable work or sponsorship: it is about how business in periods of economic uncertainty and of course once the crisis is over will be able to improve on their bottom line and win over new customers as well as designing better and “greener products. Corporate social responsibility is to be seen as a management instrument, not a public relations effort.
I am looking forward to the follow-up event, which is expected to take place in Tehran before the end of January 2010.
My personal evaluation in a nutshell: I was impressed. The forum underlined once more that as long as business leaders can freely move, meet and mingle with partners from all over the world, politicians would better follow in their footsteps -- business very often establishes faster and more solid, long-term links than politicians can implement in the short term. Output? Improving the bottom lines for Iranian and Turkish business, opening doors for future cross-border ventures and above all demonstrating to the wider business community that not only in Europe but Iran, too, things are on the move with regards to including corporate social responsibility in every successful company’s management strategy.
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