Op Ed: Corporate Stake-holders Demanding Full-Expansion Of Social Responsibility Reshaping Oregon Business Ethic

Enlightened corporate management worldwide is adopting new, true, greatly broadened policies for social and economic impacts.

(BEND, Ore.) - "More than NINETY PERCENT of CEO's surveyed believe CSR management creates shareholder value."
"More than EIGHTY PERCENT of CEO's agree environmental, social metrics are essential in characterizing future financial performance".
"Major reason companies are becoming more socially responsible is Competitive Advantage."
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CONFESSION: Every one of those statements is FIVE YEARS OLD, from a 2002 FORTUNE article-insert on national picture-then, five years into the “Corporate Social Responsibility”(CSR)-trend.

SO what's the current story, TODAY, in Oregon?: Stakeholder-demand from powerful partners is definitely shaping Oregon enterprise. Participation by essential stake-holders is slowly-surely reforming Oregon business --despite determined "laissez faire"-based opposition.

BUT Oregon is still far behind the booming CSR trend reshaping the entire national and international move to much broader CSR.

How can Oregon LAG TEN YEARS behind AND still COMPETE worldwide --in the 7th Year of our Twenty-First Century??

"Corporate Social Responsibility" is a trend for open, cooperative management. It proposes "a triple bottom-line measurement" for business. Success involves not only "profits" --legally confined to stock-holders ONLY-- but also reasonable and rational accounting for costly impacts on social and environmental factors.

CSR recognizes "all three bottom-lines affect ALL stake-holders, in EVERY enterprise, EVERYwhere."

The plain fact: Owners-and-workers are NOT the ONLY true stake-holders in ANY enterprise. Citizens, children, neighbors and ALL others are inevitably impacted --positively OR negatively-- by each and every successful business.

Recognition that STAKE-holders --as well as STOCK-holders-- have heavy life-investment in every business is forcing a sea-change in attitudes and operations EVERYwhere.

Begun as motivation research for worker-controls, psychological results over the past century lead to effective management advances. Profits are being broadly demonstrated even when "the other-two bottom-lines" (social and environmental) are included.

Management-guru Peter Drucker presaged precisely this long-term and extremely promising future development as essential early-on observations, credited with establishing rational, reasonable foundations for management.

Those findings have become recognized foundations for future financial and operational planning, in major business training. World-famous business schools insistently now lead this long-overdue movement worldwide.

CSR is now fully accepted by leading economists and serves as foundation for social service and similar developments worldwide. The trend is so strong it has become the leading topic for management-training seminars across the nation and worldwide.

CSR-education and activity is seen by newly-appointed corporate community-relations personnel as their leading demand. It 's the main reasons for their operations, intended to offset universal diminution-dilution of past corporate credibilities and loss of public confidence.

Major firms, avoiding CSR earlier, now seek to make sure they are preparing for new demands. More and more essential financing-sources seek out latest word on what corporations are ACTUALLY DOING about CSR --beyond the PR-spin.

Even in 19th Century-attitude communities and business groups -- some still found fulminating right here in Oregon!-- the sharpened white-light of full disclosure has forced long-overdue action over the past ten years. Corporate debacles, like WorldCom, Tyco and others nationally, and Enron's in Oregon --with PGE-site involvement-- have resulted in huge pension and benefits impacts on many thousands of workers.

That seventy-year-and continuing record of $10 corporate minimum tax in Oregon --carried over from Real Depression days-- does NOT help our rational image for incoming, job-building enterprises. Corporate finance sources seek responsible management alive to essential-change --which is the CSR proven-pattern. Many, many similar deadly-damaging situations can be cited "from the record". (See source-listing in Reader's Note.)

Much has rapidly undermined and destroyed what was once-solid public confidence in constantly-expanding corporations; including obvious "shelter-and-comfort" approaches reaching new depths of depravity in D.C. and every State.

Corporate structure was once noted for strengthening-broadening impacts on "the American Dream", partnered with once-strong union-movement activities. National strengths were built through worldwide "two-way" trade and commerce, with millions of benefits and pension/reinforced jobs.

But the national picture has become massive corporate dollar-power, to "acquire" political command of governance --relentlessly speeded since the Reagan "administration".

Job-creation for that "American Dream" has become itself "only a dream." Check out ANY previously productive prospering industrial area in this saddened nation.

Citizens see overwhelming corporate dollar power reversing and refuting governmental controls protecting and preserving commonweal interests.

They write about it in daily newspaper Letters-pages across the nation, and, interminably, on thousands of blogs!!-- as producing huge massively-malign profits for shareholders-alone, despite the heavy and now completely-obvious costs to all of us: We are all --in essence and unavoidably!-- stake-holders in whatever occurs with business and industry in our nation.

Not only economic but environmental problems, issue, matters and manipulation make that unavoidably true, in this the 21st Century. That's "the capitalistic system, in full and painful action."

The negative --and often destructive-- natural outcome of business dominance, often by deception and distortion of the known public wit, wisdom and will, has sometimes been over-run by "unintended consequences".

Even the most knowing of economists and business management-eers now find it impossible to foresee and guard against many such "situations" as heavy overseas-flow for once-solid American jobs.

Then there are many--rapidly increasing in number and influence-- who believe impacts-felt are: "intentional, well-known far in advance, meant to suppress and overpower natural trends" in the capitalistic system itself.

They contend that "the capitalistic system demands death-or-performance"; and that "the marketplace measures and metes out fateful decision on dollar-results alone"; thus threatening dire consequences in the long run for all other rational, reasonable concerns.

That is why corporations are so determined to dominate --and, if necessary, even defy-- our democratic system of governance. That belief is bolstered by those contending it is only by easy compliance with the well-known "rush to the bottom" --via search-out for severely-slashed worker-costs wherever they may be found, under whatever working conditions-- that many once-strong corporations face shareholder/stock market demand for "new developments NOW!"

Others contend heavy usage of lobbyists, lavishing "corporate campaign contributions" in massive amounts, is positive proof of corporate avoidance of responsibilities --sure to continue while dollar-muscled manipulation is permitted.

Yet it is ONLY in Oregon that we still allow that joke-in-action ---the "$10-minimum corporate tax"-- to continue. Massive state funding LOSSES have been underway now for SEVENTY YEARS...and still counting!

Simultaneously, our "part-time/employed" legislators now demand a pay-rise, meanwhile holding hostage essential changes and independent funding for the Oregon Ethics Commission.

IF we permit this peculiar pattern to proliferate still further it begins to be only a question of time until "the Revolution" arrives.