Research questions and methodology for my dissertation

   Before the term 2 was over in March, I got some feedbacks about the proposal of my dissertation from my professors. I have changed the design of my research a little and decided to focus on corporate communications of national brands after the huge national trauma, i.e. the Great Earthquake in Japan.

   My initial research questions were;

l  In order to gain a reputation, should companies focus on key stakeholders such as the customers and supply chains or the general public for disaster relief?

l  How can PR strategically get involved in disaster relief?

   However, my professors advised me to see how Japanese companies or foreign affiliated companies in Japan communicated with the people because companies are now considered to have great social responsibility to react to it. It is quite difficult to handle the situation, but companies need to be prepared to a natural disaster. If they kept silent after the disaster, they would be regarded as irresponsible. Some CSR activities after the hurricanes in the US and the earthquakes in China were already researched by some scholars. It is also important to compare the CSR policy of the company with what they actually did. So, the new research questions will be;

l  How did companies in Japan react to the huge national trauma?

l  Had the policy suggested that they were ready for the disaster beforehand?

l  What do people say about the contribution of the company after the disaster?

Quest for my research questions---

   In terms of methodology, my professors agreed to employ case study with in-depth interviews of the senior managers, employees and experts on CSR in the UK and Japan. Since I have already contacted to the communication teams of some of the global companies before I came to the UK last year, I will ask one of them for interviews and analyse how the media reported their activities.

Literature review on CSR

   Professor Adela Rogojinaru from University Bucharest, Romania, provided a useful literature review of corporate social responsibility (CSR) at Erasmus Intensive Programme in Belgium in March. The growth of the concept of corporate responsibility is closely related to the topic for my dissertation which will discuss how companies in Japan reacted to the Great Earthquake last March and communicated with the people after the national trauma.

   In 1960’s CSR was considered a sort of burden or supplement for companies. Nobel Prize scholar Milton Friedman states in his book Capitalism and Freedom (1962) that CSR is “against the welfare policy, toxic for the business environment”, although “it may well be in the long-run interest of a corporation because it may reduce the wage bill or lessen losses from pilferage and sabotage”.

   Ed Freeman challenged the idea of Friedman. In 1984 Freeman introduced the concept of a stakeholder approach and identified “group or individual who can affect or is affected by the achievement of the organization’s objectives”. He argues that if the company wants to keep the business, they “should be managed as if it can continue to serve the interests of stakeholders through time” (Freeman, 1994).

Fujitsu employees building garden shed (cited from Fujitsu)

   European Commission published a report on EUstrategy on CSR in 2011. According to the report EU regards CSR as “the responsibility of enterprises for their impacts on society”. “The company should have in place a process to integrate social environmental, ethical, human rights and consumer concerns into their business operations and core strategy in close collaboration with their stakeholders”. Now CSR covers a wide range of topics such as human rights, labour, environment, combating corruption and community involvement.

   EC also says that CSR can work as risk management, cutting costs and customer relations because the company can anticipate and meet fast changing expectations of the people and social conditions. However there are only 15 out of 27 EU member states which have national policy frameworks to promote CSR.

   At the end of the lecture Professor Rogojinaru picked up the activity of Fujitsu, an electric and ICT company from Japan. Fujitsu focuses on providing opportunities and security through ICT and reducing carbon emission. The company is ranked 13^th in Newsweek Green Rankings2011, the best among Japanese companies. After the Great Earthquake, the company set up the infrastructure and provided the means of access to the information as a part of their CSR activities.

   Like Fujitsu, a lot of Japanese companies voluntarily joined the rescue work. Is it because of the development of CSR, or is the concept of CSR already embedded in Japanese culture? To answer these questions, I will have to discuss the cultural aspect of CSR as well.

TESCO's Corporate Social Responsibility

   Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is something that companies are obliged to do to fill out the check list required by society--- this is what I have believed. After I joined the breakfast meeting with Andrew Hill, Climate Change Manager at Tesco this week, I realised that companies could not continue their business if they don’t take CSR seriously.

   Why does TESCO do climate change? “Our business has been successful. We want sustainable growth. We want to be there in 2020”, Andrew explains the background clearly. In order to tackle the issues, TESCO has to take the responsibility of supply chains and customers who emit 10-100 times as much carbon as the company. While working with supplier and customers, the company aims to reduce CO2 by one third by 2020 and become zero carbon footprint by 2050. So far, TESCO has saved ₤150 million a year for energy efficiency in the buildings.

   As the CSR Report declares that “We aim to build long-term relationships with suppliers, so getting regular feedback from them is a high priority”, TESCO created “Knowledge Hub”, an electronic platform where the company and the suppliers share information about carbon reduction. Now it has got more than 400 members from different countries. “It helped move suppliers’ relationship more into collaboration”, Andrew added.
   In contrast, it still seems hard to connect customers with sustainability which has become a cliché when we talk about CSR or environmental issues, although the London Olympics really likes the jargon. TESCO carbon footprinted over 1,000 and labelled over 500 everyday products in the UK, but how many customers understand the complicated logic? Carbon is produced in agriculture and transportation as well as packaging. Some process may produce more carbon than it looks.
   So, how do you get the message across? It is complex, nuance, based on detailed science. The PR consultants from PRCA who gathered at Burson-Marsteller’s London office, formed a group of 5-6 and had a mini discussion. My idea is profiling different types of customer families based on their life style and values, so that the newspapers and TVs can feature the story of the family to show what the kind of activities could give an impact on earth.
   The questions suggested here can never be answered because what people expect for CSR and what companies have to do for CSR will change year after year. However, there should be better solutions one of which I hopefully can suggest in my master dissertation.

HSBC reacts to scandal proactively

   The scandal of mis-selling long-term care bonds cost a lot for the executives of HSBC who faced cuts of their bonus. On the other hand, the PR team of HSBC seems to have mitigated the damage of the bank’s reputation while public opinion is still fuelled by the media. Especially after the scandal was exposed, they did a good job in media relations.

   In December last year HSBC announced that it received ₤10.5m fine over inappropriate investment advice by NHFA, the UK’s leading adviser on long-term care funding, which joined HSBC group in 2005. The sales persons from NHFA sold financial products to elderly customers expected to die before the bond period was over. The amount of compensation to be paid to the 2,485 victims sums up to ₤29.3m in addition to the fine. After the Financial Services Authority (FSA) and HSBC issued press releases, major news agencies reported it as HSBC’s scandal although NHFA had not been audited or regulated as HSBC UK Bank operations until 2010.

   In terms of crisis management, HSBC did it right. Brian Robertson, Chief Executive of HSBC Bank, fully accepted the failure and said “I am profoundly sorry that it did. We have high values here at HSBC and this runs contrary to everything that we stand for. That is why when we suspected something was not right at NHFA, we took action.” He seems to try to protect HSBC’s brand by cutting NHFA quickly and succeed in drawing the line between HSBC and NHFA. In addition, he promised to deal with the issue sincerely by saying “We will be contacting them (the customers) directly --- with the aim of putting things right as quickly as possible.” It was good for HSBC to address key stakeholders exclusively.

   Moreover, after three day, HSBC stated that it will accept complaints going back to 1991 although it took over NHFA in 2005. For those who are already dead, the bank allowed their families to make a claim. The rhetoric of Robertson was excellent in saying, “We will certainly look at each complaint individually and sympathetically” which again showed apology about what happened. The releases from HSBC included full set of trust, logic and emotion which are vital to convey a strong message. Since HSBC has decided to take all responsibility, there has not been extremely hostile coverage of the media. HSBC had gone ahead of the media which might have required the bank to take wider responsibility.

   However, the bank will also have to keep the investors updated because it has lost the credibility after a breakdown in the computer system which stopped the ATMs and internet banking in November 2011. It would be challenging for the PR team to recover the damaged reputation of the giant bank and communicate with other marginal organisations in the HSBC group like NHFA.

Active PR pros disclose their use of social media to get a job

   On the last day of the social media week in London, three PR pros and one recruitment consultant talked about the way to catch the eyes of recruiters by using social media. Some people may think that students should hit the text books instead of putting digital cosmetics on your CV, but not at all. It's worth promoting yourself in the virtual world. You may realise how many people are looking for the talented students on the other side of the real world.

Every speaker has got a different approach

   Friday Afternoon Social Media Mashup for Business Students took place at London Metropolitan University on Friday. Ms Katerina Hejralova from Citigate Dewe Rogerson advised to google my name to check what other say about me in the first place. What she had done to get a job is to upload her portfolio with some essays, place CV on LinkedIn, publish your thoughts on blog and Twitter. She did not register for any agents, but a recruiter found her. There are lots of ways to show your skill such as sending URLs of YouTube like these guys; Rachael Lewis, Graeme Anthony.

   Ms Gugs Sembi also from Citigate Dewe Rogerson introduced a lot of tools to monitor social media. Facebook: Insights, Twitter: TweetDeck, Hootsuite, Splitweet, Twitter counter, Tweet stats and many others. There are also Social Mention, Brand Watch and Topsy. Honestly I am overwhelmed by new names, but soon I will catch up.
   On the other hand, we have to be careful not to over promote ourselves. Social media is double edge sword and it's impossible to stop people telling something bad about you instead. This is the point that Mr Anton Davidenko from Moonlight Media made. A student sent the worst cover letter ever to J. P. Morgan and soon the copy was spread around Wall Street.
   Ms Samantha Glazer, a recruiter specialising in PR/communications, also warned that social media profile can affect job prospects. However, in terms of employability, it is useful to check "PR Job Watch" on Facebook and put hash tags #prjob #prgradjobs on your tweets, she added.
   The implication of this session is that if you can't PR yourself using social media, you can't PR somebody else. Social media is a vital tool both before and after you get a job.

Make the whole country feel part of London 2012

One mum from a local judo club in London told me that she does not care about the London 2012 Olympics. She even went on to criticise it of causing traffic jams and as an inconvenience of her everyday life. She moans even though she, as a qualified teacher with a black belt, should be enthusiastic about sports.

The problem she has is not with the Olympians, but rather with the national association and local authorities that do not see grassroots communities like her judo club as an important partner. While Olympic families, ticketholders and sports fans are already supporting the Olympic, it is vital to reach those who have not benefited from the games.

I suggest that all the city councils should enter into partnership with one athlete; “One Council One athlete Movement”. Ideally the partner councils are where the athletes are born, have lived or trained. The councils spread the news about the athletes through the newsletter, website, blog, Twitter and Facebook and invite the athletes to schools and nursing homes. The councils also could host a competition for the tickets of the sports the athletes are competing.

The similar scheme was tested during the World Exposition in Aichi, Japan in 2005. All the 121 countries signed on the friendship with local governments in the region where the Expo took place. The project gave a great impact on the citizens and one small city evolved it into Memorandum of Friendship with Qatar two year later.

Usually people become enthusiastic about this kind of international events just before they start because there are lots of sports to watch such as football and tennis. However, the councils should launch the partnership project immediately with the help of the government, communities and consultants.

The Iron Lady

   The Iron Lady hits the UK theatres at the best moment for the Conservative. The movie featuring the former prime minister, Margaret Thatcher's struggle with the single currency and workers' union reflect what is happening right now. We are fed up with Euro crisis and unions' strikes. I am sure the present Prime Minister, David Cameron, is happy with the movie supporting him.

Meryl Streep as Thatcher

   Last month Cameron refused to sign up to changes of EU treaty and bailout plan to save Euro while the other 26 member countries reached an agreement. Despite the strong criticism from France, Germany and the UK Labour Party, Cameron's veto was widely approved by the UK citizens. In addition, this movie seems to show that Thatcher and Cameron were right; both of the Conservative politicians never compromised on Euro.
   The movie also reflected on the days when people throw away rubbish bags on the street and nobody clean them up because unions were so strong decades ago. That reminded me of the nationwide industrial action in November and Tube strike on Boxing Day. Cameron could also be tough on unions, I think.
   What would this movie be like if the Labour was in power now? Or, would this movie be released when we have a prime minister for the Labour? I don't know if the PR team for the movie has waited the timing for long time, it's working well. At least, I felt sympathy with Thatcher as well as the Conservative.