New ways of entrepreneurship: II "Corporate Social Responsibility. Less government with more results?"
The Royal Institute for International Relations, Brussels Von Mises Institute,
Brussels 22/09/2004
Corporate Social Responsibility in
Practice:
Involving people as entrepreneurs
Professor I. Getz, ESCP-EAP, European School of Management,
Paris, France
Companies increasingly taking into account not only their profit, but also their employees and their environment.
As with other paradigms such as quality or lean management, it's not the outside pressures that dictate the depth and seriousness of company's efforts but its own, financial interests.
Indeed, only truly involved employees are contributing to their company's success. Thus, the approaches that allow an effective involvement of everyone are vital.
During the last five years I have observed some of the best practices in this area in 10 countries. One approach that succeeds in involving everyone is called the Management of Ideas. It is based on the natural desire of every employee to improve his or her working conditions, make his job easier and more efficient through his own implemented ideas. If harnessed, this motivation unleashes a monster.
In our recent book with A.G. Robinson Vos ides changent tout! (available also in German, Dutch and Spanish) we have described the best practices in idea management. To quote just three statistics, in our study, a number of organizations showed more than 20 ideas per employee per year, a 90% employee participation rate and over € 4,000 in cost cuts or profits per employee per year.
To conclude, building a world-class idea management system allows not only to involve everyone in the company thus boosting their morale and job satisfaction, but also to radically increase the company's performance. No wonder companies with excellent Idea Management Systems such as Toyota, STMicroelectronics, or Milliken are also leaders in their respective industries.