Who should head up your corporate responsibility approach

1 June 2009

Odgers Berndtson and The Doughty Centre for Corporate Responsibility at Cranfield School of Management and have published a think-piece on who should head up a company’s Corporate Responsibility approach. The paper is based on interviews with over 30 leading companies.

Interviewees included CEOs, Board Directors and Corporate Responsibility/Sustainability Heads. The think-piece explores how the Corporate Responsibility function, its reporting lines, and skills-set, is changing. It also analyses the skills and competencies of an effective Head of Corporate Responsibility/Sustainability, listing 8 essential attributes.

This joint-think piece combines the expertise of Odgers and Cranfield’s Doughty Centre, whose vision is to put sustainability and responsibility at the heart of successful management. Those interviewed are from companies considered to be leading the way in embedding Corporate Responsibility into business practice.

Professor David Grayson CBE, Director of the Doughty Centre said: "One of our key findings is the changing background of managers heading up the Corporate Responsibility and Sustainability function - with an increasing number coming from successful commercial careers within the same company."

Co-author Stuart Morton, a partner at Odgers Berndtson leading the research, concurs: "The message seems to be that technical expertise can be acquired, accessed within the team or found externally - but that the key attributes are a deep understanding of the business, credibility within it and sponsorship at the Board table."

For a copy of the joint think-piece ‘Who should head up your corporate responsibility approach’ please click here