Big players beware! Corporate Social Responsibility, business ethics social license to operate.
Sep 24th, 2015
Corporate Social Responsibility, business ethics social license to operate
It doesn’t matter if you sell cars, mortgages, cruises, or oil.
Neither it does matter if your Customer Experience NPS had stellar values up to «yesterday»!
And finally it does not matter if your industry is a “one of a kind”, or you are the “largest”, the “best”, etc.

VW Golf TDI clean diesel by Mario Roberto Duran Ortiz
If the images projected by the media or the news about your latest scandal (of any kind) are vivid enough to stir a public opinion tsunami, you will be badly hit. For example, what about an “instant” -35% in 2 days of your shares’ value? In fact, your whole industry’s arena could shrink and be boycotted by the masses. And you could discover that, as they say in French, “you just saw the branch you were sitting on”.
We read, in disbelief like many, the headlines of the WV «cunning-plan /debacle» to make diesel cars compliant to the EPA standard and more appealing to the thrill-seeking’s drivers.
Now, one can read the following from Matt DeLorenzo, managing editor at Kelley Blue Book’s KBB.com. “Not only is this a black eye and a huge problem for Volkswagen. From an industry perspective it may set back diesel technology as a means for auto makers to reach the requirements for high fuel economy. We may have reached a tipping point where now diesels will become more expensive to make than hybrids”.
Corporate Social Responsibility, business ethics social license to operate
So, a badge of excellence for fuel efficiency of their car and how green new diesel engines turned upside-down. It is now a badge of shame each time they get on the road.
Of course, at Riskope, for years, we have been teaching these concepts in our courses. In fact our multi-hazard, 360, risk assessments include this type of wide radius interdependencies. Contrary to common opinion, human/industrial history is rich of examples of products, processes, entire lines of business that have ran into similar issues. Those include, of course a ubiquitous and often acute problem linked to natural resources extraction like mining, oil & gas, etc.
Although there is no magic recipe to avoid long chains of events that may result in crises, we have «written the book»
You can read our material in presentations and books etc.
Indeed a big crisis will damage your organization, your projects, even if you simply are in the same business arena of the culprit. Which is why you probably should have an action plan ready just in case. So you can turn a potential crisis in a positive outcome for your business.
Tagged with: business ethics, Corporate Social Responsibility, crisis, EPA, natural resources extraction, social license to operate, WV
Category: Consequences, Crisis management, Hazard, Risk analysis, Risk management
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