Dump CSR Departments, Says BP’s Ex-Chief

by | Sep 11, 2015

This article is included in these additional categories:

Companies should get rid of their corporate social responsibility and public relations departments, according to Lord Browne, the former chief executive of BP.

As PR Week reports, Browne was promoting his soon-to-be published book, Connect, on Radio 4’s Today program. The book says managers should take responsibility for their companies and not hide behind PRs and CSR departments.

In addition to saying firms should “probably, yes,” ditch their PR departments, Browne said CRS departments had become “divorced” from what their company actually does: “One of the props that people have relied upon is corporate social responsibility, and that’s allowed a lot of companies to detach the activity of communicating and being involved with stakeholders almost into a side pocket.”

Although 82 percent of Americans expect companies to report on the progress of their social and environmental efforts, only 17 percent of Americans say they have read a CSR report in the past 12 months, according to the 2015 Cone Communications/Ebiquity Global CSR Study.

 

Additional articles you will be interested in.

Stay Informed

Get E+E Leader Articles delivered via Newsletter right to your inbox!

This field is for validation purposes and should be left unchanged.
Share This