Good Works!: Marketing and Corporate Initiatives that Build a Better World...and the Bottom Line

Part 1

Introduction

A commitment to doing the right thing is no guarantee of winning in the marketplace, but over the past 30 years numerous companies have demonstrated that you can simultaneously build a better world and the bottom line. Experience has also shown that creating successful marketing and corporate social initiatives requires intelligence, commitment, and finesse. Whether you work for a Fortune 500 giant or a start-up, generating financial profits and social dividends is a delicate balancing act. For many businesspeople, it proves to be among the most satisfying chapters of their professional lives.

If you are reading this introduction, there is a good chance you work in a company's department of community relations, corporate communications, public affairs, public relations, environmental stewardship, corporate responsibility, or corporate citizenship. Or you may be a marketing manager or a product manager, have responsibility for some aspect of corporate philanthropy, or run a corporate foundation. It is also quite possible that you work in a public relations, marketing, or public affairs agency and that your clients are looking to you for advice on marketing and corporate social initiatives. You may be the founder of a new business or the CEO of a large, complex enterprise.

If you are like others in any of these roles, it is also quite possible that you feel challenged and pulled by the demands and expectations surrounding the buzz for corporate social responsibility. ...