As recently as five years ago, CSR was perceived as an either-or proposition. If a company
attempted to address stakeholder concerns, it might be perceived as impacting the company’s profitability.
More recently, studies and actual practice have shown that critical stakeholders -- including customers,
employees and socially responsible investor organizations - are actively looking for permission to do
business with socially responsible companies. Increasingly, the value of those companies long term is seen as
dependent upon their ability to meet these expectations. Furthermore, a significant percentage of many
companies’ value today is made up of “good will,” an asset easy to lose and difficult to regain. In
consequence, companies that recognize this fact are increasingly seeing the need to take appropriate steps to
minimize their negative impacts on stakeholders and thereby protect their valuable reputations and good will.