You all know what development is about, it simply means to grow but how do you sustain the growth? To sustain means to maintain and this has been one major challenge with Nigerian brands. This challenge is enhanced by the fact that, there are few original brands but many copy cats.
CSR is the brain-box of sustainable development. Corporate Social Responsibility deals with identifying and meeting the wants and needs of any community for profitable relationships. There is a big difference between a community’s want and need. A community may want portable drinking water. The community’s need is the how or the means of producing and making available, if possible to all, that portable drinking water. CSR identifies the wants and meets the needs by providing the know-how of sustainable development for profitable relationships.
Original brands start from CSR while copy cats don’t. There are three angles to CSR – Economic angle, social and environmental angle. Copy cats’ institution niche on one angle of CSR, which is the economic angle and make donations or sponsor any community’s wants.
Corporate Social Responsibility should be encouraged because it’s about innovation. It engenders entrepreneurial spirit among staff of any business institution or any community. Let us consider a case of one company who is into manufacturing but has a lot of industrial waste that constitute a nuisance to its community. CSR to this community is not about donating money to the community to calm down their anger or providing sponsorship for the community’s cultural events. CSR in this aspect is about the mother brand coming out with an extension brand or another brand springing up with the capacity to clear the industrial waste on regular basis. Since CSR is evolving, another brand can also come up with the know-how of converting the industrial waste to something useful, all these will help in sustaining development. As a brand, what wants and needs are you meeting? Your answer will determine your CSR.
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