Jean Philippe Courtois in Fontainebleau on Oct.12th 2007, INSEAD
Official Talk
Congratulations to INSEAD and all the research partners (Universita Luigi Bocconi Milano, Leon Kozminsky Academy Warsaw, Copenhagen Business School and impact-training, Vienna)
I am very pleased to be here today to celebrate a very important milestone and the achievement of a long standing process and commitment from many partners both in the academic and the business community as well as a very progressive research investment from the European Commission.
I still remember the early days when EABiS was in its second year of activity and they approached me as executive sponsor for this ambitious project.
I recall my early conversations with Prof Zollo and EABiS President Dr Lenssen as well as the former Dean of INSEAD Mr. Hawawini.
I remember clearly my interest and at the same time my surprise in seeing the breadth and depth of the project. This was and still is a project that brings together an innovative methodology on key research questions.
Congratulations to the team for reaching this milestone Today I want to congratulate the research partners for the efforts they made and the interesting results attained.
I want to commend the risks they took and the leadership they displayed in breaking new research ground in the field of CSR most specifically but also in the field of management, strategy and organization development.
I also want to say that I am proud Microsoft was one of the pioneering companies and project partners through this research.
Both by listening to the presentations and speakers this morning and also by reading through the research results, I realize that there are many interesting triggers coming from the RESPONSE project and a few stimulating thoughts that would deserve more in depth discussion and reflection.
Given the time at my disposal, I would like to focus my comments on three aspects which struck me as very close to the business context that I experience every day, points that are very relevant for a company’s business strategy discussions, and certainly innovative from an organizational standpoint.
Firstly, the concept of “Moving targets, sharper aim” explains that “Business environments characterised by rapid change appear to be most conducive to the development of understanding between stakeholders and managers”.
This is true both in business as in the field of CSR. It is something we live and breathe in the technology sector.
This is true of our business and must influence how we do CSR But it is also one of the characteristics of the way we do business at Microsoft, with agility to ensure we enable a “people ready” environment for customers, users, citizens and workers to benefit from the full potential of technology in the 21st century.
From a business in society standpoint, this is also the way in which we look at the constant evolution of stakeholders’ expectations.
We have evolved from corporate philanthropy into more strategic and organic corporate responsibility and responsiveness to the changing needs, demands and expectations of our stakeholders.
This is particularly true for the rapid way in which technology evolves and affects all of us, our families and friends in the digital lifestyle and work style.
As an industry leader, Microsoft has increasingly recognized its responsibility to respond to new expectations and as an example works with partners to help make the Internet a safer environment.
Our ultimate goal is to help create an environment in which adults, children, and organizations are more secure and can enjoy the full benefits of the Internet.
Today this is at the core of our business priorities and it is the result of an evolution in our business processes and product design which took place over the last decade.
It is also a cornerstone of our corporate responsibility strategy. One cannot go without the other as business lives and grows in society. This also speaks to the RESPONSE finding on “Alignment” which we heard this morning.
A shared vision for responsible leadership within the company helped achieve this progress, but this would not have happened without the direct input, feedback and ongoing dialogue with stakeholders like children’s associations, families, bloggers, anti-spammers’ organizations, public authorities, security and privacy stakeholders etc....
In our minds and in our business principles, such a changing environment has pushed for the integration of societal concerns into our business processes and products by design.
One can call it an act of citizenship but in its core it also makes good business sense as it provides competitive advantage in the marketplace, it creates trust and it provides the license to operate for the long term.
As clearly mentioned in the remarks by Vice President Verheugen, I look at this approach as one of “responsible competitiveness”, where combining social justice, environmental responsibility and economic development results in a superior strategy and a win-win-win solution.
Relationship with business and society evolving I very much agree on the RESPONSE conclusion that the relationship between business and society is a constantly evolving array of relationships and practical partnerships, rather than as a one-time renegotiation of a monolithic social contract.
Talking about practical collaborations, we know that success comes through effective partnerships with our 750,000 IT partners, with other business and SMEs, with local government, academic institutions and the thousands of NGO partners worldwide who together represent the “responsibility net” that we all share and play a role in.
Secondly, the concept of “Corporate Social Innovation” - High performing, high alignment companies tend to be those where social and environmental challenges are viewed as drivers for innovation and corporate responsibility is used as an approach to the unlocking of new opportunities.
It is well known in management theory and practice and fairly well accepted that leadership and organizational history play a key role as triggers to responsibility.
Leadership plays a key role and it started with Bill Gates
We experience this everyday through the vision and legacy of our founder Bill Gates. His legacy is of inspiration to most of us in the executive leadership of the company but also to employees whose passion for society and to take up big challenges is unique.
Infused in our company mission This legacy has been infused in the company’s mission to “help people and businesses around the world realize their potential”. It has been infused in the organizational values and more recently in the company’s scorecard.
While these elements are essential foundations to secure corporate excellence in sustainability performance or sustained business success, they need to be complemented by attention to Social Innovation.
Academic research and management theories have indicated the way forward.
The work of MIT Professor Prahalad as he looked at the “wealth at bottom of the pyramid” served as a call to action to companies like ours to look at Corporate Responsibility through the glasses of our business and innovation strategy, our processes and products, our marketing, the partners’ ecosystem and our long term R&D.
Similar signals where highlighted in the December 06 Harvard Business Review article by Prof. Michael Porter.
To pick up on this challenge, last year we launched a new global initiative called Unlimited Potential -
This is a global business and citizenship effort to enable sustained social and economic opportunity and bring relevant, affordable and accessible technology to the next one billion people by 2015.
To reach this goal, we are creating new business models and technology solutions and expanding our citizenship efforts in an integrated and accelerated long-term commitment to bring the benefits of technology to those who currently receive little or no benefits from it.
We are focused on delivering solutions in three key divers of economic opportunity: transforming education, fostering local innovation and enabling jobs and opportunities.
“Developing Responsible Managers”
The third and last result that I want to highlight is on “Developing Responsible Managers” and the idea that novel coaching approaches based on introspective and meditative practice appears to be more effective than standard executive education.
When I look at the profile and attitude of the Microsoft workforce, I recognize that passion, care for society, openness and accountability, play a key role in why people like – and some say love - to work for the company.
What stems from this workforce outlook is that employees what to see a broader and bigger purpose for their work and they want to do the right thing, not only what is good for the business.
As a result, diverse forms of learning based on deep introspection and meditation can be highly effective.
Pleased MS employees have been involved
I was not surprised to learn that several employees from across the world – USA, Brazil, Costa Rica, Romania, Malaysia, France and others did in fact work with the RESPONSE project team and took part in the Personal Mentorship program and attended sessions of coaching, and personal development using meditative-introspective practices.
Feedback has been positive
The feedback from our employees has been overwhelmingly positive. They managed to find time in their busy agendas as they clearly felt both at personal and organizational level the benefits of such innovative approaches.
The analysis showed that these innovative methods helped employees to unveil deeper sensitivities towards the social impacts of one’s own decisions and actions. I want to share with you some comments from our employees engaged in the meditation program: “It's something new and interesting. Felt that this is something worthwhile to do. Is looking forward to the weekly session. Feels more calm”; I felt positive effects on physio-pscychological level. Would like to share it with other colleagues; Excellent experience, wants to continue meditation exercise in future”
Encouraging to see that coaching approach works From an HR and personal development perspective these are interesting learning points for our company.
It is encouraging to see that this coaching approach based on the practice of deep introspection, even without any mention of CSR concepts or cases, can succeed in shifting individuals towards increasing levels of social consciousness
And therefore help the shift towards increasing likelihood of socially responsible behavior to emerge spontaneously and become diffused throughout the organization.
I am pleased that we piloted this approach and I want to commend INSEAD for introducing innovation in the methodology of the study.
Next steps: more research of this type etc…
As you can imagine, this has been an exciting learning journey, not without difficulties but a very important one.
The results confirm the importance of these types of research projects in which broad questions are tackled and many stakeholders are mobilized, allowing innovative methods to be adopted.
As a business leader I cannot but underline the need to continue and deepen the exercise of knowledge development on CSR and Business in Society.
Research and knowledge development is essential to inform responsible management practices and help advance responsible behavior of today’s business leaders and managers.
In addition, research feeds the education and learning agenda of universities and business school, the place in which tomorrow’s responsible leaders are shaped.
For these reasons I am convinced that this continues to be a key area of investment for the future.
Conclusion
As we all recognize, such multi-year and large scope undertakings do require deep partnerships, trust and resources.
The support received by RESPONSE through the European Commission and the co-funding by the corporate sector are key enablers to shape future and I look forward to seeing this work being continued and further developed.
Thank you and again, congratulations.
JEAN PHILLIPE COURTOIS President of Microsoft international
Montag, 26. November 2007
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