CSR: Corporate Social Responsibility or Cynical Selfish and Reneging

I am a huge fan of the widely misunderstood Milton Friedman and his stance on CSR. I became an even bigger fan of that man when Zoe Chilton said the words “We are not a charity”. I am not saying I agree with her stance in the true meaning of it which she explained by saying that a company expects financial returns for everything it does, in fact I’m saying quite the contrary. I am saying that if you label your actions as being socially responsible just for the good of it, you should not expect anything in return other than the satisfaction of spreading good.

Milton Friedman never said CSR is bad, he just said that going out of the way to label something as being socially responsible and then expecting financial gains from it is wrong. He argues that if a business is conducting itself responsibly and is operating within the law and is in no way harming anything, then it is being socially responsible. There is no need to label your actions and project them as a marketing strategy. The companies that use CSR as a marketing campaign should be considered the biggest criminals by those who don’t believe in Friedman.

“We are not a charity”

In many ways those words have changed the way I viewed CSR and whatever I have been taught till now. I still won’t expect a penny for a penny.

Do your job

Believe in true welfare

Believe in Friedman

End CSR as a label

: 22 Feb 2015 22:41 |  Comments (0) |  Report a problem