Corporate Pride

After talking about the G20 weekend in Toronto last week, we are happy to say that the last weekend was slightly different. And uplifting. Not only was THE Queen in town (the English, that is) but many more raunchy, outrageous and beautiful queens (and kings etc. for that matter).

It was the weekend of the Pride in Toronto and as always, it was a blast. And even the sky was laughing down – unlike the rainy G20 weekend – scorching weather and a lot of fun.

One thing that was striking this time was the dominant presence of big brands and corporations. Many of the wagons in the parade but also a large number of stands along the pedestrian areas represented private businesses. This did not only include the usual suspects, such as brands like Trojan (a condom manufacturer) or the Body Shop, but in fact the main sponsor of the event was one of the major four Canadian banks, TD Bank. And if one looks at the list of sponsors of the Pride you get the picture.

Now this can be looked at in two different ways. One could easily go up in arms and lament the fact that one of the few core events of counterculture, especially in North America, has now finally succumbed to corporate supremacy. Another example of 'Rebel Sell', as Jo Heath has attempted at stigmatizing the consumer patterns coming out of the hippie/alternative milieu of the late 1960s. 'Revolution' and 'Liberation' turning into just another consumption style.

I tend to disagree with this view. By and large, it is my impression that beyond islands of multiculturalism and liberal culture in North America, such as New York, San Francisco, Seattle and, yes, Toronto, North America is still largely a rather conservative place, governed by mostly religiously informed bigotry and, in this case, homophobia. So living up to your identity, if you are of the GLBT community, is often a risky thing. And that is why I find the corporate involvement so interesting.

By associating their brand with these communities corporations provide some crucial legitimacy to the causes of these minorities. And for me it gave a very palpable experience of how companies become a civic player. The Pride is no longer a loony lefty crazy communist side show, if major brands are publicly supporting it. Most impressive, I have to admit, I found the engagement of TD Bank. The banking industry is probably the most conservative and homophobic industry on the planet. I never forget when I was still in consulting in German in 1999, we had an assignment at a major German bank. Our team leader was gay, and open about it. And by being as he was, he found out that the department of some 30 employees we were working with consisted of 4 gay/lesbian colleagues, who prior to that did not even know of each other. Some of them in long term relationships – but too afraid of coming out.

Now, don't get me wrong. I acknowledge that these companies associate their brand and 'invest' in the Pride not without self interest. The GLBT community increasingly is important as consumers and investors. But the motivation is not really the point here. It is just the fact, that private corporations provide legitimacy to certain minorities in society. It is here where we see the 'political role' of private corporations. They are becoming, by dint of their financial power and dependency on public (and be it only: consumer's) consent key actors in shifting the priorities on how society should be run.

In that sense, I had my very private moment of enjoying the Pride.

Ratan Tata: corporations in the developing world have to be more paternalistic

In the last decade, the business case for CSR (i.e. that attention to social issues needs to make sound business sense) has become something of a mantra for corporate responsibility advocates. Deviation from this script is rare. So it was refreshing to hear Ratan N. Tata, the leader of India's largest conglomerate, Tata Sons Ltd, mark his first public engagement in Canada by speaking eloquently last night of his commitment to a different approach to responsible business.

Speaking as the guest of honour at the inaugural event of the Thomas J. Bata Lecture Series in Responsible Capitalism , hosted by our own Schulich School of Business here in downtown Toronto, Tata make it clear that in his view, the developing world presented a different type of challenge for corporate responsibility. "Building schools and hospitals," he argued, "is something you have to do" in countries like India that lack basic government provisions. For corporations, he suggested, this meant that they have had to adopt a "more paternalistic" approach than that required in the developed world.

His own company, the Tata group, has become something of an icon in the responsible business world. Sure, they've had their run-ins with environmentalists, unions, and community groups over the years, most recently with the launch of the Tata Nano. But few could deny the contribution the company has made to social and economic development in India. And despite a rapid global expansion over the past two decades that Ratan Tata has been at the helm, the company has managed to combine its business success with an impressive commitment to business integrity and community service. Last night, as he reeled off a string of successful community engagement projects pioneered by the company, Tata claimed that, "with all of this, there's been no business gain for us. Yes, it creates goodwill that no advertising campaign will ever achieve, but it's not why we do it".

Tata's emphasis on the moral case for CSR perhaps makes sense when considered in the context of his particular company, which is 66% owned by philanthropic trusts. However, his comments were also echoed by his fellow business leaders on the responsible capitalism panel, Ed Clark the CEO of TD Bank and Jacques Lamarre, the former CEO of the global engineering firm SNC Lavalin. Clark, for instance, was keen to emphasise the importance of a values-based approach to responsibility. Citing his company's sponsorship of Toronto Pride, the annual gay and lesbian festival, Clark suggested the bank had lost business from customers upset about the advocacy of LGBT issues. But, he insisted, the bank was committed to diversity and "had to stick to its values".

Of course, all this talk of corporate responsibility beyond the business case could just be only so much hot air from corporate leaders keen to spin the image of capitalism away from its "greed is good" reputation. But in a world where, as Doug Miller, the chair of Globescan commented from the audience, the public had increasingly lost faith in capitalism, it was good to see that a new way of talking about "responsible capitalism" might at least be possible.