CSR for CFO's

[Intel_Blog_Admin]

It's been pretty clear to me that the concept of CSR as a business innovation tool and differentiator among companies is important to more c-suite executives than just the CEO. I've had some conversations over the past year with everyone from the chairman to CIO, CMO, COO and CFOs of either my company or other companies about CSR as a business strategy.

Next week, I'm headed to Houston to participate and speak at the CFO Executive Summit put on by a company called Evanta. The conference and agenda is developed by CFOs for CFOs and is part of a regional network of similar events.

I'm actually looking forward to learning as much as sharing in this meeting. I've sensed that executives up and down the corporate hierarchy, regardless of region or geography are looking for the best ways to make CSR or Sustainability fit within their own organizations. And in my experience, the CFO is applying the most "no-nonsense" approach to the CSR business case of all the c-suite positions. They aren't looking for the Al Gore business case - they are looking for the long-term investor business case.

I guarantee that you will be seeing more and more CFOs talking about the value that a CSR decision lens brings to their stockholders and long-term market capitalization in the next few years.