Where was the passion?

I recently had the privilege to be invited to speak at a conference on Corporate Social Responsibility and Sustainability with Jem Bendell and Marco Bevolo. The event was being held by a number of different MBA schools from around the world and boasted some top speakers working in the field. I was excited.

Here was a chance to not only speak alongside established practitioners and thinkers, but to be in an environment buzzing with the change leaders of tomorrow; Graduates filled with boundless enthusiasm, perceptive visions, and genuine concern about society and the environment.

And yet I can’t help but walk away from it having felt not only a little disappointed, but worse angry about our direction for tomorrow. Not so much from the quality of the speakers or the organisation of the event itself; but rather bowled over by the mindless acceptance and utter lack of passion present at the event.

I was looking forward to insights about problems faced in trying to make Social Responsibility a priority and a lively debate about the issues and how best to tackle them. I wanted to walk away feeling challenged, having had my thinking notched up a few levels and expanded with a new found ability to look at problems while dreaming up creative solutions. Not placid agreement and a let’s all sit around the fire and sing Kumbaya feeling. Where was the energy and belief?

For many of the speakers, as talented and knowledgeable as they were, it seemed the conference offered nothing more than a vessel for them to promote and dare I say even greenwash their companies to the polite and tacit approval of the audience. Are these students not supposed to be the policy makers and thinkers of tomorrow? Did nobody feel the need to question and challenge what was being said?

One speaker talked about the five pillars of business and how really there was actually a sixth called CSR. Am I alone in thinking that, although he talked the talk, that he didn’t really understand or even believed in it? Social Responsibility is not something that can be used to prop up a falling structure. How can feelings of responsibility and care permeate a company’s beliefs and hence steer decisions if it isn’t the very foundation upon which those pillars are all standing? It’s not about top down or bottom up or even sideways integrations of policy. It is about total holistic integration of policy – about belief in what you are doing and why you are doing it. It is not about ticking boxes so that you can give yourself a self-congratulatory pat on the back about all the world saving changes you are doing.

Nor did I understand why everyone was so happy to mainly hear about the pressing need of CSR when surely our point in attending was because not only do we already knew that but because we fully embrace it. Our point of being there was not to be convinced but rather challenged with new thought directions and to be given the opportunity to discuss issues of implementation.

Those in attendance are supposed to be the bright minds of our Sustainable Future. Where was the debate? The passion? I expected to see people standing up to challenge the way we do business; pushing society to do better and try harder. Is that too much to expect from this supposed elite crop?

I only ask that if this is the future of Social Responsibility, then what are we creating and what hope is there for tomorrow?