Christel K. Stoklund

Christel K. Stoklund is our Head of Research and a market research professional. She will share with you new and exiting insights from Global Trends research. Previously Christel has held a senior position with The Nielsen Company, as well as consulting and teaching positions. She holds a Masters degree in Strategy and Organization from The Aarhus School of Business in Denmark. Christel is currently located in the U.S.

Driving change through social innovation: A conversation with Stefan Crets, Executive Director of CSR Europe
2nd April 2013 by in Innovation and Growth
Driving change through social innovation: A conversation with Stefan Crets, Executive Director of CSR Europe

 

 

March 2013

Before Stefan Crets became Executive Director of CSR Europe in 2011 he was a corporate social responsibility leader at Toyota Motor Europe. Now he is the Executive Director of the number one European business network for corporate social responsibility (CSR). Around 70 multinational corporations and 36 national partner organizations are part of CSR Europe. In total, the network reaches out to over 5,000 companies throughout Europe. CSR Europe launched the Enterprise 2020 initiative with emphasis on social innovation as a driver of corporate social responsibility.

Global Trends: How have perspectives on CSR changed in the last 10 to 15 years?

For a long time, CSR in Europe was primarily about how to manage the impact of your business: environmental impact, social impact, governmental impact. All in all it was fairly compliance driven in the sense of meeting certain standards. Usually companies saw CSR as a separate activity, not as part of their core business, but rather as a part of communications and public affairs.

It was only in 2005/2006 that perspectives started changing. Now we see an evolution in most leading companies, where CSR is becoming part of a more integrated management approach. For example the move from public affairs to corporate or strategic planning divisions means that you link managing impact to business management, including R&D, HR, production, marketing, sales and so on.

There is another, more recent evolution: if you really want to contribute to sustainability issues and to strengthen your business, it becomes more about social innovation. It’s about which products and services you can offer that contribute to sustainability issues on local, regional or even global levels. For example, the hybrid engine is a highly social innovation: it lowers the environmental impact for society while at the same time offering growth potential to the company. These kinds of innovations set future trends.

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GT Briefing March 2013: Cyberspace – Empowered or vulnerable?
5th March 2013 by in Monthly Briefings
GT Briefing March 2013: Cyberspace – Empowered or vulnerable?

GT BRIEFING: March 2013 -- Cyberspace – Empowered or vulnerable?

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March 2013:

Cyberspace is the world’s newest toy. It’s a playground where almost everything is possible. The upside: It is a free-for-all world that offers the opportunity to empower more people and enrich more societies that ever before. The downside: As we transform our physical and tangible world into this digital and intangible universe we expose ourselves (and our personal information and behaviors) in new ways, leaving us more vulnerable. We are increasingly building our lives around wired or wireless networks making it possibly to live our lives in real-time, 24/7. The shift is not just in our personal lives. Businesses are becoming more and more networked and dependent on cyberspace and technology. So too are nations. The time of the Cold War with superpowers constantly on alert and building physical presence everywhere is long gone, with technology increasingly coming to the fore, for example remote-controlled drones.

For many years we have felt reasonably safe on our new playground. However, as an exploding amount of information moves into and is stored in the digital world, cyberspace is becoming the new frontline for security. A new kind of warfare is emerging with increasing numbers of targeted and malicious cyber attacks shaking up governments, businesses and consumers around the world. Knowledge and information is a source of competitive advantage, for organizations, nations and individuals. But it’s also a growing challenge to retain control as mobility and the democratization of everything (commerce, politics, and societies) increases. Cyberspace is here to stay and we want our digital freedom. But how do we keep ourselves safe once we have it? The costs are rising, not only in terms of deploying protective systems and approaches, but in the rising tide of litigation, policies and regulation that could potentially transform our world into a “big brother” society in the quest to fight these new types of security threats. Are you ready to defend your business and your personal information?

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