Partner Article

Birmingham Businesses hear that ‘Who Cares Wins’

Businesses from Birmingham met last week to hear about the social impact of the new library in the city in a fascinating evening of talks, entitled ‘Who Cares Wins’ , to raise awareness of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and to understand how they can create and implement these policies in their own organisations.

The event held by the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA) along with the Centre for Innovation, Change and Renewal (CICR) at Aston Business School and RBS, gave attendees the chance to hear from a prominent line up of experts about how CSR can help businesses engage in wide social issues to make the greatest possible impact in their organisations and, in turn, society.

Brian Gambles from the new Birmingham Library, due to open this September, gave an exciting talk about the social impact of the library on the West Midlands, as an example of CSR in practice. He explained that it is part of a global development where libraries are being redesigned as new multimedia and multipurpose public spaces. It will have the capacity to renew public democracy, lifelong and intercultural learning, urban sustainability and local economic well being in Birmingham and the West Midlands.

Gabriela Butler ACMA, CGMA from CIMA who organized and chaired the event said “By embracing CSR policies businesses can make a difference to their employees, customers, community and environment. The development of the new Birmingham library is a vivid and up-to-the minute example of how that can work. It is important for Management Accountants to embrace and understand the importance of CSR as part of the range of skills they bring to businesses.”

Among the other speakers Dr Michael JR Butler, Director, Centre for Innovation, Change & Renewal (CICR) and Reader in transformational change at Aston Business School stressed that for businesses this is an opportunity for rethinking the purpose of organizations, yet currently CSR is not defined clearly which can lead to token behaviours and political correctness from businesses. In his refreshing and lively presentation, drawing from his research with public and private organizations, Michael gave examples of good practice case studies that through business engagement had improved performance and which have received national recognition from the prestigious CMI and ESRC.

Duncan Todd from RBS and James Donnan from National Express then both gave talks about the work of their companies demonstrating best practice in CSR by engagement in social issues in the West Midlands Community.

Former University of Birmingham student Yasmin Manzoor also talked to attendees about a report she had produced for her undergraduate studies about the importance of the link between employers and young people to help young people gain a better understanding of the workplace, in the context that Birmingham 20.5% of 18-24 year olds are claiming jobseekers allowance (BCC, 2013b).

John Gordon (attendee), an independent trainer commented “Businesses have to embed CSR values in all aspects of the organisation. This informative, relevant and timely joint CIMA, CICR and RBS event will ensure that some organisations move in the right direction sooner than their competitors.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by CIMA UK Regional News .