Corporate Social Responsibility
Strategies to Create Business and Social Value
Designed to help senior executives integrate social responsibility with corporate business strategy, Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) explores the opportunities and challenges related to investment decisions. You will learn how to improve economic performance while contributing to society.
What You Can Expect
This executive education program explores both current and next-generation models of corporate social responsibility. You will discover how to align corporate culture with social responsibility strategies and measure their impact on the organization—and on the bottom line.
Your Course of Study
By examining the link between society and the organization, the program addresses the challenge of integrating social values and corporate values. The curriculum emphasizes how to negotiate terms of investment, manage risk and decision making, and measure performance.
Who Is Right for the Program
The program is for senior executives in charge of socially responsible corporate programs or who oversee areas such as public affairs, philanthropy, environmental health and safety, or community affairs. Senior corporate officers with P&L responsibilities that include CSR-related dimensions may also apply.
| Fee: | $6,000 |
The program fee covers tuition, books, case materials, accommodations, and most meals.
Programs, dates, fees, and faculty are subject to change.
In accordance with Harvard University policy, Harvard Business School does not discriminate against any person on the basis of race, color, sex or sexual orientation, gender identity, religion, age, national or ethnic origin, political beliefs, veteran status, or disability in admission to, access to, treatment in, or employment in its programs and activities.
What You Can Expect
Through an in-depth exploration of the dilemmas, challenges, and complexities inherent to current models of corporate social responsibility, the program will push the frontiers of the field and bring into focus the next generation of issues facing practitioners. You will learn how to:
- Understand the effects of strategic corporate social responsibility—its benefits and its costs
- Drive corporate social responsibility throughout the organization, integrating it with corporate strategy, decision making, and risk assessment
- Realign corporate culture with corporate social responsibility strategies
- Understand the political context of operations, and successfully interact and communicate with governments, NGOs, and key stakeholders
- Ensure that systems are in place for both avoiding potential damaging events and mitigating the effects of a crisis after it has occurred
- Identify and explore the most critical emerging issues facing the field of corporate social responsibility in the next decade
How Will My Organization Benefit?
Executive Education programs at Harvard Business School are a significant investment for both you and your organization. Going far beyond the basic transmission of skills and theories, each program provides applicable lessons in the classroom that can be implemented successfully within your organization. You will acquire a fresh perspective on global business from our groundbreaking curriculum, world-renowned faculty, and an accomplished group of elite peers from around the world.
"The program provides a useful cross-sectional view of corporate social responsibility as both an emerging business priority and a development opportunity. Many industries are being forced to address the topic of corporate social responsibility for the first time, which is resulting in a host of innovative approaches that are highly relevant to companies new to this arena as well as those experienced in it. The program explores these approaches, providing knowledge and insights essential to driving socially responsible agendas forward within an organization."
James Villeneuve [Vice President of Global Corporate Affairs], InBev, Brussels
Your Course of Study
Through case analyses, faculty lectures, classroom exercises, small group discussions, and exposure to the latest research, HBS faculty help senior executives to develop and manage strategic corporate social responsibility initiatives that integrate with their business practices and produce measurable results. In addition, you will have numerous opportunities to learn from the varied experiences and global perspectives of your peers. Core topics include:
Managing for Social and Firm Values
- Making the business case by calculating benefits and costs
- Recognizing the links between the welfare of society and that of the organization
- Proactively examining opportunities designed to benefit the organization and the community
- Integrating corporate social responsibility best practices into key business areas
- Identifying and managing the primary positive as well as negative impacts
Driving Corporate Social Responsibility Throughout the Organization
- Aligning corporate social responsibility strategies and goals with organizational goals
- Embedding corporate social responsibility within the company culture for long-term sustainability
- Integrating corporate social responsibility metrics into the company's general performance management systems
- Effectively disseminating information on corporate social responsibility policies internally
- Providing continual company-wide visibility of the individual and departmental impacts from socially responsible practices
- Communicating the impact of corporate social responsibility to capital markets, shareholders, and other stakeholders
Managing Risk and Decision Making
- Evaluating complex environments and potential impacts before making capital investment or other business decisions
- Interacting successfully with governments, NGOs, and stakeholders
- Decentralizing to avoid a one-size-fits-all approach across the organization
- Identifying vulnerabilities and predicting possible pitfalls
- Developing preparation and prevention processes for handling crisis scenarios
- Integrating corporate social responsibility initiatives in vendor and supplier agreements
"I wanted to get acquainted with the North American model of corporate social responsibility, which is quite different from the European one. The program helped me to see the importance of networking and partnering with organizations—not only with NGOs, but also with consumer organizations, unions, and others. I now have a deeper understanding of what defines real leadership. The program was truly 'mind opening.'"
Esther Trujillo [CSR Manager], Telefonica, Spain
Who Is Right for the Program
CSR is designed for senior executives in charge of socially responsible corporate programs or who oversee areas such as public affairs, philanthropy, environmental health and safety, or community affairs. The program also benefits senior corporate officers with P&L responsibilities, who manage CSR-related dimensions as a part of their core operations. Participants represent a variety of industries with differing sizes and structures, including retail, financial services, and manufacturing. Given the program's corporate perspective, a limited number of senior nonprofit executives who oversee large-scale, strategic corporate partnerships will be considered for admission, either individually or as part of a corporate non-profit team.
Typical participant titles may include, but are not limited to:
- CEO/Executive director
- Senior vice president
- Vice president of corporate and community relations
- Vice president of corporate social responsibility
- Vice president of development
- Vice president of environmental health and safety
- Director of corporate social responsibility
- Director of corporate/community relations
This program is not targeted to management support organizations or consulting firms.
Visit the admissions section for details about our application process.
Past Participants Represented:
| Industries | Nationalities | ||||
| 3% | Chem/Pharm/Bio | 4% | Africa | ||
| 4% | Communications | 4% | Asia | ||
| 13% | Consumer Products | 3% | Australia/NZ | ||
| 16% | Financial | 28% | Europe | ||
| 2% | High Technology | 15% | Latin America | ||
| 8% | Manufacturing | 3% | Middle East | ||
| 7% | Nonprofit | 43% | North America | ||
| 3% | Other | ||||
| 7% | Other Services | ||||
| 9% | Professional Services | ||||
| 10% | Raw Materials/Energy | ||||
| 3% | Real Estate/Construction | ||||
| 3% | Retail Services | ||||
| 12% | Utilities/Telecommunications | ||||
"This program provided a lifetime's worth of experience in one week. The case studies were priceless. The faculty demonstrated cutting-edge thinking and practical experience each day. I left with a wider perspective than I came with and a better understanding of the strategic framework necessary to succeed in this key dimension of corporate performance."
Richard Woods [Senior Vice President], Capital One Financial Corporation, U.S.
Meet the Program Faculty
Like all Harvard Business School Executive Education programs, Corporate Social Responsibility is developed and taught by a core faculty of HBS professors. Our faculty members are widely recognized as skilled educators, groundbreaking researchers, and award-winning authors.
Through publishing, consulting, and teaching, they leverage their business expertise and field-based research to create new knowledge and enduring concepts that shape the practice of management. The result is a teaching team that exposes participants to multiple perspectives, challenging their thinking and encouraging new practices that result in superior business leadership. For more detailed biographies, click on each faculty name.
Rosabeth Moss Kanter, Ernest L. Arbuckle Professor of Business Administration. Member of the General Management Unit.
Herman B. "Dutch" Leonard, Eliot I. Snider and Family Professor of Business Administration, Harvard Business School. George F. Baker, Jr. Professor of Public Sector Management, Harvard Kennedy School. Member of the General Management Unit; faculty cochair of the HBS Social Enterprise Initiative; faculty chair of "Strategic Perspectives in Nonprofit Management" and "Governing for Nonprofit Excellence: Critical Issues for Board Leadership."
Joshua D. Margolis, Associate Professor of Business Administration. Member of the Organizational Behavior Unit.
Jane Nelson, Senior Fellow. Director of the Corporate Social Responsibility Initiative, Mossavar-Rahmani Center for Business and Government, Harvard Kennedy School.
V. Kasturi Rangan, Malcolm P. McNair Professor of Marketing. Director of Research; member of the Marketing Unit; cochair of the Social Enterprise Initiative; and faculty chair of "Corporate Social Responsibility: Strategies to Create Business and Social Value."