Delivering Real Business Value through CSR in China
October 7th 2004

A one-day post-conference workshop facilitated by Sustainable Value Partners

For many companies, China represents enormous potential, both as a source of low-cost supply and as a source of market expansion. However, the complexities of the Chinese social and political landscape and increasing societal expectations around corporate responsibility for environmental protection, human rights and worker safety present significant hidden risks to any investment in China.

In many organizations, these societal issues – issues of stakeholder value – are delegated to CSR specialists and treated as peripheral to the core business. Solutions are at best “bolted on” to core business processes rather than being fully integrated. Such an approach is likely to be primarily focused on legal compliance and risk management and may miss the potential for creating real business value through beyond-compliance efforts.

CSR professionals face the daunting task of gaining and sustaining line management attention and resources for addressing these issues. Success requires an approach that applies real business discipline to stakeholder value issues, and makes crystal clear the linkage from stakeholder issues and interests to shareholder value creation.

Who Should Attend

CSR practitioners, line managers, and others who want to understand and take a business-value centered approach to stakeholder considerations in China.

Benefits for Workshop Participants

This full-day workshop will provide practical tools and techniques that can help participants to:

• Integrate CSR issues and actions into strategic and operational decision making


• Apply business discipline to societal issues


• Demonstrate the link between beyond-compliance CSR efforts and shareholder value


• Build strong working partnerships with line management on CSR issues


• Embed CSR perspectives into core business processes


• Explore the potential to create value through CSR at all levels of focus: risk management, process improvement, product design, market growth, brand, and strategic context.

Key Features of the Workshop

This workshop provides an opportunity to roll up your sleeves and work with a small group of peers to apply ideas gathered during the conference using case study situations (selected by the participants from their own experiences).

The workshop will help you to:

• Identify which stakeholders are important


• Understand their issues and interests


• Identify business risks and opportunities hidden in stakeholder issues


• Translate them into actions that create real business value

Workshop Description

The workshop is designed to give participants a chance to integrate the knowledge gained from the conference in a highly interactive setting focused on applying the knowledge to real-life cases. The workshop agenda is built around a proven process for quickly identifying the business risks and opportunities hidden in stakeholder issues and translating them into actions that create real business value – increasing customer preference for a new product, beating competitors into new markets, driving cost down in low-margin businesses, and changing the rules of the game to build lasting competitive advantage. This workshop process has delivered breakthrough insight for dozens of companies in a variety of industries.

The format is 80% experiential, with small groups focusing on a project, line of business or operational area from participants’ own case situations. Teams will identify key stakeholder issues and interests, define value created and destroyed for the stakeholders, identify the business risks and opportunities hidden in the stakeholder issues, develop an action plan, and frame a compelling business case based on value creation. Participants will receive a workbook with a process and tools for managing stakeholder value with discipline, and a copy of the article “Expanding the Value Horizon: Stakeholders as Source of Competitive Advantage.”

About Sustainable Value Partners

Sustainable Value Partners (SVP) is an international consulting firm based in Washington DC with a focus on helping companies create sustainable value – value that is positive for shareholders and stakeholders. SVP was founded by Chris Laszlo, Dave Sherman and John Whalen, who collectively have more than 60 years of experience creating business value for clients in strategy and operations. SVP uses this expertise to frame CSR issues in terms that are meaningful to CEOs and line managers. SVP helps CSR specialists get traction with line management and deliver results that are meaningful to the core business. The SVP founders have experience on the ground in six continents across a variety of industry sectors; this experience includes joint venture and supply chain support in China. SVP conducts a variety of workshops some through the Executive Education program at the INSEAD business school in France. These workshops have been attended by executives from around the world. The workshop approach is based on the framework presented in Chris Laszlo’s book The Sustainable Company (Island Press, 2003).