Waltzing with the Raptors Book

Corporate responsibility makes for good business. And good business, says PricewaterhouseCoopers partner Glen Peters, is the cornerstone of a successful community, whether local or global. Besides, who wants to work for a corrupt company which treats its people and environment with little or no respect? However, it's often easy to get distracted by business imperatives such as sales targets, objectives and deadlines. And if your corporate responsibility is not watertight, you're laying yourself open to the constant threat of the activist--in Peters' analogy, the vicious velociraptors of the Jurassic Age. Remember the attack on McDonald's a few years ago by two unemployed youths, for example? To cope with the risk of the unexpected, Peters explores the concept of Reputation Assurance, a framework he has developed with colleagues to help businesses stick to the straight and narrow. For global companies, Reputation Assurance provides "a consistent format for reporting conformance with values and principles". "Waltzing" with the raptors involves listening to the music--or the employees, customers, partners, shareholders and society that make up a business community--rather than relying solely on the opinions of the board or the R&D department. It's a complex theory and as such, Waltzing with the Raptors, is not light reading. But if it's worth avoiding such near-fatal blows to your company's reputation as when Coca-Cola attempted to introduce New Coke or when Exxon refused to accept full blame for the Exxon Valdez disaster, it's worth applying a system to measure and monitor your social accountability. Although American in style and format (down to the last color, mom and shopping mall), Peters (who lives in London) uses many local examples to highlight his points, such as the great British Pension Scandal. The first part of his book looks at handling the various stakeholders while the second half is a practical guide to applying Reputation Assurance to your own business. An important guide for developing an essential asset to any business. --Carey GreenRead More