What does it really mean for companies to have a social impact?

On 1st of October, our CEO, Elena Grigoras, was invited at the TVR studio, to speak about the Corporate Social Responsibility, along with other two guests.

Thanks to this invitation, Travod had the honor to explore more of what the real, human CSR is.

Traditionally, corporate social impact has focused largely on activities such as donations, sponsorships, community relations, and volunteerism, abusively using these for Marketing and Profit maximization purposes. This is not CSR, this is philanthropy which is a small component of CSR. Still, we do it with gratitude and love, as often as we have an opportunity to! Why? Because Moldova still lives at the bottom level of the Maslow pyramid.

When you have millennials and Gen Z at the wheel of your business, the corporate leadership is forced to build the social impact in’ to their company’s strategy and manage the social impact as a portfolio. And the social decision once taken, becomes irreversible.

Savvy CSR companies will break out of the short-term donations box and think forward on how they can influence the construction of a better society, one from which they extract social resources every day and put something back so that they can extract better, long-lasting resources tomorrow. What do social resources mean - it is the employees, leadership you look to recruit, their vision, their ambition, the values and principles that define them, the consumers of your product or services, their taste and preferences, the quality sustainable supply chain, public governance and much more.

The sustainable, social-oriented CSR will mean that corporate leadership will create first outstanding working conditions, transparent and ethical business, will adhere to standards that surpass the average standards per economy, will respect and care for the environment, will share the profits, cultivate strong social principles and treat every aspect of the society with diligent respect and consideration - starting with their business home first.

Internally motivated individuals focused on social impact will greatly extend the reach of CSR outside the organization walls, inspire others and influence the forward-thinking of the whole society.

We live with the hope that in 5-10 years, businesses in Moldova will not need to provide food and clothes to people in need, hoping that they won’t exist anymore, hoping that by then they can get educated, get a job, healthily feed their families and equally contribute to social and economic development, so that we, businesses can direct our CSR focus to museums, arts, research and other important aspects of social life, somewhere at the top of the Maslow pyramid.

You can watch the live version on this link