Business and Corporate Responsibility

Corporate responsibility remains a strange phenomenon for the majority of Georgian businesses, while the practice proves that investing in corporate responsibility projects brings benefits to businesses themselves, Salome Zurabishvili, Executive Director for Civil Development Agency (CIDA) non governmental organization told BusinessPartner TV, based on corporate responsibility research report prepared for the first time in Georgia by the consulting company Inova.

Inova has inquired 1,053 businesses. The report has revealed that only 26% of the relevant companies take into account corporate responsibility principles in their strategy. 

‘Such a large-scale report was prepared for the first time in Georgia, and it covers various areas of corporate responsibility. The objective of the research was to clarify what efforts the business sector takes in this respect, and whether they realize the importance of corporate responsibility, and what plans they have in this regard. Regretfully, the majority of businesses cannot realize the benefits coming from corporate responsibility. The research process revealed that companies had a better understanding of charity, sponsorship projects, field development projects; however, companies frequently ignore such issues as human rights, environmental protection, labor rights standards, fighting corruption. The point is that companies do not think these activities represent corporate responsibility, and they do not take steps in this direction. They think investing in charity and sponsorship projects are more important, and PR grows the company’s profits, but the reality is different. Naturally, placing focus on corporate responsibility and making investments in this segment is profitable for the company itself,`` Zurabishvili noted. 

The research has also shown that, frequently, companies do not employ a corporate responsibility secretary, and their necessary functions are integrated into HR management department or a PR department, she added. 

Natia Ghviniashvili, a researcher for the Inova consulting company, pointed out that major business sector demonstrates a better understanding of corporate responsibility compared to small businesses. Despite only a weak knowledge of the corporate responsibility in the Georgian private sector, the research results should not be appraised entirely negatively, because this is the first serious research in the field, and the process has not shown that the research subject’s development dynamics.

“We have an absolutely different picture in the case of small and major business companies, and this is the expected reality. We have a better situation in the major business sector. Even this  26% places focus on corporate responsibility in their development strategy is quite a good figure. We should not consider these indicators as entirely good or bad, because we should perceive the entire situation, dynamically. Regretfully, similar research projects have not so far been conducted,  and we do not have materials to make a comparison. However, if this 26% grows to 30% or 35%, we will have a positive trend in this field. Therefore, we should not perceive the current picture as a black and white reality”, Ghviniashvili said.