James Drogan

Since the middle of the first decade of this millennium I have used the graphic to the left -- the issue stack -- to represent my view of what is critical for the well-being of a society. 

I was reminded of this by another of Hans Rosling's magnificent dynamic displays of data, 200 Countries and 200 Years in 4 Minutes.  In particular, I was drawn to the implied importance of health as a precursor to economic well-being.

I have also started my last seminar in the MA in Diplomacy program at Norwich University, Global Corporate Diplomacy.I've been introduced to Steger, U. (2003). Corporate Diplomacy. Chichester, England: Wiley.  I'm with Steger in that the need is achieve a balance between social, environmental, and economic needs.  That is to say that the issue stack needs to be modified to include these three needs (what Steger calls the new trinity).

I undertook to examine the environmental needs beginning in 2002 when I was teaching international logistics at the graduate level at Baruch.  The class and I decided we need to embellish the concept of the balanced scorecard (Kaplan, R., & Norton, D. (1992). The Balanced Scorecard - Measures That Drive Performance. Harvard Business Review,January-February 1992, 71-79.) to include attention to the environment.  The result is indicated in the following graphic (click on the thumbnail to see a larger image).

What my students and I added has now blossomed in corporate social responsibility (CSR).  See Responsibility at IBM for what I consider to be an excellent example of CSR (fair disclosure; I worked for IBM for 36 years).

Of course the movement towards CSR, like the movement towards Sarbanes-Oxley (SOX), adds additional complexity and cost to the business system.  However, the process of adding this additional complexity has the potential for indicating opportunities for improving business performance that might otherwise be missed.  However, if we let our vision be clouded by the extra complexity and cost we may miss the opportunities.