Professor Carol Adams (Professor, Durham University, UK)

Strategy and reporting on societal impact and the Sustainable Development Goals: companies and investors

Corporate annual reports are an important form of communication addressing investors, employees and other stakeholders.  When combined with appropriate governance processes and oversight they can influence how organisations think and what they do.

In this context Carol will discuss approaches to developing strategy and corporate reporting on social impact, climate change risks and the Sustainable Development Goals.  She will consider the influence of long term investors such as pension funds in shifting capital towards addressing sustainable development issues through their communications with the companies they invest in.

Ms. Shuri Fukunaga (Managing Director, Chief Executive Officer, Japan Burson-Marsteller, Burson Cohn & Wolfe)

Role of Communications in Business & Society: Making Sure a Corporate Mission is Pertinent to Society’s Needs

Different people have characterized public relations in many ways. But for those advising corporations in the field of communications, it is important to own with universal clarity what this discipline is and what role it serves. Perhaps the best way is to chisel off public relations’ layers of hardened assumptions to derive as its core, its simplest definition.

Corporate communications is built on the premise that business organizations are integral members of society. A corporation comprises of employees and customers; it affects the communities where its people live and work. A corporation has plants and facilities; through an intricate supply chain, its survives in an ecosystem that is vital and sustainable. A company’s far-flung functions are intertwined, with repercussions on partners, suppliers and peers. And not only is such impact confined within the borders of a company’s home market, but extends also across multiple markets.

Public relations – specifically corporate communications – supports corporations in their endeavors to gain clarity in their respective raison d’etre and align internal behavior to the mandate. Corporations also need the public’s trust and confidence and so public relations gains an external focus to communicate a company’s intentions and progress to make true on its promises.

A key ingredient in such communications is the establishment of pertinence to those we are communicating to: How is the company’s intentions pertinent to the lives it touches and in addressing the urgent needs and concerns of society?