Crown Worldwide: Integrating Corporate Social Responsibility in Business Case Solution And Analysis, HBR Case Study Solution & Analysis of Harvard Case Studies

Founded in the year 1965 by Jim Thompson, the Crown Worldwide Group ("Crown") started as a small moving company in Japan, transferring its headquarters to Hong Kong in the mid-1970s. Within 30 years, Crown had became a success that was credited primarily to the founder's insistence on high service quality and unwavering devotion to community development, the world's biggest privately held move and logistics business. With growing concern among customers about CSR, the firm understood that CSR must be integrated into its corporate strategy and day-to-day business operations to achieve sustainability for society and the company. In the year 2008, Crown appointed its first CSR manager, whose main task was to develop and implement a standardized global CSR strategy that would support Crown's environmental and community development initiatives.

Various CSR integration steps were taken, including stimulating employee volunteerism, developing global environmental standards, building CSR communication channels, developing a provider management system and conducting CSR measurement. In line with the aims of the UN Global Compact-a leadership initiative that guided participants in practicing responsible business-Crown would also release sustainability reports yearly. Although workers were encouraging of the firm's CSR efforts, the journey of becoming a well rounded corporate citizen is full of complexities and affects a wide range of stakeholders and multi-dimensional problems. Without a roadmap or framework, CSR integration efforts could be daunting, but inaction is no longer an alternative in light of increasing CSR expectations. What would be the essential success factors for the CSR integration of Crown?

PUBLICATION DATE: July 05, 2010 PRODUCT #: HKU891-PDF-ENG

This is just an excerpt. This case is about ORGANIZATIONAL DEVELOPMENT