Tag: corporate responsibility

Trends & Concepts

Can IBM continue to support blatant sexual discrimination?

Ginni Rometty, CEO, IBM
I’ve always admired IBM’s achievements in the diversity and equality arena.

Some of their milestones down through the years include:

  • In 1914, 76 years before the US Disabilities Act, IBM hired its first disabled employee.
  • In 1942 IBM launched a disabled employee training program.
  • In 1943 Ruth Leach Amonette was elected IBM’s first female Vice President.
  • In 1946 IBM hired T.J. Laster, their first black sales representative, 18 years before the Civil Rights Act of 1964.
  • In 1953 IBM chairman Thomas Watson issued the company’s first Equal Opportunity Policy letter.
  • And in 2011, IBM announced that Ginni Rometty would take over as President and CEO – the first female CEO in the history of the company.

Consequently, I was stunned to read at the weekend that IBM’s CEO was snubbed by the organisers of the US Open at Augusta simply because she is a woman, and despite this IBM continued to sponsor the event!

A bit of background – the Augusta National Golf Club is a private club, so it can set its own rules. Its rules have been notoriously discriminatory through the years – it didn’t admit black members until 1990, until recently it had a policy requiring all caddies to be black, and it continues to refuse women membership.

The fact that it refuses to allow female membership is now sharply in focus because the club has traditionally invited the CEO’s of the main sponsors of the US Masters to become members. By the end of this year’s tournament, despite IBM’s significant sponsorship, Ms Rometty had not been invited to become a member, because of her gender.

Now Ms Rometty is reportedly not a frequent golfer, so while it may not be a devastating blow to her game, it is a slap in the face that she wasn’t asked to be a member when her predecessors at IBM were. As were the CEO’s of the two other Masters sponsors (AT&T and Exxon Mobil).

IBM’s involvement with the event goes back many years and they are tied into it deeply not just financially but also at a technological level. According to Bloomberg

IBM is featured in the tournament’s TV commercials and runs its website, mobile-phone applications and media-center technology. Palmisano serves on Augusta’s technology tournament committee. He remains IBM’s chairman — a role Rometty is likely also to assume upon his retirement

Augusta may need IBM more than IBM needs the Masters…

Trends & Concepts

Sustainability reporting in tech companies – the hardware vs software divide

Nature's fragility
Photo credit Koshyk

I wrote (and subsequently updated) a post a few weeks ago reviewing the Sustainability Reports of various companies in the technology space.

I updated the review again this afternoon (see the updated review below) with the 2009 reports from IBM, Adobe and SAS.

Something which struck me previously, and which hasn’t changed with the new rankings, is the yawning chasm in attitudes to sustainability reporting between hardware versus software companies.

Obviously this divide has a lot to do with risk – hardware companies who have significant manufacturing facilities, with massively complex supply chains, often containing toxic substances have far more exposure to risk than software companies.

This is reflected in the table below where eight of the top ten listings are hardware companies.

On the other hand, the bottom of the table is all software companies (with the exception of Apple – because they refuse to produce a sustainability report!).

The real odd one out though is the leader, SAP. Their sustainability reporting is out on its own. It is way ahead of any other organisation I have come across and this despite the fact that they are a software company!

One factor may be that they have a significantly European representation in senior management – they have a very different thought process when it comes to sustainability. SAP say they want to be an exemplar and an enabler – and, so far, they seem to be delivering on that.

None of the other software companies seem to take sustainability reporting anywhere nearly as seriously as the hardware companies.

Why do you think that is?

Business, Featured Posts

Adobe seems to have no commitment whatsoever to Sustainability

Adobe
Photo credit midiman

I was extremely lucky to be given a tour of Adobe’s triple platinum LEED certified HQ in Palo Alto last year. I video’d highlights of the tour and posted them here. At the time I was extremely impressed with Adobe’s sustainability initiatives.

However, since then I have been more and more convinced that the building is a one-off and that Adobe has no commitment whatsoever, to Sustainability.

Why do I say this?

  1. Adobe’s 2009 CSR report, while slightly better than its 2008 report, it is still a triumph of style over content. There is no adherence to GRI reporting standards, no external audit and no mention of targets set or previous targets reached
  2. No-where on the Adobe site or in its CSR reports (that I could find) does it mention who in the organisation has responsibility for Sustainability. If no-one has overall responsibility for it, then we shouldn’t be surprised if it doesn’t get done
  3. Adobe’s LiveCycle Enterprise Suite gets a passing mention in the 2009 CSR report when it says:
Trends & Concepts

Global telco’s sustainability reports reviewed

Nature's fragility
Photo credit WTL photos

When I published my review of tech company sustainability reports a couple of weeks back, it was suggested that I should add in telco’s as well. Instead, for clarity, I decided to publish a separate review of telco sustainability reports here.

Company Latest Report Format Remarks External Audit GRI Index CEO involved
BT 2009 Online and PDF Granular links and multiple PDF download options Yes Yes – A+ Rated Yes
Telefonica 2009 PDF Comprehensive document with lots of charts and numbers (Spanish only) Yes Yes – A+ Rated President
T-Mobile 2009-10 PDF In an otherwise good report, it was disappointing to see the Chairman’s involvement was a cut & paste of an online discussion he had about sustainability on another site as opposed to something specific to the report. Also, the fact that it contained a photo of the Chair using bottled waste doesn’t speak well for his commitment to sustainability Limited Yes – A+ Rated Chairman – kind of!
Swisscom 2009 Website Very confusing layout. Very difficult to find any meaningful information No Yes – A Rated No
Vodafone 2009 PDF Very comprehensive PDF only report Yes Yes – B+ Rated Yes
Orange 2009 PDF Very comprehensive PDF only report Yes Yes – B+ Rated Yes
China Mobile 2009 PDF China Mobile is the 1st mainland Chinese co. listed on the Dow Jones Sustainability Indexes and the thoroughness of this report is a testament to that (in English) No Yes Yes
Telecom Italia 2009 PDF Excellent report with the information well presented and hugely transparent (wrt objectives achieved, objectives missed and targets) Yes Yes Yes
Verizon 2009-10 PDF Good supporting website and report but let down by lack of GRI adherence and no external auditing No No Yes
SK Telecom 2008 PDF Download procedure for PDF is not straightforward and commitment to produce 2009 report by May 2010 has not been met. Also the report is short on numbers and more especially targets. Yes Yes – B+ Rated Yes
AT&T 2008 PDF with options to download individual sections Nicely laid out with goals, numbers and pretty pictures! A very good report – a shame it was only to GRI level C and not externally assured. No Yes C Rated Yes
Telenor No date Online Telenor have a CR section on their site. This section is light on numbers, specifics and targets. No No No
3 (owned by Hutchinson Whampoa) n/a n/a No Environmental or Sustainability site I could find n/a n/a n/a

Some points to note from the review: