Page 199 - Performance Leadership

188 • Part III Principles from the Values and Social Dimensions

special sale-and-leaseback constructions for glasshouse horticulture and
hog farming, and it offers special long-term credit to farmers.
One of Rabobank’s newer activities involves supplying microfi-
nancing to entrepreneurs in disadvantaged urban areas. It provides
microcredits of between 5,000 and 25,000 euros to largely ethnic
minority entrepreneurs who are sidelined from traditional financing.
Corporate social responsibility is so connected to the business model
that it is hard to distinguish CSR from the products the bank offers and
how they are marketed. For instance, in its mortgage business, it offers
customers a discount of a full percentage point on the interest charged
for home renovations that reduce energy consumption. For Rabobank,
CSR is about competitive differentiation and making a profit.

Call to Action

Even if you believe corporate social responsibility is all just PR and
marketing, it still affects external perception. The social dimension is
a key component in aligning the external perception and the self of the
organization. In other words, the social dimension helps managing the
difference between corporate image and corporate identity. An orga-
nization’s environment has an impact on an organization’s behavior.
People, and consequently organizations, learn from feedback from the
environment. Over time we find out which behaviors are desirable and
rewarded, or undesirable and punished.
However, you need to organize the alignment of CSR. The finance
department in particular plays an important part in this alignment.
Although the finance department is traditionally not the source of
intangible and nonfinancial matters, it plays a crucial role in organiz-
ing sustainability reporting. Data has to be collected each period, aggre-
gated according to rules, and audited to support analysis and scenario
planning. Overall, due to its experience with complex processes of
audited external reporting, the finance department is a perfect place to
bring financial reporting together with CSR.
The social dimension is not about CSR per se, it is about stakeholder
alignment in general. Ask yourself which current strategies truly add
value to your stakeholders. Contrast this to the strategies where you
extract value from the stakeholder, only to benefit yourself. Adding