Doing Good By Doing Good: Why Creating Shared Value is the Key to Powering Business Growth and Innovation

Afterword Looking forward — what's on the horizon

The concept of corporate social responsibility has been around for decades; the term was first coined in 1953. The first company to publish a report on the work it was doing in this area was Ben and Jerry's in 1989. The real rise of CSR can be attributed to the response by corporations, in particular Shell, to anti-corporate activism. Initially, CSR focused on codes of conduct and business relating to care and respect for people and the environment. It was seen as mainly reactive — to mitigate poor corporate behaviour.

The changes we are seeing now involve business embracing the opportunities that are presented when addressing the needs of society. It is increasingly understood that ‘doing ...