The Top 10 Questions for Socially Responsible LeadersWritten by Gala Gorman
The assets of your business traditionally include property, plant, equipment, and your customer base. Progressive organizations understand that business assets also include their good reputation, responsiveness to change, ability to conduct a constructive dialogue with stakeholders, ability to take advantage of networked resources, and a host of other non-traditional assets. Companies are increasingly adopting socially responsible business practices based on sustainable development to ensure efficiency, stimulate innovation, and create top-line growth. This “new” approach to business must reach into every area of organization to ensure that goals and objectives are in alignment with mission. To begin discovery process, ask yourself these questions:Leadership 1.Is organization managed with an emphasis on being socially progressive? Today's progressive organization understands what it means to be socially responsible and how that contributes to welfare of organization. Leadership must prioritize values and initiatives and incorporate them into agenda in a way that is in harmony with overall objectives of organization. At this point, this "new" agenda must be communicated so that all concerned can progress it forward. 2.Does organization operate using a cost vs. benefit approach taking into consideration intrinsic and consequential costs/benefits? Some may think that emphasizing social responsibility will be a financial drain on organization too great to overcome. If that were case, there would be no case for this new approach to management. Costs must be weighed against benefits – not just obvious costs or benefits. Benefits include increased productivity, customer loyalty, innovation, and countless others. 3.Are finances of operation managed to ensure long-term prosperity for all concerned? Risk is inherent in business world. A business must invest in itself and its future, evaluating risk of experimentation and development. Without continuing investment organization is sure to stagnate, with too much emphasis on growth and development there is an abundance of waste. The organization just can’t keep up. To establish long-term prosperity, financial plan must emphasize growth in a sustainable way. Branding 4.Are printed marketing materials and packaging designed to minimally impact environment? This is a great way to get process started. Evaluating how company presents itself in marketplace can provide immediate opportunities to progress social responsibility agenda. Making appropriate modifications to packaging is a quick way to gain some exposure and momentum. The entire life cycle of production materials and packaging should be considered and designs modified to minimize environmental impact. 5.How has product development served to foster innovation and take advantage of advanced technology? The progressive organization is continually improving its processes, systems, and designs. Competition is fast to respond, so there is no time to sit around and wait for next move. The services or products produced must always be ready to evolve to next level of usefulness. With an infrastructure that prioritizes creativity and innovation, company is always ahead of pack. 6.Does organization strive to get to know and understand its customers and their needs? The socially responsible organization recognizes that it must contribute to welfare of its customers and meet needs in a way that improves their lives. Sometimes this improvement is highly visible and other times you must stretch a bit to fully comprehend it. Either way, there should be identifiable positive results for customers choosing to make use of organization’s products or services.
| | DialResults and Datamanagement Services MergeWritten by Richard Logan
From: Richard Logan November 19, 2003 3:27 PMSubject: RE: Press Release http://www.dialresults.com DialResults, Inc. and Data Management Services http://www.data-man.com announce merger. DialResults, Inc., a leader in predictive dialer arena, announced today a merger with Data Management Services, a provider of custom software, database development as well as Microsoft® Products. MESA, ARIZONA – November 21, 2003 – DialResults, Inc., a leader in Predictive Dialing / Call Center industry, announced today merger with Data Management Services, who provides custom software and database development using Microsoft® technologies –.Net, SQL Server, ASP.Net, Visual Basic, and Access. They also provide Microsoft® Business Solutions Software. The merger will strengthen both companies’ customer service base as well as increase types of products they offer. While at same time, decrease overhead by combining resources and office space. “It’s not very often you come across two companies who’s core values, work ethic, integrity and energy are so amazingly compatible,” commented Dennis Robbins, DialResults’® President and CEO. “We are very excited about what this merger will mean to our customers as well as to our ability to reach other markets formerly out of realm of what we offered.” DialResults is a certified reseller of Dell® computers and Data Management Services is a certified Microsoft® reseller. They also provide Microsoft® Business Solutions – Solomon and Customer Relationship Management (CRM). With combination of these two resources this new collaboration will provide for a broad based coverage of what both companies’ customers look for when seeking hardware and software solutions.
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