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It’s a crucial question, one that so intrigued author Christine Arena that she set out to answer it by challenging the conventional wisdom and launching two of the most provocative studies ever conducted on the topic of corporate social responsibility (CSR). Five years of research, thousands of hours of team analysis and hundreds of in-depth interviews with corporate leaders, conscientious consumers, vigilant watchdogs and controversial whistleblowers, get to the heart of the matter.
The crux of her findings, and arguably the definitive business case for CSR, plays out in Arena’s books: The High-Purpose Company: The Truly Responsible (and Highly Profitable) Firms that are Changing Business Now (Collins, 2007), a Harvard Business Review Reading List selection, and Cause for Success: 10 Companies that Put Profits Second and Came in First (New World Library, 2004), a Nautilus Award-winner. Both books reframe an ongoing debate and separate winning from losing CSR approaches.
The bottom line? According to Arena, shareholder interests lead, not follow, great CSR strategy. Conversely, when CSR is approached merely as a peripheral form of philanthropy or marketing, then it’s neither authentic nor effective.
Christine Arena is the former managing director of Polese Clancy, a former strategy director for Zentropy Partners, and the co-founder of several businesses. She currently heads an initiative that helps companies develop innovative and profitable corporate responsibility programs. She has over a decade of experience leading consumer research, trend forecasting, and marketing initiatives for a range of start-up and Fortune 1000 brands. She is a founding member of the Spirit in Business World Institute and an associate member of the Center for Business Ethics. Arena's work has appeared in BrandWeek, Adweek, and The New York Times. She holds a master's degree in cultural anthropology from NYU and lives in the San Francisco Bay Area
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