CEOs Rush to Claim They're Responsible

It’s one of the nicer bits of news of late: CEOS are falling all over themselves in their rush to show they’re socially responsible. That’s according to a new survey by and BEYOND Communications. It shows that in 2004 letters to shareholders in annual reports, 50 percent more CEOs reported on their corporate social responsibilities than the year prior. The president of this New York-based investor relations firm commented, “This year-to-year increase was the most significant we’ve seen in our annual surveys of 100 of the S&P 500 companies. In 2004, 42 percent of CEOs reported on corporate social responsibility, up from 28 percent in 2003.” The firm has been doing analysis of annual reports since 1999. It found significant changes in other reporting, from 1999 to 2004:

• CEOs describing their companies as corporate or global citizens increased eight-fold.
• CEOs reporting on how they are measuring the social responsibility actions increased six-fold.
• CEOs reporting on their philanthropic, community, and volunteer activities increased 125 percent.

From Business Ethics Magazine