Just the job

You were originally a marketing professional werent you Adrian?

Yes, certainly I grew up in marketing. I spent the early part of my career in the advertising business before moving over to the client side. Initially this was with ICL but then I joined BT shortly after privatisation.

How did you come to move across into corporate and social responsibility?

It was in the middle of the 1990s when I began running a campaign for BT called Its good to talk. This was a high profile campaign designed to tackle the reluctance of people to communicate more by phone. At the time, BTs market share could only go down so our objective was to grow the overall market. Its good to talk really took off but I made a suggestion that because advertising can only do so much, we should look at developing an education campaign. The idea being to help people to break down the barriers to effective communications through education and the development of skills.

And how did you move this forward?

BT embarked on a grassroots market education programme designed to tackle the root causes of poor communication. We worked with schools and adult education centres around the country and attempted to develop peoples capability to communicate. We then began a Millennium programme called FutureTalk designed to help everyone benefit from improved communications. We funded activity in thousands of schools across the country and took part in the Millennium Dome activities. It was a great success.

So the majority of your work activities had become geared towards education?

Thats right, and in 2001 I was asked to lead BTs various activities environmental management, community investment, policies and social reporting and pull them into one CSR team. But, more importantly I was asked to link this into a business strategy, one that could help a transforming BT to become a more successful company.

How did you feel when you were given this task?

I saw this as a fantastic challenge one that would allow me to use my marketing skills. Also I felt positive about working on a part of the BT brand which was about making a contribution to society its the ultimate expression of the brand in a way.

What were some of hurdles you had to overcome back then?

There were quite a few as I recall. I had trouble understanding what BT was doing regarding community investments at that time. For example. I wondered what the strategy was because we seemed to be doing everything with lots of different charities. We needed to focus on what BT does as a business communications. Since then, all of our programmes relate directly to our business activities and they are measurable. I dont think its sustainable to do CSR without a really good business case. Its about enlightened long term self interest.

Is your job still characterised by ongoing challenges?

Of course. Engaging people is perhaps the number one challenge. Everybody is busy but we have to persist with getting across the idea that - yes, you can do your job and still have a positive impact on the environment. We need to keep on trying to engage everybody in making a positive contribution to society.

Whats the best thing about working in CSR?

Theres nothing more rewarding than seeing a programme that we create or sponsor making a positive impact. Ive attended workshops at schools where you can witness the direct benefit of, say, interactive communications sessions with kids you see them come alive, improve their skills and have a lot of fun.

What advice would you give to people considering a career in CSR?

Id say that its a really rewarding career. You feel you are doing a worthwhile job thats also very interesting. But more importantly, you feel like you are making a positive impact and a difference to society. Id verify that getting into CSR can be difficult but it helps if you have good experience across a range of business functions or you have specific skills that can be easily transferred across such as marketing.. At the same time, Id argue that specialist degrees in CSR or aspects of CSR like environmental management are also very valuable attributes.

Do you still have ambition Adrian?

Theres no doubt that I do. But only in terms of wanting to make a difference, in a small way to help create a better world through better communications. If that doesnt sound too cheesy.