Just the job

Kevin Moss is the new head of Corporate and Social Responsibility for BT Americas, part of BT Global Services.

Hallo Kevin. So tell us about your career to date.

I started off in the oil industry as an account manager at BP before joining BT where I've now been for the past 17 years. I went out to America on secondment to work with MCI and then BT's Concert venture where I helped to establish the product management organisation.

How did you first get involved in CSR in your career?

I'd been part of the leadership team of BT Americas where I decided to take on a couple of projects outside of my day job. I took on something I feel really passionate about - charities and charity giving. Nobody in BT outside of the UK had access to an employee give as you earn scheme. So, with support from some like-minded colleagues I launched one for BT people in the United States. Plus I also set up various employee groups to look at community investment.

I see - so how did this evolve into a full time job?

Well, I'd really enjoyed doing that work. It was hard - but extremely fulfilling. I was so delighted when I saw the extent to which the employees responded to the scheme donating substantial amounts to charity. I saw an opportunity for this to become a valuable point of contact with our customers and other multi-nationals. So it was more than just doing good. It was also about the company getting a competitive advantage from the positive things it's doing anyway.

And this became a formalised role?

Yes it's now my day job. I built a case for this role to become full-time and I officially started last November. I think the thing that really made the difference was the aspect of the job that is about using CSR for competitive advantage in interactions with our customers.

So it's quite early days - what is your biggest initial challenge Kevin?

As I'm approaching the various heads of CSR across major American companies, I need to become fully familiar with BT's long-established CSR portfolio. This means I have a great deal of new material to learn about.

Do American businesses and consumers have a different approach to CSR than we do in the UK? Is that a challenge for you?

Europe might be slightly ahead of the US in some aspects of CSR but the enthusiasm over here for the subject can't be underestimated. The people I meet are always really keen to hear more from UK and European companies on areas such as the environment, ethical supply chains and business ethics. Many see BT as a CSR leader and they are really happy to talk to us. I can show them how our products and services can help them with their CSR objectives - most importantly carbon footprint reductions - and that is a subject customers really want to engage on.

You're in a one-man team Kevin - does that get a bit lonely?

Far from it. I'm part of a huge virtual team which includes all the CSR practitioners in the company. In addition to working closely with Janet Blake and the Global Services team, there's a network of 60 amazing volunteers from across the Americas business who have reached out to help me with one topic area or another and all of our employees out here who have responded very positively to this new initiative. I've created my own job doing something I'm passionate about - so things are pretty good really.