Though I can sink into much debate about my life having any meaning, I do know that my life experience is short, and sometimes unexpectedly even shorter. Within this brief experience, WHAT ought I to do, and HOW? How would I like to be remembered? What ought to be my legacy? Did I make a difference, possibly even move a needle, any needle? Did my existence have any value at all? In modern day terms, what was my impact? Before answering that question, I ask: which came first, this existence or its essence? Assisting me are philosophers Sartre and Camus, but then even they differ starkly on this. In Sartre’s (bleak) cosmos, first I exist, become conscious of my existence, and only then am I (condemned) to try and forge my own identity that I seek – my essence. As a free and responsible agent, I determine my own development toward this, through acts of my will, and this then determines HOW I act. Now, is this thinking also true of corporates? Well, is a corporate a person? Yes, corporate personhood is an accepted legal notion. Corporate is a person, just like its separate, but associated, human persons (owners, managers, employees, etc). So, corporate has legal rights, and responsibilities, as enjoyed by any natural person. Conscious of this personal existence, does corporate also try and seek its own essence? Does it ask, ‘WHO AM I? WHY DO I EXIST? WHAT do I do with this life? HOW do I do that?’ Is this even the correct order of these questions? As one such corporate (person), I do indeed enjoy some perks provided by society such as limited liability but these are balanced by economic and legal obligations, and certain responsibilities to society. This is the corporate person’s Social Contract that CSR helps elucidate. As a corporate person who is cognisant of my CSR contract, and wanting to fulfil the embedded social responsibilities in this contract, ought I not make available, and even leverage, all my corporate assets/capabilities/strengths in developing strategies that successfully provide the necessary social good for societal needs? But, HOW do I balance these with also investing in more profitable ventures, ones much needed for my sustainability and longevity? HOW much risk ought I to expose myself to in such a pursuit? Is it OK to lose money in the short term if society benefits from my actions in the long term? Of course, I always want to do the best I can, but HOW do I Know I am doing such good, how do I analyse my social activity, how do I use enterprise type metrics, which I am more familiar with, for measuring this alleged social good? CSR does want to help me here. So, sometimes painfully, relentlessly, and petulantly, CSR questions me, the corporate person, by suggesting I first ask the question WHY I am here. CSR says: ‘If indeed you do exist, and are conscious of it, what is the self-essence that you have decided on?’ Since I have accepted that I am a free agent, HOW do I first decide this WHY of my corporate person existence from my own free will? As a corporate, in what way am I going to deliver upon my vision and mission and my embedded responsibilities? Even more so, how do I align this WHY, this purpose, with the individual purposes of my partners: founders, promoters, management, shareholders, vendors, government, community, families, etc?
