Q&A: Corporate-responsibility expert Jonathan Wootliff

Wootliff specialises in helping multinational companies build productive relationships with non-governmental organisations. He developed his expertise in this area during his tenure as communications director for Amsterdam-based Greenpeace, where he oversaw outreach and communications across 35 countries.

He works extensively in Asia and has helped clients including BP, Coca-Cola, Colgate-Palmolive, Eastman Chemicals, General Motors, Goldman Sachs, Kraft Foods, Owens Corning, Procter & Gamble, Tata Group and Whirlpool.

Wootliff has worked with David Ketchum, Bite Global's president for Asia-Pacific, for 25 years across various companies and assignments. Their corporate responsibility and sustainability partnership dates back to May, 2012. Wootliff also has a number of direct clients he works with around the world. He also serves as a consultant to Reputation Partners in the US.

Wootliff encourages corporations to go out and meet with NGOs. He also works with companies to match their values against the demands of their civil society “watchdogs” in order to minimise confrontation and find common ground. 

Wootliff sat down with Campaign Asia-Pacific to discuss the level of sophistication that companies in Asia have toward corporate social responsibility (CSR ) and steps they can take to improve their performance.   

Q: What do companies misunderstand about corporate accountability and CSR?

A: It is not about doing the right thing. It is about your business. You need happy stakeholders if you want a successful business. Corporate hygiene is the word.

Companies need to change their mindsets. What’s the point of making luxury bags using child labour that nobody buys? Corporate accountability has to be embodied in the culture of a company. There is a massive demand for it.

Q: How are companies in Asia doing?

A: Asia is a little behind in this area, but it is known for playing catch-up fast, and it is now waking up. For example, Singapore’s stock exchange has rolled out a guideline for companies to implement sustainability reports.

People are now more educated and more concerned about what is behind a company. Reputation is related to the behaviour of a company. Why plan how to deal with a crisis if you can avoid the crisis beforehand? It is about accountability to stakeholders, who are more interested in the company and its personality, like whether it is good to its employees. 

Companies now have to look at three Ps, which are people, planet and profit. They have always been looking at profit. But now the reputation of a company has become very important, as people can now see the reputation of a company on the internet easily.

Q: What should companies do if they want to improve their CSR standing?

A: The first thing companies need to do is to listen. Just listen. Who is saying what? Only then can you jump into conversations and interact with the stakeholders. Communication is multi-way. Get involved and walk the talk.

Companies should know who their watchdogs are—NGOs and regulators. Know the stakeholder mapping. Track them and see what they say about you, so that you know what to be aware of.

Then you have to look at your sustainability reporting [the three Ps mentioned above] and your engagement with stakeholders. Make meaningful partnerships with groups, get input internally and from expert bodies and get your employees, family and local community involved.

When you can’t control what other people say about you on social media, you have to behave yourself. As everyone is on digital, a lot of corporate accountability works are done on digital platforms as well.