Imagine you are working for Shell in the Sustainability / CSR department and you really want to make a difference by showing that Shell is a responsible company. Todays post is about the challenges someone working at Shell might face. This is all from the viewpoint of a normal Shell stakeholder such as myself. I have also included a video response with some additional aspects to consider.
The Sustainability / CSR professional working at Shell as far as we can tell is facing the following situation at the moment:
Worsening reputation: Shells reputation with regards to Sustainability / CSR is not good. After being seen as leaders some years ago they are now being perceived as just putting a lot of money in their communication
Lack of Sustainability / CSR innovation: Over the last few years Shell have not really convinced on the content and implementation side through innovation at all. This might be the consequence of not being leaders anymore combined with a lack of aspiration for bringing their reporting and best practice onto the next level. But where has this enthusiasm for innovation gone?
Perceived indifferent corporate culture: From what we can see outside as a stakeholder is that the corporate context and culture itself at Shell does not fully go hand in hand with their Sustainability / CSR messaging. I have no prove of that obviously but from we can interpret from press releases, other communications and article about Shell this seems to be the case. Here are three examples which just show how conflicting Shells messaging is at the moment:
- As Shell trims its investment portfolio in Nigeria
- Shell CEO says to scale back on oil sands: report
- Shareholders confront Shell over oil sands project
So what should or can this employee do to change things for the better?
I believe that these following points are some aspects the Sustainability / CSR professionals at Shell need to consider to kick start their Sustainability / CSR innovation process again:
- Stop shouting so loud about what you do. More PR does not mean that you are being perceived better in the long run. Less is more for Shell at the moment in my opinion.
- Only communicate when you have something to say. This might be an obvious point but there is nothing more damaging when you have message and this message is being perceived as green-washing.
- Spend at least 80% of your time now lobbying the senior management to increase the importance of your department and for you to get more leverage for future policy influencing.
I have also prepared a short video response on what I think Shell could do better:
Shell has been one of the innovators in the Sustainability / CSR field in the past and they can be again. Others like Centrica, Timberland and Intel have taken that position now. What happened to the Shell we saw several years ago?
As always please let me know what you think and whether you agree or disagree.