Friday, July 2, 2010

Pepsi ... and perfunctory CSR

Dear Colleagues

I am unimpressed by Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) initiatives that really are nothing more than marketing. Marketing masquerading as CSR is just another example of corporate misinformation.

The Pepsi Refresh competition is, I believe, in this genre. See http://www.refresheverything.com/

The idea that Pepsi has a $1.3 million competition is not a big deal. I wonder how many minutes it takes for Pepsi to generate this much revenue and this much profit. According to a recent article in Reuters PepsiCo revenue rose 13 percent to $9.37 billion in the first quarter of 2010 ... that is about $100 million a day ... on a 7 day a week basis ... and about $4 million an hour on a 24 hour basis ... so just about 20 minutes of revenue http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE63L1WG20100422

I do not think Pepsi is a BAD company ... but I just don't think that many people in corporate leadership have any concept of how badly global society is being served by its leaders. I don't blame ordinary people for being misinformed ... but it seems to me that it is about time that those who have leadership positions should inform themselves of the full range of critical global issues and take steps to see that social problems get solved way before they get out of control.

If recent socio-economic events are any guide ... the economic "canary in the coal mine" is dead and business leadership should be taking notice.

Peter Burgess

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