CSR Awards: Stakeholder Engagement – GE

GE Corporate Citizenship

External research commissioned by GE showed that stakeholders frequently reached out to GE to speak on panels, join events and engage in other key thought leadership forums. In response, GE looked to increase its engagement with stakeholders, with the goals of leveraging their standing and expertise to give them a forum to discuss dilemmas faced by multinational corporations, such as responsible supply chain management, global equity, sustainable growth, the environment and human rights. In doing so, the initiative would enhance GE’s reputation as a thought leader in citizenship.

Key components of the initiative included:

● Engaging with stakeholders, including employees, experts and customers, to create audio, video and written perspectives on challenges facing multinationals. Post those perspectives on GE’s citizenship Web site, and highlight them on GE’s annual citizenship report

● Hosting frequent stakeholder meetings and forums, globally with internal and external thought leaders

● Creating a comprehensive stakeholder map, identifying stakeholder influence in key issues, as well as opportunities and gaps

As a result of the initiative, GE experienced a big uptick in the number of stakeholders requesting to contribute and/or be highlighted in GE’s citizenship initiatives. With key stakeholders mapped and in a database, GE can now efficiently deploy them to further their messaging. The key lesson learned? “In the end, your reputation is only as good as your stakeholder perceptions,” says Frank Mantero, director of corporate citizenship at GE. “It doesn’t originate from the company, it originates from those champions willing to tell your story.” ■

Honorable Mentions:

American Federation of Teachers: Building Minds, Minding Buildings —

The AFT partnered with a number of key organizations to find and publish the best research and statistics on the problem of schools in disrepair.

AstraZeneca Canada: Frontline Health Program —

AstraZeneca Canada reached out to frontline health practitioners to uncover their stories of dedication to healthcare.

BNY Mellon: Community Partnership —

By empowering their key stakeholders—employees—with the time and tools needed to volunteer in their communities, volunteers have contributed nearly 47,000 hours of service.

Coca-Cola Turkey: Life Plus Youth Program —

Coca-Cola held presentations with local NGOs, the public sector, local government and university representatives to drive awareness for its eco-project program.

QIAGEN - QIAGENcares: Ensuring Global Access to Cervical Cancer Prevention

QIAGEN engaged cancer experts to discuss program strategies, key opinion leaders to help increase awareness among their colleagues and industry vaccine leaders to develop cancer prevention programs.

March 1, 2010