Innovation + Responsibility

About three weeks ago I flew to Southeast Asia to visit some of Sun's contract manufacturers.  What an experience! I had never before been to a factory of any kind, so it was bound to be eye-opening. I was ready to put aside my Western biases and my expectations, soak it in and learn as much as I could.

I was basically tagging along with Sun's primary social auditor, Jack, as he visited two Sun factory partners. Jack has been with Sun since we signed the EICC (which, incidentally, just recently changed its name) and his primary job is to conduct the social audits of Sun's contract suppliers. 

Though I did try to keep my expectations in check, I definitely had a few. For example, I made assumptions about what the factories themselves would look like (large, smoke-belching structures), what the workers might be like (pleading at us with their eyes, seeking asylum during our one-on-one interviews), what the cafeterias would be (drab, like a soup kitchen). To my surprise, and delight, none of these were true. Not even almost. And I'm not just saying that.

Both of the factories I went to were quite modern. They were big complexes - much like office parks here in the U.S.  They had even had sports fields that the workers used to play soccer.   I'm not trying to say they were glamorous like some high tech campuses here in California, but they were certainly not drab cement buildings with smokestacks and barbed wire fences! 

There is only so much I can say about the audits themselves - as we work to build up this program, it's important we partner with our suppliers toward progress.  Any deficiencies we may have found in the course of our audit were discussed directly, openly and honestly with the factory managers. So the last thing I want to do is call them out on this blog. 

But it was a fascinating process and I would like to shed a bit of light on it, for anyone who may be interested.

Challenges (as I saw them)
In the course of our visit, we saw two factories, each for two days. The first factory we went to had a lot of experience with social audits. They even conduct their own audits of their suppliers.  But our assessment of the second supplier's factory was the first social audit ever conducted at that location.

There were definitely a few challenges associated with these audits, language being the most significant.  Jack, Sun's auditor, speaks Chinese (Mandarin primarily, but he also can speak Cantonese; incidentally, I can count to 100 and say some ice cream flavors in Cantonese, but that is generally of no use to me); the factory managers we visited with were, for the most part, not Chinese (as these factories are not in China).  Therefore, the audit was conducted primarily in English, even though the only person in the room who spoke English as a first language was me! We did have some local-language translators on hand to help smooth communications.  Needless to say, none of the factory workers spoke Chinese, and if any of them spoke English, well...they didn't speak English to us.

Another challenge was time. We had two days for each facility. Actually, given the size of these facilities, and the fact that Sun is a relatively small customer of each of them, two days should be plenty. But in fact things seemed a bit rushed.  I think this was because of the language constraints - a fair amount of the audit involves reviewing documents of all kinds -  policies, certifications, wage and attendance records.  We sent a list (in English) to each of the factories in advance detailing the kinds of things we would be asking to see.  But I guess not all of it translated perfectly, and there was some confusion. Not to mention the factory that had never done a social audit before really did not understand what exactly we were seeking. It seemed to me like we spent a lot more time on reviewing these documents than might have been necessary if everyone in the room spoke the same language with the same fluency.

The Process
Each of the factory visits was slightly different but in general we did the following:

1) Reviewed documents: environmental certifications, policies like codes of conducts, etc., wage and attendance records - we reviewed actual worker pay stubs, the computer reports of hours worked, recruiting contracts - many factories work with recruiting agencies to hire line workers.
2) Toured the factory grounds: we toured various parts of the factories, like the shipping and receiving warehouses, the chemical storage areas, cafeterias, bathrooms and the factory floor where Sun products are made. We looked at everything - the proximity of the eye-washing equipment (in case of chemical contact) to the factory line where chemicals are used, the type of fire extinguishers, unblocked exits, cafeteria cleanliness, worker stations, and more.
3) Interviewed workers: We selected workers to be interviewed in two ways - as we toured the Sun factory floor, we randomly selected workers we wanted to meet. Well, mostly randomly. We chose workers (most of whom were women) based on a few factors - if they looked especially young, we wanted to talk to them; if their job included working with chemicals, we wanted to talk to them;  if they were responsible for machine maintenance, we wanted to talk to them.  We also selected workers randomly based on the pay records the factories shared with us during the document review phase (and when we met with the workers we cross-checked their ID badges with the records to make sure management gave us the right people!) 
4) Shared our assessment: At the end of the two days, we formally shared our assessment with factory management. Except for the worker interviews, someone from management was with us the entire time, so there were few surprises during this part of the process. But it was good to re-cap, and also a great opportunity to clarify any miscommunication and misunderstandings (of which their were many).

For me, it was an incredible learning experience.  I had so many preconceived ideas about Asian factories, and so many of them were knocked away just by seeing with my own eyes. Of course I am not naive enough to believe that all factories in this part of the world are as good as these two - the fact that they are building computers and other high tech equipment surely requires different and more sophisticated management processes than, say, assembling toys or sewing t-shirts. Still, I was surprised to drive around the manufacturing districts and see huge signs proclaiming "ISO 14001 certified" - a great sign that many of these manufacturers see environmental management systems as competitive advantage. 

I was also surprised that the workers were as old as they were! Of course, I did not expect to find any 15 year olds - just the nature of the high-tech production line (not to mention the law!) would require people a bit older.  But I also did not expect to find 35, 37 and 40 year-olds (of which there were several). And I expected very high turnover - but many of the workers we talked to had been working at these factories for many years (one had been there for 13, since she was 27!).  Honestly, they seemed quite happy there.  I am sure some of them were freaked out talking to us, and several were clearly trying to tell us what they thought we wanted to hear. But overall I found them to be frank and open, and pretty happy with their employment.

Room for Improvement
Certainly there is room for improvement, not only on the part of our factory partners, but in our own audit process as well. For our part, I think one area where we can do a better
job is in preparing factory managers in advance so that there is less
confusion around things like documents, etc., when the Sun audit team
arrives. Some people might think this is a bad idea because maybe they
will fake their records or something like that. I have no doubt that
there are factories in the world that do this. I have even heard that
apparel factories are notorious for keeping two sets of books - one
that they share with auditors from US and European companies, and one
that reflects actual wages and attendance.  But after visiting these
factories I am quite sure that these suppliers have better things to
do. As it is, they had advance notice for these audits and still we saw
gaps and deficiencies.

For us and our partners, I think the most crucial area for improvement lies in how we consider the whole notion of a social audit. Based on the "gotcha" monitoring that many NGOs were fond of in the mid- and late-1990s (and some still practice today), I think manufacturers in general are wary of any kind of social audit.  It is not as strictly measurable as a quality audit or even an environmental audit - whenever you throw people into the mix, there is room for variability and the (possibly scary) element of surprise.  But we are partners in this, and even though these audits went well, there was an underlying us vs. them feeling. I am not sure what we can do to minimize that - how we can truly partner without losing the effectiveness of our authority.  But I think we need to commit to figuring it out, because I am not sure these audits can ever be truly effective if there is any mistrust or opacity.

Net Impact Conference - Nashville, TN
I have been thinking about writing this blog entry for a few weeks now - after attending the Net Impact conference in Nashville in early November.  The conference was good - Yvon Chouinard, the founder of Patagonia, was the opening keynote and he was nothing short of spectacular. It does not cease to inspire me when I listen to a successful business person live their values - actually, live my values! - and realize success, in all its meanings.

I was there to speak on a panel about trends in CSR.  I think my panel
went okay.  I generally enjoy public speaking (since my older sister
went on to become a professional actor, I needed some other way to get attention!).  In any case, I think the panel was well-received.  We all got very good
feedback from the audience (and, as a sidenote, I thought our moderator was fantastic. That's not an easy role and I thought he was superb.).

The audience members asked insightful questions and made astute observations; they seemed quite engaged. All of us on the panel (myself, someone from eBay
and someone from KPMG) stressed the value of pursuing careers outside
of the CSR "department." Instead, we encouraged the audience (mostly MBA
students) to take their CSR perspectives into traditional job
functions, like operations, finance, marketing, you name it.  Because the CSR jobs are few and far between and if we are really going to see companies evolving into organizations that integrate CSR principles into every facet of their business, it will be because every facet of their business is run by/staffed with people who share a commitment to doing business responsibly.

Since all three of us pushed this message, I am hoping it sunk in. Although the truth is, I got the same advice when I was getting my MBA and I ended up ignoring it (but in my defense, I wanted to go into a job in the finance industry until I took finance as a first-year MBA and realized it would be a futile effort!). 

At the evening cocktail event a first-year MBA from UCSD named Marc approached me.  He said that he was thinking about what I had said and wanted to talk more about taking CSR into the operations function of a company.  We had a good chat about it and I was pleasantly surprised when he emailed me a few day later to follow up and asked to be connected with someone at Sun who could talk to him more about the connection between CSR and operations. I hope he is serious - I hope he is one of many current MBAs who is looking at his career and trying to see how to combine his sought-after skills with his personal values and make positive change in the business world.

"I want to go into CSR because I don't want to work too hard."
I left Nashville early to get back to San Francisco because I needed a few days to prepare before leaving again to Asia (where I am now.  I am here to witness/participate in some factory visits with Sun suppliers who have signed our Code of Conduct. More on that later.).  I was sitting at my gate waiting for my flight when a young woman (I can say that now that I am officially in my mid-30s!) approached me.  She had been in the audience for our panel and wanted to talk a bit more about it. As we chatted she told me that despite our recommendations, she wanted to find a CSR-specific job. Of course, I can relate - that is the path I chose to follow and the job I currently do for Sun. 

But as we talked more about why she wanted to work in CSR, she said something that stuck in my head (and in my craw!).  She said, "Another reason I want to work in CSR is that I don't want to work so hard - I am getting married soon and I want to have a family, and I want balance." I found this troubling for a few reasons:

**Why do women go to business school if they are not really interested in working hard to pursue their careers? Seems like an odd amount of money to spend to not put it to good use.
**And since when are working hard and having balance mutually exclusive? I work my tail off and still find time to have a satisfying personal life - training for marathons and triathlons, spending time with friends and family, traveling.
**And, what in the world makes her think that people in CSR jobs don't work our butts off?!  I can't think of a time in my life when I have worked harder - and I had some pretty intense jobs before this one!

The implication that a CSR job won't require her to work too hard is laughable. I look around - at myself, my colleagues at Sun, at our peers at other companies - and I see people who put their hearts and souls into their jobs.  CSR jobs are tough. I don't say this to have anyone feel sorry for people in these roles - I think I am the luckiest person to be able to have a job that I feel good about every single day, a job that enables me to live my values and create truly positive change. 

But a job in CSR is no cakewalk. There is so much to do, yet usually there are few people to do it. Many people still don't understand what we do or why our company has dedicated resources to it.  Speaking of resources, companies usually do not dedicate very many resources to the CSR function - despite putting a lot of demands on it.  I bet these factors are true for lots of different jobs - in finance, strategy, product development, operations - not just CSR.  But people do not believe that, as a rule, these are not jobs that require hard work. 

So I ask, why is there this notion that a CSR job is not a "real" job?