Interview with Ford executives: how to fulfill corporate social responsibility

He described how Ford encouraged suppliers to make their own corporate social responsibility plans, and said that cost should never be an obstacle for enterprises to fulfill their social responsibilities, and talked about the advantages of mobilizing employees to participate in corporate ethics projects. The following is an excerpt from this interview. Q: Please tell us your background and your current responsibilities at Ford. Vera: I've been with Ford for 26 years-it's a long time. I've been in my current position for three years. For the previous 23 years, I was in charge of business operations. I think Ford appointed me to this position to ensure that the strategy we formulated can be effectively implemented in our operations. As my title "Director of Sustainable Development and Environmental Policy" shows, this department is responsible for two aspects. First of all, the issue of sustainable development can be summed up in the way Ford achieves environmental, social and strategic goals in our products and manufacturing plants. We cooperate with many business departments of the company to ensure that the strategic objectives of the company are considered in their short-,medium-and long-term plans. We look to the future and judge the mode of transportation that the world needs in five, ten or even fifty years. Then we judge how the company should respond to this trend. This means thinking about what kind of fuel our cars will use in the future. Since this department is also responsible for environmental protection, obviously we want to consider more environmentally friendly options. In terms of production, we sincerely cooperate with manufacturers to save energy, reduce the amount of waste transported to landfills and reduce the consumption of water resources. We also need to set long-term goals so that our manufacturing plants can achieve these goals in the near, medium and long-term operations. Q: How do you encourage suppliers-from large suppliers to small suppliers who are not responsible for CSR-to participate in and seriously abide by corporate social responsibility and sustainable development initiatives? Vera: We first contacted many large suppliers because they have the knowledge and resources needed to follow the sustainable development and environmental protection plan. In addition, starting from them, because these companies have many suppliers themselves, they can transmit all kinds of information along the industrial chain. When we started to contact smaller suppliers, we found that they might not have enough resources to carry out all our plans. However, we can share our company's working conditions code with them and encourage them to adopt or formulate similar regulations. We explained how to do it so that they can adopt and operate it quickly. Once they have worked out a road map to implement their own standards, we will conduct tests to determine which method and plan are most suitable for them. Q: Do your suppliers usually support these plans? Have you ever experienced setbacks? Vera: We found that the suppliers were very cooperative. Nevertheless, there are always people who worry that the implementation of the new corporate social responsibility plan will not increase a lot of costs. In addition, when some local governments do not always pay attention to the moral operation of the country, there are also doubts about how to change their behavior patterns. However, our suppliers realize that these plans don't always increase costs, and they usually just need to change their behavior patterns in improving working conditions and acting in the right way. Once we show suppliers how to do things better without increasing the cost through examples, they will certainly welcome these plans, because then they can publicize all kinds of good things they have done, and the improvement of employees' salary can bring many positive effects. Q: Are you under pressure from the company's board of directors, executives or shareholders? Do they think that the cost of corporate social responsibility and sustainable development plan is too high, which will affect short-term profits? If so, how can you convince them that all this is for the long-term interests of the company? Vera: There are two forms of cost, capital cost and time cost. None of the actions we have taken are too expensive to implement. But our challenge is not money, but time. It is naive to think that once you take action, you can achieve your goal 100%. Usually we want to implement a plan immediately, but it takes time to train employees to follow and change procedures. This can't be achieved immediately. This is a more serious challenge for us. It's not that the capital cost is too high, but how to implement some of our plans as soon as possible. Q: Ford's corporate social responsibility department has participated in some projects unrelated to the automobile industry, such as the Atlanta rainforest in the zoo. How do you decide which external projects to participate in?