This semester I served as Professional Chair for my business fraternity - Alpha Kappa Psi. I organized two professional events every month. I tried to balance the variety of events by integrating workshops in our traditional professional events: having professionals from different fields talk to us about their careers and how they got there. On Tuesday, November 27th I organized our last professional event for the semester. It was a unique
professional event: it was not a workshop nor was it pertaining to a specific
major career path. We learned about Corporate Social Responsibility
(CSR). Our chapter was excited to welcome Lonnie Smith, Enterprise
Community Development Manager, from State Farm to lead the discussion.
Besides learning some cool things
that State Farm does in regards to Corporate Social Responsibility, we learned
concepts applicable to other firms as well.
Lonnie told us to think about Corporate Social Responsibility as the answers to the
following questions: who is the firm as an employer and how does it interact
with the public. For some firms problems arise when what they say does
not match their actions to the previous questions.
Key Learning Points:
- Corporate Social Responsibility is more important for firms with intangible products or products that are not consumed on a daily basis. Customers need other ways to be reminded of the firm.
- It’s important to be consistent with Corporate Social Responsibility efforts because there is not always an immediate return. Some campaigns/actions are more long term & results won’t be felt for a while.
- One good measurement of successful CSR efforts is if the firm’s employees become enthused ambassadors of the programs at hand.
- It’s important to engage your clients and see what kind of CSR programs they want to see because their money is going towards those efforts.
- Some states, such as California, actually have requirements on how much CSR a company must engage in at their respective state.
Lonnie also shared with us some
great tips for success in the future.
- It’s important to always continue learning and to be continuously adapting. Doing things the ‘old way’ may not be efficient anymore.
- Develop mutually beneficial relationships. Nurture the relationships because you never know how they can be at your advantage. Remember that everyone knows people, and that can come very handy.
- Don’t have a scarcity mentality: you don’t have to win at the expense of someone else.
It was a privilege for me to be the Professional Chair for my fraternity. My favorite part of the job was implementing changes that benefited the chapter. I am excited that I was able to improve our professional events and am looking forward to working with the new Professional Chair and mentor him to continue improving our fraternity.
