Christine Bader '00 on a Career in Corporate Social Responsibility
Christine Bader ’00 discussed her career in corporate responsibility as part of the Colloquium on Business and Society at Yale SOM on March 24. A visiting scholar at Columbia University and a member of the Yale SOM Global Diversity Advisory Council, Bader is the author of a new book, The Evolution of a Corporate Idealist: When Girl Meets Oil. She has managed corporate social responsibility issues for BP in Asia, and served as an advisor at the United Nations.
Bader said that while many companies are expanding their philanthropic efforts in the communities in which they operate, they also need to embed social responsibility measures into their business goals and practices, especially in developing countries.
I’ve seen this world grow a lot in the past 15 years in terms of companies talking about human rights and about corporate responsibility. But the question is, "What are they actually doing? Are they moving beyond philanthropy and looking at their core business?" Not as many as I would like.
Right now I try to encourage companies to be more transparent about their processes, if not the outcomes…Transparency of process is good. It’s not quite enough in some situations, but it’s promising.
