| Companies Under Pressure From 'Green' Consumers |
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| Tuesday, 06 May 2008 | |
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"Customers are increasingly demanding socially-minded products, services and even supply chains... the more socially-aware customer evaluates an enterprise's corporate social responsibility profile before making purchasing decisions," says the 2008 global CEO study, entitled "The Enterprise of the Future". Most business people identified the changing demands of their customers as a pressing issue. "Two new and more demanding classes of customers emerged: the 'information omnivore' and the 'socially-minded customer'," states the report. The so-called socially-minded customer is not only concerned about "green" issues but also demands social responsibility practices across all services. "While increasing CEO concern about environmental issues has doubled over the past four years globally, this concern is not evenly distributed world wide," the study says. "Asia Pacific and European CEOs lead the world in focusing one environmental issues, followed by the Americas." It quotes Vinod Mittal, managing director of Mumbai-based steel manufacturer ISPAT Industries, who believes it pays to be "green". "I see corporate responsibility going through three phases. People start to consider issues like the environment because they are compelled to do so. "Then they realise that it actually makes business sense. Eventually they move beyond compulsion and selfish motives to become passionate because it is the right thing to do," says Mittal. The report also talks about "information omnivores" - consumers who are becoming more actively involved in information sharing and often create entertainment and advertisement content for their peers. "In the future, we will be talking more and more about the 'prosumer' - a consumer/producer who is even more extensively integrated into the value chain. As a consequence, production processes will be customised more precisely and individually," says Hartmut Jenner, CEO of Alfred Karcher GmbH. "These customers are swapping passive roles for much deeper involvement... Although these customers are more demanding, the majority of CEOs do not see them as a threat, but as an opportunity," the report concludes. Sapa |
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