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By Jo Best, 9 August 2004 09:40

COMMENT Doing what's right by the community gives companies a better chance of succeeding in the long term. But not all industries - especially the younger ones - get this. Jo Best looks at how the mobile operators stack up on social responsibility, and shares her thoughts on how reporting this type of activity should be done.

Corporate social responsibility, or CSR, reports are a company's explanation of how they're being good corporate citizens. It's the business equivalent of turning your best side to the camera and it's an exercise designed to show off all the good stuff firms have been up to.

That's a good thing: firms that make a positive contribution to society at large are not only getting a warm and fuzzy feeling, they're getting themselves some great PR - and that in the long term translates as cold, hard cash.

It's also important because it means businesses can be held to account by their customers, letting them make a more informed choice. But when CSR reports are more lip service than positive action, are they worth they paper they're printed on?

When it comes to mobile operators, their showing on social responsibility, well, shows for the most part their youth.

Some, such as 3, don't produce CSR reports at all, although 3 does have a very small UK market share. T-Mobile publishes a statement of intent and business principles but doesn't produce an annual report.

Orange does produce CSR reports - just not that often. The last Orange Group CSR report is dated 2002 - back when Orange Group had 44 million subscribers instead of 50 million. The next CSR report is due to be published in 2005.

So up until the end of 2002 and looking ahead to the halcyon days of 2003, how did Orange fare?

Judging by Orange's 'business principles' in the report, it's hard to see if there's been any movement on corporate social responsibility. The principles are couched in the gloriously ambiguous language typical of these reports - "reviewing" policies for example. What exactly does that mean? Everything from re-reading to revamping a document can be put under the heading of a "review".

For instance, Orange says it will review its environmental policy. Has it? Possibly, possibly not. It's not been shared with the public if it has: information about environment policy on Orange's website says today: "This policy will be reviewed in 2003 to respond to broader business changes".

Orange scores better on another of the business principles: to develop policies on access to adult content services, among other things. Orange has certainly done that. Along with the other main operators, it has decided to make adult content - chat, porn, gambling - opt in services with consumers' ages verified before the services are switched on.

Providing tangible proof of change doesn't always make things crystal clear, however.

Take mmO2 and the building of mobile masts. The company's CSR report quotes Jim Stevenson, the community relations manager at mmO2 UK, as saying: "We are building a lot [fewer masts] now than three years ago but the level of community consultation is far greater today." The reduction is doubtless in part due to its agreement with T-Mobile to share masts wherever possible.

Fewer masts is good news aesthetically. By and large, however, people aren't worried about the masts because they spoil a beautiful landscape, they're concerned about their health and that of their children. mmO2's initiative may sound good - one mast instead of two - but it just means one mast emitting the same signal strength as two, which isn't likely to make those with health fears sleep better at night.

What of Vodafone, Europe's biggest mobile operator? In the introduction to its CSR report, attributed to the pen of CEO Arun Sarin, one of Vodafone's achievements is "[spending] £23bn with our suppliers, contributing to jobs and wealth creation for a lot of people". It seems interesting that simply sloshing around money can be dressed up as Doing the Right Thing.

That's not to say there isn't some good in investing profits in the local economy but with CSR reports swimming in vague promises, consumers need - and deserve - something more worthwhile and more tangible. Give us targets, give us numbers or give us concrete pledges that we can judge the operators by.

Of course, businesses aren't charities. They're under no obligation to do anything over and above their statutory obligations and many FTSE 500 companies don't even publish a report at all.

Comparing the mobile operators to their peer group, they don't fare too badly. According to the 2003 BITC (Business in the Community) index, mmO2 rates 32nd for good behaviour and Vodafone manages 83rd place.

Among the companies that rank above the mobile players are banks, oil and chemical companies - not normally lauded for their good works.

One of those rated more socially responsible than mmO2 and Vodafone is HBOS. HBOS provides figures about its business dealings - percentages on staff opinions, waste produced and monies donated, among other things. Admittedly, the figures appear in small print at the end of its report but at least they're there.

Perhaps realising that social responsibility is good for business is something that takes time to learn. Remember, HBOS has been in existence since 1913 in its Halifax incarnation and since 1695 as the Bank of Scotland, with the two merging in 2001. In comparison, the mobile companies are toddlers.

So let's hope, given time, the mobile operators will always choose facts over fluff and become converts to the CSR flock.

Research from BT - the telecoms sector's top performer in CSR according to BITC - says: "CSR is critical for optimising customer satisfaction… statistical analysis shows that a one per cent improvement in the public's perception of our CSR activities effects a 0.1 per cent increase in our retail customers satisfaction figures."

Good CSR equals happy customers. Mobile operators - take note.