Corporate responsibility (CR) is now squarely on the organisational agenda as an issue of cost and compliance - even if the jury is still out on its strategic potential for brand differentiation and the creation of brand and shareholder value. As a result, many Boards are in the early stages of engagement with oversight of management’s handling of CR.

However, with most corporates yet to produce non-financial or sustainability reports, even on a stand alone basis, the Board Audit Committee conversations held in March 2008 started with some key definitional, operational and quantification of value issues associated with CR.

The attached document is a summary of the conversations held in capitals around Australia. Three questions served as the focus for Directors’ discussion:

• What do you see, or have you seen, as the underlying obstacles to integrating corporate responsibility into your company’s business operations?
• What are the potential repercussions of getting corporate responsibility reporting wrong?
• How is this issue being managed in your organisation?

A fourth question posed - what are better ways of establishing accountability for the integrity of corporate responsibility reporting? - was held over for separate discussion at a later date.
To read the summary of comments please download the Board Audit Committee conversation below.