An archive of articles on branding and Corporate Social Responsibility I wrote from 1995 through 2008 that includes models for a Brand/CSR Index and organizational design. These ran in thought leader publications such as the Carnegie Council’s Policy Innovations, EnergyHEDGE and BrandChannel, as well as general newspapers such as the San Francisco Chronicle and San Jose Mercury News.
This article describes how I became an evangelist for corporate social responsibility:
San Francisco Chronicle, Monday, May 21, 2001
I had been a brand strategist for 20 years when my father, a cattle farmer in upstate New York, turned to me and said “Isn’t brand dead?” Read more →
by Carol Holding and Jacquelyn Ottman; BrandChannel.com; January 2, 2007 Last summer at a roundtable in New York presented by Women for a Sustainable Future, Gerber’s Jim Thomas, Global Head of Health, Safety & Environment and Business Continuity, presented the results of his company’s Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) program. Thomas showed how Gerber was improving […]
San Jose Mercury News, Business Monday, October 16, 1995 As computers become ubiquitous in the home, advanced technology marketers are facing the cold hard truth: their rarefied province is being invaded by the technically downscale, the dread “consumer.” And consumers are changing life as tech producers know it, insisting that everything be simple, glorying in their […]
Text of speech given to the Urban Land Institute, San Francisco, April 2002 Remember when futurists were predicting that telecommuting would be the death of cities. Well, all we have to do to find out what happened is look at San Francisco – office towers are full and rates are soaring. Clearly, the futurists were […]
Letter to Harvard Business Review responding to Michael Porter and Mark Kramer’s article “The Strategic Advantage of Corporate Philanthropy,” available through HBS Publishing. Three cheers for “The Competitive Advantage of Corporate Philanthropy.” Corporate managers have underestimated philanthropy’s benefits for too long. Porter and Kramer avoid the usual arguments about moral obligation and focus instead on competitive […]
Carnegie Council’s Policy Innovations, August 2007 Companies in almost every sector of American business say they embrace Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) not only because it’s the right thing to do, but because it strengthens their brands. They also recognize that a stronger brand is a more valuable one, which is especially important since the U.S. […]
Published in EnergyHEDGE, November 8, 2007 Summary: The clearest message from the conference is that the SRI brand has grown up. Endorsed by the Wall Street Journal on Monday, SRI is now a mainstream financial segment, albeit a small and relatively unknown one. The issue is where SRI will fit in the asset management world.
EnergyHEDGE Newsletter; January 15, 2007 About the only time I listen to the radio is in taxis, and New York cabs are all tuned to either traffic or stock market news. Drivers like to play stock tips now that OTB is not what it used to be and they’ve all got cell phones. So I may […]
San Jose Mercury News, Business Monday, by Carol Holding, September 16, 1996 Security. The word deflates any enthusiasm about banks and the Internet. And even though I have not read or heard of any actual breaches in security which have left bank customers holding the bag, everybody, banks and customers, are scared to death.
May 6, 1997 Recently, the Wall Street Journal reported that the final annual meeting of MCI before it is acquired by BT was a somber, even poignant affair. Though the company called MCI will disappear, its new owners recognize the value of the MCI brand and have assured us they intend to ensure its survival.