Introduction

An important entrepreneurial concept being advocated by the La Salle MBA program is the
concept of the Triple Bottom Line. That is the company or enterprise should take into
consideration that their operational actions affect not only profits but also the employees and the
environment (Profits, People, and Planet – the triple “P” approach).

In line with this overarching concept, one specific implementation of the 3P’s approach is
Corporate Social Responsibility CSR. The evaluation and compliance of the organization to the
needs of society, the environment, and the internal staff becomes important especially when the
organization has a global reach.

In this regard, this particular document will review the existing state of corporate CSR and
propose realistic suggestions to help forward the cause of CSR.

Company Background

Infor is the third largest provider of enterprise applications and services, helping 70,000
customers in 194 countries improve operations, drive growth and quickly adapt to changes in
business demands.

Infor combines focused, hands-on industry experience with global breadth to help companies
deal with today’s challenges and prepare for tomorrow’s opportunities.

Infor offers deep industry-specific applications and suites, engineered for speed, using ground-
breaking technology that delivers a rich user experience, and flexible deployment options that
give customers a choice to run their businesses in the cloud, on-premises or both.

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Global Scale

Infor offers customers the benefits of a global company with local presence and experience.

 More than 70,000 customers

 180 direct offices in 40 countries
 Implementations and support capabilities in over 194 countries
 More than 12,400 worldwide employees—including 3,378 in development, 3,655 in
consulting services, and 1,647 in customer support

Our Customers Include:

 8 of the top 10 aerospace companies

 9 of the top 10 high tech companies
 9 of the top 10 pharmaceutical companies
 80 of the top 100 automotive suppliers
 19 of the top 35 retailers
 9 of the top 20 electrical distributors
 6 of the top 10 brewers
 Over 7,000 machinery manufacturers
 Over 1,100 apparel & footwear companies
 Over 1,100 state & local government agencies
 Over 3,000 financial services companies

Product Segments

Infor offers a complete array of products to manage every part of your front office, back office,
or supply chain operations. Whatever your role or responsibility, information flows seamlessly
and securely across these functions so the information you need is always right at your fingertips.
 Marketing Automation
 Customer Relationship Management
 Community Development and Regulations
 Discrete Manufacturing
 Process Manufacturing
 Supply Chain Management
 Warehouse Management
 Financial and Expense Management
 Human Capital and Workforce Management
 Public Sector
 Product Lifecycle Management
 Asset Management
 Performance Management
 Hospitality

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Infor PSSC (Manila)

In 2006, Minnesota based Lawson Global Software, opened a $2.5-million Philippine Solution
and Service Center (PSSC) in the country and earmarked $6 million to hire and train Filipino
staff members in line with its expansion in the Asia-Pacific region. The expansion in Manila,
Europe, the Middle East and Africa is a move the company undertook to better serve its growing
client case.

The PSSC will serve as a support center that will develop applications and improve software
products for the US headquarters to sell. The Philippine facility will also help provide after-sales
services. Lawson which already had a stable global presence, found another home in Fort
Bonifacio, Philippines.

From a startup organization of 40 dynamic individuals, Lawson PSSC Manila grew into a team
of approximately 800 professionals by the end of 2011 who consistently live up to Lawson’s
shared set of core values. From its simple abode in the central business district, Lawson PSSC
Manila has time and again proven that, despite the changes in environment, the quality of service
it provides remain consistent and has, in fact, gone up several notches since inception.

Lawson PSSC Manila officially changed it name to Infor PSSC Inc. on July 1, 2012 in relation to
the acquisition of the Minnesota based corporate office by Infor Global Software via Golden
Gate Capital Investors. The Manila office continues to move forward with its mandate to develop
new and innovative products for the global consumers and to provide world class support.

Current CSR State of the Company

Researching on the corporate state of CSR was surprising. In the product marketing kits
available in the corporate website, as early as 2007 there were initiatives on CSR integration with
the product. That is the Infor Lawson Products integrate in their Business Intelligent (BI
software) preconfigured parameters to measure and manage CSR programs by the company.

The company recognizes that customers will be slowly adapting CSR in their operations and will
eventually utilize the data and project processes inherent in the product to monitor and gauge
their CSR programs. In response to this, product enhancements and preconfigured tools were set
up for the customer to consider using.

However, a research on the corporate website and communications on the company itself doing
CSR activities was not readily available. There is no centralized team or committee in charge of
fulfilling the CSR initiatives of the company. There is no corporate communication available that
mentions socio civic activities or initiatives that contribute to society or the ecology.

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There were however, isolated and decentralized initiatives from the different local offices.
Outreach programs in the Singapore office, tree planting activities in the office in Germany,
beach environmental consciousness activities in Australia, and the like in other European
locations.

This is also the case for the Manila PSSC office. Infor PSSC Manila has been relatively active in
trying to push the CSR Agenda since 2009. There are strong leaders and managers pushing for
the advocacy, forefront of which is IRD Director PJ Reyes.

The PSSC CSR team has initiated activities on volunteerism, community outreach, and
environmental awareness. The company has “adopted” Western Bicutan National High School
and has since been the beneficiary of multiple activities. IT enablement training for the Teachers,
IT computer literacy programs for the students, repainting activities, classroom chairs and
blackboard repair activities and the like.

The Team has also contributed in doing Calamity Relief Support programs for the victims of
Ondoy and the recent habagat-Gener calamity. Environmental activities like Tree Planting and
Recycling advocacies have also been initiated by the CSR team.

The local CSR team has already had a three year relationship with the Western Bicutan National
High School. The CSR team has done several activites with the school for the students, teachers,
and the improvement of the physical premises.

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Earth hour campaign of the CSR team.

On Nov. 21, 63 Lawson Manila volunteers spent a day planting trees in a deforested area as part
of an effort to restore rainforests in the Philippines.

The event was organized by the Lawson Corporate Social Responsibility group in conjunction
with the Haribon Foundation’s Adopt a Seedling campaign.

With the help and pledges of 63 volunteers, 1,537 seedlings got planted in the Caliraya
watershed.

The tree-planting effort is part of the ROAD to 2020, an environmental conservation movement
to restore 1 million hectares of rainforests using native tree species by 2020. It aims to recover
and conserve biodiversity, optimize forest benefits and affect climate change, according to the
Haribon Web site.

Current CSR State of the Company

With the identified examples above, the company at the moment can be identified in the
Philanthropic stage of the CSR Continuum. The company along with its current base of CSR
advocates is trying to do activities that are not necessarily required by law but helps promote the
“social well being” of its employees.

Engaging in CSR activities that help others outside the company and society in general help
make the employees feel good about themselves. They feel they make a difference and that also
translates to making a better work place for everybody.

However, the company is still not yet there in the stage where as a company, it articulates in its
mission and values the specific goals and aspirations towards doing CSR work. The potential is

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definitely there, however translating that to actual policy and an overarching mandate in terms of
corporate values is another matter altogether.

Another aspect for consideration in determining the current state of the company in its CSR
campaign is the analysis of the corporate citizenship maturity. This is a very important
consideration because no matter how good the intent of management in doing CSR work, if the
company employees and key movers are not in the same state of agreement, that is there is no
concurrent consensus, the result will always be in-action and stagnation.

The employees / corporate citizens need to be constantly moving forward to the achievement of
the overall goal and vision set about by management or the CSR oversight committee. If this is
not the case, the CSR initiative will bog down and will not move forward.

In this respect, the current status of the the PSSC corporate citizens is still in the Elementary
Stage (Stage 1). By definition this stage only promotes compliance to the legal requirements and
possible lip service to actual CSR activities. Although the current CSR team is able to show they
are already beyond this stage with reference to their accomplishments, the company corporate
citizens as a whole still are un-involved and would case less about these activities. On the
average, only 30-90 employees out of 900 will actively participate in any CSR activity initiated
by the CSR team.

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Suggestions for Improvements

CSR initiatives can always move forward no matter what the obstacles are. For the company,
some realistic suggestions are identified below”

 Increase Awareness (Knowing is Half the Battle) – this is a very important activity. There
must be effective information campaigns targeted to other corporate citizens. Something
like Doing CSR gives Fulfilment.
 Ad Campaigns
 Company Values Alignment

 Recruit more Volunteers (Strength in Numbers) – ad campaigns should translate to

recruitments. More leg power, more hands, more minds to work together in trying to
make new and innovative plans of action. The Key members should be recruited
 Get Buy-in from ExeCom (Champion to lobby for budget and support)
 Get Buy-in from HR (translate CSR in policy and regulations)
 Appoint a committee directly under the ExeCom from the ManCom

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  Launch Internal Initiatives (Quick Wins) – identify initiatives that can be done in the
office with minimal cost and push for them. This will increase visibility and credibility to
the entire corporate citizen base.
 Cup-less Vendo Machines
 Reduced Paper Documentation Usage
 Reduce / Recycle / Precycle

 Continue On-going Projects (Build on Successes) – if it works why change it, so for
successful activities and initiatives, there must be continuity. This will provide the CSR
team some balance and fundamental credibity and purpose. The team can always mention
these continous successful activities as part of their track record which lends credibility to
new and untested initiatives. Successes provide the needed emotional buffer investment
for new and untested activities.
 Community Partnerships (West Bicutan Elementary School)
 Foundation Partnerships (ChildHope, Bantay Bata)

CSR Initiatives Implementation

Lastly in realization of the suggestions above, we would like to learn from others who have been
successful in their CSR initiatives. One such implementation is the Plan-Do-Check-Act Cycle
(PDCA) adapted from the Ajinomoto Corp. This PDCA approach from Ajinomoto is what they
are using to achieve their 2020 CSR Vision.

The Plan-Do-Check-Act Cycle is a popular process tool you plan, test and incorporate feedback
before committing to implementation. This is often referred to as the Deming Cycle or the
Deming Wheel after its proponent, W Edwards Deming. It is also sometimes called the Shewhart
Cycle.

Deming is best known as a pioneer of the quality management approach and for introducing
statistical process control techniques for manufacturing to the Japanese, who used them with
great success. He believed that a key source of production quality lay in having clearly defined,
repeatable processes. And so the PDCA Cycle as an approach to change and problem solving is
very much at the heart of Deming's quality-driven philosophy.

The four phases in the Plan-Do-Check-Act Cycle involve:

 Plan: Identifying and analyzing the problem.
 Do: Developing and testing a potential solution.
 Check: Measuring how effective the test solution was, and analyzing whether it could be
improved in any way.
 Act: Implementing the improved solution fully.

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The CSR team and the subteams need to use the PDCA cycle in each of the projects that has
been identified and in the overall implementation plan of the CSR initiative for the company.

Conclusion

Implementing CSR in a corpotation is definitely a challenge. It involves deliberate action and

planning on all levels from the management to the least of the corporate citizens. There has to be
a champion in the executive management team or at least someone with close ties / influence to
the executive management team to get any traction on the CSR initiative.

In general, the company likes the idea of CSR however planning and execution is still the
challenge, typical of any endeavor worth doing. As of the moment, the company is still a
neophyte in the CSR realm and would gain maturity as years progress. The important ingredient
of management buy-in is critical, at the same time the maturity and involvement of corporate
citizens in all levels of the company.

As of the moment the company can only do so much in their CSR efforts. However, that is not to
say that there are no quick wins to be done. Continue the current activities locally, Plan, Do,
Check and Act on them then afterwhich improve on them for the nexy cyle. At the same time
possibly lobby the CSR agenda to corporate management so that an overaching committee or
agenda on the global level is created. This is the battle plan moving forward.

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 References

Ajinomoto Corporate Website. (2009). Coporate Social Responsibility 21st Century Challenges .
Retrieved August 20, 2012, from http://www.ajinomoto.com/csr/idea/index.html

Infor Corporate Portal. (2009). Corporate Information. Retrieved August 20, 2012, from
http://www.infor.com/company/

Lawson Wire. (2009). PSSC Manila Corporate Social Responsibility Wiki. Retrieved August 20,
2012, from http://wire.lawson.com/intentia/wire2000.nsf/Index2?Openframeset&login

Mind Tolls. (2007). Plan-Do-Check Act. Retrieved August 20, 2012, from
http://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newPPM_89.htm

Wikipedia-The Free Encyclopedia. (2012, June 17). PDCA. Retrieved August 20, 2012, from
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PDCA

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