McKinsey sums it up

I'll admit, sometimes I don't quite get all the shapes and flow diagrams in their articles, but for me this McKinsey report ,"When social issues become strategic" sums the business arguments for corporate responsiblity particularly well. This bit especially good summary of why corporate communications should respond, "businesses have never been insulated from social or political expectations. What's different today is the intensifying pressure and the growing complexity of the forces, the speed with which they change, and the ability of activists to mobilize public opinion.Yet even as the social contract evolves, the typical corporate response appears to have become increasingly flat footed".