Corporate Social Investment: A Guide to Creating a Meaningful Legacy

By Setlogane Manchidi

This book is easily one of the best works yet on how to make corporate social investment work for the benefit of ordinary people … should be required reading by every CSI practitioner in Africa and abroad - much time, money and energy could be saved. - PROFESSOR JONATHAN JANSEN
Developing an impactful corporate social investment (CSI) strategy and approach with real potential to positively change people's lives can be a tricky exercise. Those grappling with how best to approach CSI will find thought-provoking insights in this book that will contribute positively to how they view, shape and execute their CSI strategy. In a most accessible way, this guidebook on CSI presents an instructive and constructive way of building a CSI strategy.
Setlogane Manchidi, Head of CSI at Investec, is known in the CSI space for his passion and strong desire to see meaningful change in people's lives. In this book, informed by his experiences as a CSI practitioner over the years, he unpacks what he considers to be essential aspects of CSI practice. Manchidi adopts and articulates a question-based approach to creating an effective CSI strategy.
Recognising that business is not separate from society, Manchidi suggests that companies need to ask themselves some serious questions, amongst them: Why should they be doing CSI and, importantly, why are they doing it? The questions, which are reflected on the cover of the book, are difficult ones which require complete honesty, deep consideration and the necessity of placing 'impact' at the centre of the formulation of CSI strategy.
Through this book, Corporate Social Investment, Setlogane Manchidi reminds us of the significance of a carefully considered CSI strategy and approach, especially on a continent such as Africa with many socio-economic challenges that continue to impact negatively on ordinary people's day-to-day lives.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Tracey McDonald Publishers
• Release date: Oct 15, 2018
• ISBN: 9780639939575

Book preview

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First published by Tracey McDonald Publishers, 2018

Suite No. 53, Private Bag X903, Bryanston, South Africa, 2021

www.traceymcdonaldpublishers.com

Copyright © Setlogane Manchidi, 2018

All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form

or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise,

without the prior written permission from the publisher.

ISBN 978-0-6399395-6-8

e-ISBN (ePUB) 978-0-6399395-7-5

Text design and typesetting by Patricia Crain, Empressa

Front cover design by Ron Olivier, incynq solutions

Digital conversion by Johan Koortzen

Printed and bound by Pinetown Printers (Pty) Ltd

I dedicate this book to my late grandmother Ms Nkidi Johannah Kwenaite who passed away on Sunday the 15th September 2013 at the age of 93. Koko Nkidi, to the world you were our grandmother but to us you were the world. We were very fortunate to have you as the Kwenaite family matriarch – so lucky to have called you our mother, grandmother and great-grandmother. We will forever cherish the special moments we shared with you. Your name and teachings remain deeply encrypted in our hearts. May this book be a symbol of the legacy you have nurtured and left behind. It is an affirmation that your light will continue to shine for as long as I live.

May your soul rest in everlasting peace Mokwena.

CONTENTS

FOREWORD by Stephen Koseff

FOREWORD by Professor Jonathan Jansen

INTRODUCTION

Chapter 1 WHY? 

Chapter 2 WHAT?

Chapter 3 FOR WHOM?

Chapter 4 WITH WHOM?

Chapter 5 HOW?

Chapter 6 WHEN?

Chapter 7 HOW ARE WE DOING?

Chapter 8 WHAT NEXT?

APPRECIATION

FOREWORD

by Stephen Koseff

This is a timely book as South Africa finds itself at its most critical juncture since the dawn of democracy in 1994. Despite having one of the world’s most progressive constitutions, South African society remains one of the most unequal globally. The majority of the population have not benefited economically from the democracy dividend. This has contributed to the highly charged political environment with increasing calls for ‘radical economic transformation’ and ‘accelerated inclusive growth’. If you strip away the political rhetoric, structurally transforming the economy and igniting growth for the benefit of the majority of the population are imperatives that can no longer be ignored. The consequences of doing nothing are too dire to contemplate.

Corporate South Africa has an equal role to government in addressing this gaping inequality – some would probably argue even more. Business’s survival is directly linked to society’s sustainability and success. It is vital that business lives in society rather than off it. This is the motto we live by at Investec and is the thrust of our corporate social responsibility. Ours is to make a meaningful contribution to the world we live in by contributing to society, creating jobs, paying taxes, enabling businesses to thrive, nurturing the entrepreneurial spirit, embracing diversity and respecting others.

Gone are the days of business focusing purely on making profits for shareholders. While this was certainly the case during my days at business school, today business has to contend with multiple stakeholders including employees, clients, governments, regulators, investors and unions. The triple bottom line – which evaluates performance across social, environmental and financial perspectives – creates greater value for both business and the broader society. This need for a more holistic approach to value creation was a key lesson from the global financial crisis.

It’s clear that we no longer live in purely financial times. The world is a much more complex place and broader stakeholder groups have more power than ever before. It is important to remember this as we grapple with our country’s deep systemic challenges. Given South Africa’s unemployment crisis, education and entrepreneurship are therefore central to Investec’s corporate and social investment strategy. It is our strong belief that these areas are the most effective way to create employment and wealth. Our overall aim is to create opportunities for young people to become active participants in society, thus transforming the economy and creating more inclusive growth. Our initiatives range from high school to tertiary, as well as graduate development and entrepreneurship programmes. We’ve had hundreds of previously disadvantaged deserving students progress through our programmes to become active participants in the economy. They have achieved this through hard work and the sheer desire to change their fortunes.

But to truly make a difference we need a coordinated approach. Business, government and labour need to collaborate to create economic opportunities for a majority of the population. This is what will leave a meaningful and lasting legacy for future generations.

FOREWORD

by Professor Jonathan Jansen

This book is easily one of the best works yet on how to make corporate social investment work for the benefit of ordinary people. Neither dry research nor boastful anecdote, this book offers ‘the wisdom of practice’ through the pen of one of the most experienced, passionate and insightful CSI practitioners in the field today. It is well known that Investec’s Promaths investment has produced more black mathematics and science distinctions in one year than any other non-state initiative and that those high school graduates have gone on to obtain degrees in the most prized professions from the actuarial sciences to medicine and physics.

In the process, individual lives have been changed and domestic economies transformed even as a whole country benefited from such prudent investment. This spectacular achievement bears the fingerprints of one of our great CSI leaders, Setlogane Manchidi, and I have been privileged to work with him to bear witness to how one human being can rekindle hope from Phuthaditjhaba in the rural Free State to Dobsonville in sprawling Soweto.

This guidebook should be required reading by every CSI practitioner in South Africa and abroad – much time, money and energy could be saved.

INTRODUCTION

After I matriculated from Mantlatle II Secondary School in the rural village of Ga-Phaahla Mmakadikwe in Limpopo, I had two possible career choices in mind. One was law and the other was social development. While I thought law could be an interesting and possibly more financially rewarding career to pursue, my upbringing and local surroundings, which were characterised by socio-economic challenges, ultimately got the better of me. I wanted to follow a career that would lead to the development and empowerment of others, so social development was the career line I chose.

As a son of a domestic worker I grew up surrounded by real everyday struggles for survival. As a result, I came to appreciate every opportunity for self-improvement that came my way and, ultimately, the facilitation of similar opportunities for others became my desire for my future life and career. After a few years studying at the University of Cape Town, I knew I had made the right decision. I subsequently joined Accenture as a business analyst and made it to the position of management consultant during my time there. Although it was not part of my day-to-day role, while at Accenture I voluntarily served on the social responsibility committee simply because this is a genuine passion of mine.

While my time at Accenture remains among my professional career highlights – in part because it was my first real job with its growth challenges – my longest career to date as a corporate social investment (CSI) practitioner at Investec remains the brightest. It has been a privilege to pursue that which I am passionate about within Investec and I am grateful for the opportunity, the scope and the executive support my colleagues and I within the CSI division have received over the years. I feel I must disclose that this has been a happy association and one which has allowed my own views around CSI to bloom, while complementing the values and mission and ambitions of the firm. It is thanks to my experiences in this space that I saw fit to put pen to paper in the hope of making a contribution to the CSI knowledge base and practice both in my home country and possibly around the world.

During the following pages I will occasionally dip in and out of my experiences at Investec, not to blow my own trumpet or that of the firm, but by way of demonstration or to make a point. I think it is vitally important for practitioners in the CSI space to have access to practical insights as well as theoretical views.

Without sharing our experiences and mistakes, or successes and challenges, we cannot expect to professionalise this sector and have CSI take its rightful place in the curriculum of MBA and general management degrees. Throughout much of 2013 and 2014 I undertook a more academic research journey into the field of CSI – and corporate social responsibility (CSR) – for my master’s thesis. It was a wonderful opportunity to cement my own views on the nature of CSI in South Africa and fully immerse myself in current global thinking and debates around corporate giving. Now and then in this book I allude to some of my findings in order to make one or two key points.

I am by no means a world renowned expert in the space, but I began to feel that my experience could be very useful if shared in a book that aims to be a guide to CSI for the academic, CSI practitioner and any other interested individual or entity. Writing this book has been about making a contribution to the CSI knowledge base. It is my hope that it will help find ways of making our CSI approach and associated initiatives more impactful for the benefit of the many individuals and communities that desperately need carefully thought through CSI initiatives. May those grappling with how best to approach CSI find points raised and discussed here thought provoking in a way that positively contributes to how they view and shape their CSI strategy and approach going forward.

In an attempt to add to the richness of our journey together, it’s important to introduce a few key points before unpacking each of the following chapters. First and foremost I think it’s important to preface this book with an appreciation of the fact that corporate giving in South Africa wears more of a CSI hat, as opposed to a CSR hat. But CSI on its own is not CSR. Understanding this key differentiator requires an appreciation of the unique context in which business operates in South Africa.

CSI as a part of corporate social responsibility (CSR)

Corporate South Africa tends to use the terms corporate social investment (CSI) and corporate social responsibility (CSR) pretty interchangeably, and generally they are understood to mean the same thing. But for practitioners in the field, and in order to align South African best practice in the field with global norms, it is important to appreciate that CSI is generally regarded as being a component of CSR. In the main, CSR is the broader realisation that the long-term sustainability and success of business depends on the sustainability of the communities in which business operates.

Let’s first start with the definitions. Trialogue, which publishes the annual CSI Handbook in South Africa¹, puts it this way: ‘Many people mistakenly conflate the two, understanding CSR in a very narrow sense as being a company’s CSI activities and contributions. On the contrary, CSR is an overarching value-based framework, which encompasses all aspects of business operations, ensuring that how a company conducts business, and manufactures its products, is done in an ethical and socially responsible manner.’

Trialogue notes: ‘While CSI programmes do not operate in isolation of other CSR considerations, CSI is only one way in which companies fulfil their social responsibility obligations and, as such, is only one element of the broader CSR agenda.’

This difference has a distinct bearing on the ‘why’ in the South African context, because this ‘why’ is driven and informed by the inequalities caused in our society as a result of many years of apartheid and its associated practices. While CSR’s overarching drive is for businesses to behave ethically and to consider the impact of operations on the environment, society and employees, CSI falls under the auspices of philanthropic responsibilities. CSR’s four components include: economic considerations, legal obligations, ethical drivers and philanthropic endeavours; CSI focuses on the last.

As I noted in