We seek to work with clients and partners who share our values. These values guide our approach to doing business.

Sustainability
Sustainability is a concept that describes an ideal future state of relationships between the ecological system and the social system. We extend this concept to the notion of social sustainability. We value and strive for corporate systems and behaviour based on satisfying basic human needs for inclusion, respect, autonomy and safety. A socially sustainable system means stakeholders choose to stay in the system, or want to join the system. Employees, customers, investors, communities and suppliers are the key participants in a socially sustainable system. A socially sustainable system also acknowledges, fosters and respects the interests of ‘silent’ stakeholders like the environment in corporate strategy and decision making.

Participation
We participate with clients in solving problems. This means sharing the journey towards social responsibility with our clients and partners. Most client-consultant relationships operate on a power dynamic. We reject this in favour of a participation dynamic. To explain what we mean, consider the relationship in which the all-knowing consultant dispenses a prescription that the client is expected to take. This is like a doctor-patient dynamic, where power resides with the consultant. In other relationships, the client has a specific need for a technical expert to solve a particular problem. The diagnosis and the treatment plan has been made by the client and the consultancy simply needs to carry it out. Power resides with the client. In contrast to these two extremes, we value a participatory model in which the issue of power in the client-consultant relationship takes a back seat to the value of participation.

Public Knowledge
We are committed to creating public knowledge that helps firms and their stakeholders achieve sustainable relationships. We believe that knowledge about social responsibility must reside in the public domain. While protecting our significant investment in intellectual property, we are committed to placing our continually developing knowledge in the public domain where it can be discussed and evaluated. We therefore publish what we have learned and continually strive to extend what we know, by participating in a knowledge journey with our clients and partners. Please check our resources page for publications.

Professionalism
A professional strives for the highest level of competence in all that she does. We have specialised skills and knowledge in corporate social responsibility which we continually expand. We are strict and scrupulous about the methods we use to develop knowledge. We aim for conceptual clarity and methodological rigor in all our work. The process of placing our emerging knowledge in the public domain through publication helps us maintain intellectual rigor. Further, we believe that professionals ultimately work for the public good. Therefore, while respecting client confidentiality, we use our professional knowledge and skills to seek to balance the needs of our clients and partners and the interests of society.