Walking the talk in the Corporate world

In my quest for conceptualizing the notion of Corporate Social Responsibility in the South African context, there is a realization that stakeholders need to walk the talk. The notion of corporate social responsibility has been a subject of criticism. Many critics postulate it as a form of lip services in which there are more words than action. South Africa is characterized by a strong modern, skilled and well capitalized production economy that is co-existing with informally, unskilled and marginalized sub economies. There is a great need to incorporate these two economies into a formidable force. This requires the bringing of people from the informal sector into the mainstream economy. Such a notion can be realized by initiating the concept of Enterprise development, which aims at encouraging sustainable economic development through provisions of access to information, advice and support. It is however necessary to foster a community environment that is supportive to entrepreneurship initiatives. The enterprise facilitator concept is a bottom up approach to development that recognizes the potential of individuals’ ideas and develops them into self-supporting enterprises. The private sector in partnership with the government can provide a nurturing environment in which promising entrepreneurship initiatives can thrive.