Who’s Out There? CFOs can’t ignore social media. But what’s the ROI?

The power of social media — or, at least, its potential power — is not lost on American companies. Many are using it successfully for everything from new-product marketing to employee collaboration to innovative and very effective forms of customer service. But, most companies are struggling to turn nascent, ad hoc efforts into something resembling an actual strategy.

Clearly, social media engages enormous numbers of people: how else to explain how Starbucks got 8,006,349 Facebook “likes” (as of early December 2011) for its Frappuccino. More broadly, the numbers on social media adoption are spectacular. As of December, Facebook claimed 800 million active users worldwide, with 50% logging on every day. Twitter reported an average of 460,000 accounts created per day late last fall, with an average of 1 billion tweets per week. As of November 3, 2011, LinkedIn had 135 million members in more than 200 countries; two new users join every second.

That action is not just limited to consumers. A survey of 4,261 global executives conducted by McKinsey late last year found 72% reporting that their companies deployed at least one social technology. A November 2011 Towers Watson study of 604 global organizations found 69% planning to increase their use of social media tools over the next 12 months.

Read the full online article “Who’s Out There?” at CFO.com. For additional insight, refer to the CICA Practical Guidance Series, especially Using the Internet in Corporate Reporting: Practical Guidance for Managing Web 2.0 and Social Media. Also, see the four-part series on Using the Internet in Corporate Reporting (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3 and Part 4).

Sustainability 2.0: Using sustainability to drive business innovation and growth

Sustainability can be a game changer. It can drive innovation by introducing new design constraints that shape how key resources— energy, carbon, water, materials and waste—are used in products and processes. It can also suggest areas where innovation can pay off especially well. These five resources are ubiquitous throughout an organization’s supply chain, and the potential to boost efficiency and cut costs across these resources is significant.

Sustainability-driven innovation goes beyond designing green products and packaging solely on their inherent virtue. It entails improving business operations and processes to become more efficient, with a goal of dramatically reducing costs and waste. It’s also about insulating a business from the risk of resource price shocks and shortages. Taken together these enhancements can deliver business benefits that go far beyond the bottom line—whether it’s improving the overall carbon footprint, enhancing the brand image or engaging employees in a more profound way.

Often, there are significant opportunities for organizations to use sustainability to drive innovation and improve how they do business. A methodical analysis can highlight areas ripe for attention. Taking it a step further, that analysis may yield even greater benefits if it is extended beyond the company’s own walls through collaboration with suppliers, customers and alliance partners. Changes to each link in the supply chain can affect everything upstream and downstream and create financial benefits for everyone involved.

To reach this new frontier, leading organizations are taking a hard look inside their operations and across their supply chains, assessing where they are, prioritizing initiatives, and then formulating a broad sustainability strategy to foster product and process innovation to achieve their goals. They are also adopting metrics that more accurately measure their progress and improve their image in the marketplace. Companies that achieve this vision have the opportunity to enhance revenue and brand value, engage effectively with key stakeholders, manage risks and reduce costs.

To learn more, read the complimentary article reprint “Sustainability 2.0: Using sustainability to drive business innovation and growth” in Deloitte Review, Issue 10, January 2012. The article is also available for reading online.

FEE Factsheet on Integrated Reporting – January 2012

The FEE (Fédération des Experts-comptables Européens - Federation of European Accountants) initially published a Factsheet on Integrated Reporting in January 2011, introducing the concept as an emerging approach to reporting by organizations. Since then, debates and developments around integrated reporting have grown and will continue.

According to a recent FEE news release, “Integrated Reporting is seen as a major development in corporate reporting. FEE releases a factsheet explaining how integrated reporting differs from traditional reporting and highlighting some of the steps taken by the International Integrated Reporting Council (IIRC). Planned actions from the IIRC include publishing an analysis of the responses received on the Discussion Paper in March 2012.”

For more information, read the FEE paper “Integrated Reporting Update, January 2012.” Also, read the December 14, 2011, FEE Comment Letter to the IIRC.