What is CSR and Citizenship at Microsoft?

Brad Smith, general counsel and executive vice president, Legal and Corporate Affairs at Microsoft recently spoke at the Boston College for Corporate Citizenship 2012 International Corporate Citizenship Conference about what CSR and Citizenship means at Microsoft.

He covered a range of areas from the importance of picking a passion, to addressing problems quickly and above all aligning CSR with the company’s fundamental values and mission.

“I believe that every large institution, whether it's a company or a government or a university or you name it, needs to have a conscience. The conscience won't have the answer to every question, but the conscience is a voice that needs to be heard. The conscience needs to be a voice that is sensitive to the fact that there's other voices that will need to be heard as well. Businesses are not philanthropies. We do need to have a sustainable business model, but the conscience matters.”

A big thank you to Boston College’s Center for Corporate Citizenship for allowing us to publish the talk.