Hi all,

Whilst at Babson, I had the pleasure with some of the other fellows to go and hear Jeff Swartz, CEO of Timberland group, speak to us about his and his organisations passion to be socially responsible. He told a story of people's skepticism around his messages of "doing good", as the perception of a CEO's role is delivering results to shareholders quarter on quarter not saving the planet "one shoe at a time". He described his eureka moment, whilst in a meeting with Bill Clinton, then president of the US. Clinton told him that his corporate social responsibility messages (CSR) would only be taken seriously if they aligned with the commercial goals of the company - i.e. it makes commercial sense for Timberland to be socially responsible.

The message above has stuck with me in the months after leaving that session With Jeff Swartz and I was delighted that the sentiment is a fundamental value of Redeem PLC here in Falkirk. This company exists to be commercially successful and is dogged in its pursuit of financial targets as any other organisation. However, central to that is the CSR values. As a recycling company, there is clearly a green element to the business, however, the company exploits other initiatives, such as working with and rehabilitating offenders back in to the work place, to be responsible whilst enjoying the commercial benefits of those schemes.

I think as I move towards leading my own organisation in the future, I increasingly recognise that being socially responsible should no longer be a burden, rather, social responsibility opportunity to maximise commercial success, whilst doing something good at the same time. Leaders here in Scotland would be negligent to ignore the opportunities afforded by being more responsible.

Finally....good luck to all the Undergrad as they prepare to return home from Houston and beyond - I hope you enjoyed your time away. I look forward to getting together and working out how best we can all exploit this great network of the Saltire Foundation to move forward with our careers.

Si