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阿伦·克拉莫（Aron Cramer）
商业就是在商言商……但它应该是合法经营，并且不应以牺牲后代为代价。”
这一新说法，或者更确切地说是修正了米尔顿·弗里德曼（Milton Friedman）的说法。被Interface公司的创始人，雷·安得森(Ray Anderson) 用来描绘当今企业在社会中的真实地位。没有赢得市场的产品和服务，任何一家公司都不可能在竞争激烈的世界市场中存活下来。同样, 如果企业对于一些紧迫的全球性问题置之不理，也不能取得成功。
过去10年来，企业的关注点已经开始多元化。从沃尔玛(Wal-Mart)到瑞士再保险公司(Swiss Re)，从壳牌公司(Shell)到可口可乐公司(Coca-Cola)，许多主流公司正在主动地关注一些全球性的挑战，如气候变化、获得清洁用水、减少冲突和推进法治等。
正如企业已重新制订其发展议程一样，企业也重新审视与其它机构的协作关系。企业有自身的角色定位，但只有在与其它机构协作的基础上才能更加出色地发挥这一角色的作用。事实上，企业、公共部门与快速成长的非政府组织(NGO)都已经意识到，它们在一起协作时，就能取得最大成功。
许多组织已经接受“合作模式”是成功的主要途径。而美国商务社会责任协会(BSR)一直致力于推动公司，公共部门和人权、劳工与环境组织之间的协作，把它作为我们工作的重心，以创造一个更加公正和可持续发展的经济环境。这些合作关系曾经是让人难以意料的“人咬狗”的故事，而今它们却成为公司、公共部门和民间社团的核心战略。
正如私有企业更加重视同非商业团体之间的合作一样，政府和非政府组织也都十分认可协作的模式。美国国际开发署的全球发展联盟已经为扶贫项目筹集到数百亿美元，而瑞典政府已设立了一个全球责任协作办事处，上述两个组织在本节中都有论述。自柏林墙被推倒以来，据有关统计，非政府组织已经增长了10倍，现在他们把开展运动与参与合作结合起来。绿色和平(Greenpeace)、人权观察(Human Rights Watch)和乐施会（Oxfam），以及数以千计的其它组织，其中许多来自南半球，它们每天都在与企业协作，共同应对全球性挑战。
新模式的事例比比皆是。
仅仅在10年前，服装行业还在争论是否应当为全球的工作条件的改善承担责任，而今，它们同国际劳工组织(ILO)及有关政府官员协作多年，以确保在柬埔寨以及其它地方的公平工作条件。能源开采行业透明度行动计划已把20多家政府与组织，例如开放社会研究所、透明国际，以及石油、天然气和矿业公司组织到一起，以减少能源勘探开采和生产过程中在收入管理上的腐败行为。
这些都是好消息，而这个趋势将会持续下去。
但是，为了发挥这种趋势的真正潜力，就必须加快速度和成熟起来（就必须加速来推进这种模式，使它尽快成熟起来）。 如果过去10年来的挑战是如何证明合作原则的价值，今后10年就要求我們设法把这些成功的模式规模化。 要实现这个更加雄心勃勃的目标，就需要进一步的改进和完善合作模式，各种类型的组织都需要培养新的能力，同时治理模式需要更加的成熟。
要建立一个公正和可持续发展的经济环境，这种协作的模式是必不可少的，号召大家行动起来也是非常明确的。 通过协调企业、政府和民间团体的不同职能，我们可以实现共同的理想，这样，我们也能为企业的发展前景作出贡献，而这个前景是既能满足这一代人的需要，又能考虑到后代子孙健康成长的需要。成功的含义就是我们既实践了米尔顿·弗里德曼的理论，也验证了雷·安得森的新说。
（译校《WTO经济导刊》企业社会责任发展中心，标题为编者后加，未经作者审议）
BSR Articles for CHINA WTO Tribune
“The business of business is business … but it ought to be legitimate business, and not at the expense of future generations.”
With this update — or, more accurately, correction — of Milton Friedman’s famous statement, Interface Inc. founder Ray Anderson illustrates an essential truth about business’s place in society today. No business survives in a hypercompetitive global marketplace without winning products and services. But, equally so, business cannot succeed if pressing global questions are left unaddressed.
Over the past 10 years, business has begun to diversify its portfolio of interests. Mainstream companies from Wal-Mart to Swiss Re and from Shell to Coca-Cola are actively looking at the significance of global challenges like climate change, access to clean water, conflict reduction and the advance of the rule of law.
Just as business has redefined its agenda, so too has it redefined the way it engages with other institutions. Business has a role to play, but it can only fill this role in partnership with others. Indeed, business, the public sector and the fast-growing nongovernmental organization (NGO) sector have awakened to the fact that they succeed best when they work together.
Many organizations have embraced the “collaboration paradigm” as the main route to success. At Business for Social Responsibility (BSR), we have facilitated partnerships between companies, the public sector, and human rights, labor and environmental organizations as a central part of our efforts to build a more just and sustainable economy. These partnerships were once a counterintuitive “man bites dog” story; they are now a core strategy for companies, the public and civil society.
Just as the private sector has gained a much stronger appreciation for collaboration with noncommercial entities, so too have governments and NGOs embraced the partnership model. The United States Agency for International Development’s Global Development Alliance has engineered billions of dollars for poverty alleviation projects, and the Swedish government has established an Office for Partnerships in Global Responsibility, both described in this section. The NGO sector, which by some accounts has grown tenfold since the fall of the Berlin Wall, now combines campaigning with collaboration. Greenpeace, Human Rights Watch and Oxfam, as well as thousands of other organizations, many from the global south, are working daily with business to address global challenges.
Examples of new models abound. The apparel industry, which little more than a decade ago was debating whether it had responsibility for global working conditions, is now in a multiyear partnership with the International Labour Organization (ILO) and government officials to ensure fair working conditions in Cambodia and elsewhere. The Extractives Industry Transparency Initiative has brought together more than 20 governments with groups like the Open Society Institute and Transparency International and with oil, gas and mining companies to reduce corruption in management of revenues from energy exploration and production.
This is all good news, and the trend will continue.
But for this trend to capture its true potential, it must accelerate and mature. If the challenge of the last decade was to demonstrate the value of the principle of collaboration, the coming decade demands that we find ways to take these examples to scale. To achieve this more ambitious goal, models will need to be refined; all organizations will need to build new capacities, and governance models will need to mature.
The partnership approach is essential to building a just and sustainable economy, and the call to action is clear. We can achieve a common vision by leveraging the distinct skills of business, government and civil society. In this way, we will make good on the vision of business that serves the interests of the current generation and also the wellbeing of future generations. Success means that we satisfy both Ray Anderson and Milton Friedman.
By Aron Cramer
President and CEO
Business for Social Responsibility
www.bsr.org