Obama has a golden opportunity to alter America’s CSR landscape

Sometimes it’s wise to be careful what you wish for. Supporters of Barack Obama now have ‘change’ not only in the White House but also in the financial markets, which have fallen into chaos.

Once the president-elect has been sworn in on 20 January he will be attempting to implement a wide-ranging new programme with one, maybe, two, eyes on the financial ball. And with billions of dollars of government money already committed by the Bush administration to bailing out the banks, he could also have one hand tied behind his back.

This will be as true on the corporate responsibility front as any other. Obama is clearly an instinctive supporter of the notion of CSR, even if he rarely uses that term. In his election campaign he announced a raft of policies that if implemented will alter the American corporate responsibility landscape.

But as he tries to deal with the consequences of the economic meltdown, will the new president have the time and money to devote much attention to such plans? Certainly he has a tough job on his hands – and he cannot devote vast swathes of the presidency to addressing issues such as flexible working when hundreds of thousands are losing their jobs.

Yet along with the pressures that emanate from the credit crunch come opportunities for real movement. If the financial crisis has done one thing, as Peter Kinder points out in his interview with EP on page 11, it has created an atmosphere in which unfettered capitalism can at last be reined in. What better time for Obama to preach responsible business behaviour and, with the solid support of Democrat majorities in both houses, to regulate not just in the financial markets but elsewhere too?

What’s more, support for corporate responsibility does not necessarily involve a huge amount of government spending. Some of the programmes Obama has proposed, such as help for businesses to hire more staff with disabilities, need hard cash. But introducing necessary regulation and constructing a framework in which CSR thrives would not be a costly exercise. In many ways, the best thing a new administration can do is to send strong signals that it expects business to behave more ethically. If this is all that Obama does, then it will be a vast improvement on the woeful reign of George W Bush.

Delegates at last month’s Business in Social Responsibility conference in New York were therefore right to be optimistic about the future of CSR under Obama (see page one). As much as the financial crisis would give him an excuse for inaction in this field, it also presents a chance to make a real difference. There is no reason to believe he will spurn that opportunity.