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World Changing Action: The Certification Revolution

Micheal Conroy On April 15, 2008, I had the opportunity to see Michael Conroy the author of “Branded! How the Certification Revolution is Transforming Global Corporations” speak at Colorado State University. Although I was vaguely aware of the various boycotts and bad press happening to various corporations I had no idea how effective the technique of attacking ones brand was in the market place.

It turns out that in our global economic system, share price is often tied more closely to the perceived value of the brand in the market place then it is to the actual capital and product delivered. This has given many NGO’s the ability to leverage the brand vulnerability to get corporations to clean up their supply chains.

Michael Conroy presented many starting examples of how companies like Home Depot, Victoria Secret, and Nike were brought to their knees by NGO market actions. He emphasized that world consumers have moved into an era of demanding 3^rd party validation and certification on product claims.

I did some checking to see how deep these types of programs are penetrating. I found that the Forest Stewardship Council in the United States had certified 1670 businesses with Chain of Custody Certificates indicating that they buy and sell wood products from well managed forests. Names on the list included companies such as 84 Lumber, ACE Commercial, Boise Cascade. Clearly this is no fringe activity.

Leadership Learning:

This is clearly a tool for creating high impact. For anyone working in the arena for corporate social justice or environment stewardship these types of programs appear to be quite effective.

Overall I was impressed by what Michael Conroy had to share. I am sure that his book goes into much greater detail than the hour long presentation. I will be reading it in detail in the near future.

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