Flow's tops in corporate social responsibility

Columbus Communication Jamaica Limited, operator of Flow and Columbus Business Solutions, is this year's recipient of the award for Excellence in Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), for its contribution to education, sports, arts and culture and community development.

The company received the award on Tuesday, September 25, at the second annual American Chamber of Commerce of Jamaica (AMCHAM) awards to individuals and organisations for their philanthropic and social responsibility efforts. Diana Stewart, president of AMCHAM Jamaica, said the programme is designed to showcase businesses, individuals and non-profit organisations that are driving economic and social progress on the island through social intitatives.

The Gleaner spoke to Columbus Communications about its approach to corporate social responsibility and why companies should invest in broader social initiatives.

Michele English, president and COO of Columbus, says corporate social responsibility is part of the overall business strategy of enabling innovation and service excellence. "We take our CSR responsibilities as seriously as we take our commitment to our investors and shareholders, our customers and our employees," she said. "Our goal is to leverage our unique capabilities in supporting social causes while simultaneously improving our competitive context. We believe it is our responsibility to promote social, economic and environmental sustainability-as we profitably grow our business and reach higher levels of performance."

Education A PRIORITY

"From the onset we made education our priority with the Building Leaders Through Technology programme designed to enhance the performance of students and teachers via free Internet and Cable TV" said English. In just six years, the programme has grown to include over 140 public schools and now incorporates mentoring and skills-building activities.

In sports, 1,426 players and coaches have directly benefited from Flow's sports sponsorships. For example, in 2011, in the Flow/ESPN football clinics, a new skills-building segment was introduced to local coaches demon-strating revolutionary training methods by the US-based company, ISoccer.org, via several drills and online tutorial programmes.