Authors

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  Alison Taylor

  Senior Advisor, BSR

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  Alison Taylor

  Senior Advisor, BSR

  New York

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  Alison is Executive Director at Ethical Systems, a research collaboration on ethical culture, housed in New York University (NYU) Stern School of Business. Previously, Alison led BSR’s sustainability management practice and oversaw the supply chain practice and the Sustainable Futures Lab. She focuses on approaches to sustainability through risk management, strategy, stakeholder engagement, transparency, ethics and governance, and organizational change.

  Alison has also worked as a senior managing director at Control Risks, where she helped companies operate with integrity, particularly in high-risk environments, and for Transparency International, PricewaterhouseCoopers, and IHS Global Insight. She has experience in strategic intelligence, market entry assistance, risk consulting, due diligence, internal investigations, enterprise risk management, and ethics and compliance. She speaks and writes regularly on risk and organizational culture. She is a board member of the ethics organization Center for Business Ethics and Corporate Governance and a member of the World Economic Forum’s Global Future Council on Transparency and Anti-Corruption. She is also an Adjunct Professor at NYU Stern School of Business.

  Alison holds an M.A. in International Relations from the University of Chicago, an M.A. in Organizational Psychology from Columbia University, and a B.A. in Modern History from Balliol College, Oxford University.

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  Recent Insights From Alison Taylor

  • The New EU Forced Labor Product Ban: Recommendations for Business / September 29, 2022 / Blog
  • Can Corruption in Your Value Chain Lead to Complicity in Gross Human Rights Abuses? / November 21, 2019 / Blog
  • How Aligning Sustainability and Risk Can Overcome Organizational Blind Spots / August 19, 2019 / Blog
  • Is Stakeholder Engagement the Key to Successful Community Standards? / June 19, 2019 / Blog
  • Exploring Employee Activism: Why This Stakeholder Group Can No Longer Be Ignored / May 27, 2019 / Blog

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• Charlotte Bancilhon

  Former Director, Sustainability Management, BSR

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  Cecile Oger

  Managing Director, People and Culture, BSR

  

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  Cecile Oger

  Managing Director, People and Culture, BSR

  

  Paris

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  After nine years of working with BSR members to advance sustainability strategies, Cecile now leads BSR’s global People and Culture team. In this role, Cecile leads all processes related to building and retaining an exceptional global team of sustainable business experts. She works with the People and Culture team on attracting and hiring the best and brightest talents and making BSR a place where people grow, develop, and thrive in our international mindset and culture as well as have an impact on the world.

  Cecile continues to stay close to BSR’s mission and impacts through limited and targeted projects and member engagement, mostly in the healthcare sector. 

  Prior to joining BSR, Cecile served as deputy director for SGS Sustainability Services. Her work involved developing service offerings for sustainable supply chains. Before that, she was executive director of SFSTP, one of the largest associations of industrial pharmacists in Europe. She started her career in the chemicals industry, working for Clariant in the UK and Canada.

  Cecile holds a MBA from Toronto Metropolitan University, a BSc in Chemistry and Business Administration from Kingston University London, and a Life Science degree from University of Angers. She speaks French and English.

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  Recent Insights From Cecile Oger

  • Healthcare Working Group: Driving Change for over Two Decades / February 1, 2023 / Blog
  • Unlocking Opportunities in Access to Healthcare / March 3, 2022 / Blog
  • How Healthcare Companies Can Meet the Moment and Respect Human Rights / September 4, 2020 / Blog
  • Understanding Connections Between Climate and Public Health / April 29, 2020 / Blog
  • What Do the Next 20 Years Hold for the Healthcare Industry? / May 23, 2019 / Blog

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• 

  Jonathan Morris

  Associate Director, Technology Sectors, BSR

  

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  Jonathan Morris

  Associate Director, Technology Sectors, BSR

  

  Paris

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  Jonathan leads BSR’s work in the EMEA region with companies in the Industrials and Utilities and Information and Communications Technology industries. Jonathan also leads BSR’s global sustainability reporting team as part of the Sustainability Management practice.

  His experience in sustainability includes strategy development, reporting execution, and stakeholder engagement for these industries, as well as a focus on transparency and traceability in the supply chain via advanced technologies such as blockchain and artificial intelligence.

  Prior to joining BSR, Jonathan was a packaging developer with Coty US LLC, the world’s largest fragrance manufacturer. Jonathan designed and executed technical packaging specifications for perfume and cosmetics launches, coordinating the needs of internal marketing and sales teams with external material suppliers and manufacturers. This positions Jonathan as BSR’s sustainable packaging contact.

  Jonathan holds an M.S. in Sustainable Development from HEC Paris School of Management and a B.S. in Computer Science and Engineering from Syracuse University. He speaks English and French.

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  Recent Insights From Jonathan Morris

  • Inside BSR: Q&A with Jonathan Morris / November 9, 2022 / Blog
  • Sustainable from the Start: Embedding ESG into High-Growth Business Strategy / August 30, 2021 / Blog
  • Blockchain through the Whole Supply Chain: Traceability Builds Business Resilience / June 17, 2020 / Blog
  • Five-Step Approach to Stakeholder Engagement / April 29, 2019 / Reports
  • The 5 Stages of Materiality Grief / February 12, 2018 / Blog

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Stakeholder engagement is—and will remain—a core element of the sustainability toolkit.

It is a fundamental component of materiality assessments, which are then used to inform sustainability strategy, reporting, and disclosure. Without input from key stakeholder groups, any approach to sustainability will be limited by an organization’s self-interest and inward focus.

In 2019, the landscape of digital communication, international agreements and investor expectations makes stakeholder engagement more important than ever: Digital and social media amplify voices of the public, including civil society organizations; international agreements such as the UN Guiding Principles and Sustainable Development Goals have been established and globally accepted; and investors are significantly more focused on company approaches to environmental, social, and governance (ESG) issues, which in turn necessitate consideration of all stakeholders, not just shareholders.

We first published this five-step guide to stakeholder engagement in 2011. We have updated the guide as a response to developments over the last seven years, all of which necessitate a far clearer focus on stakeholder trust by corporations. This report aims to provide a comprehensive toolkit that incorporates the latest thinking while maintaining the clarity and practicality of our five-step approach:

BSR’s Five-Step Approach

1. Engagement Strategy: Set vision and level of ambition for future engagement, and review past engagements.
2. Stakeholder Mapping: Define criteria for identitfying and prioritizing stakeholders, and select engagement mechanisms.
3. Preparation: Focus on long-term goals to drive the approach, determine logistics for the engagement, and set the rules.
4. Engagement: Conduct the engagement itself, ensuring equitable stakeholder contribution and mitigating tension while remaining focused on priorities.
5. Action Plan: Identify opportunities from feedback and determine actions, revisit goals, and plan next steps for follow-up and future engagement.