Responding to the Earthquake in China -- Global Companies, Global Customers and Global Responsibilities

One of the things that great companies have in common, or at least companies that are great at product development, marketing and customer service, is that they have a genuine empathy for their customers.  This inherent customer centric view allows them to anticipate and respond to customer wants and needs even before the customer has asked.  Talking with the leaders at these companies, it becomes clear that they care about their customers as people.

As a result of this, another phenomenon you can observe at companies such as this is that they tend to be active in the community in causes that are important to their customers.  One can be more or less cynical about this, but my observation is that at truly good companies, their sense of social responsibility is not a contrivance to ingratiate themselves to their customers but stems from a genuine desire to have a positive impact on their customer's lives.  As a result, they naturally support the good works that are important to their customers -- they raise money for the childrens' hospital, they sponsor the community little league, their employees organize crews to work on habitat for humanity houses.

One of the things that happens when a business goes global, of course, is that your customers become international, and if you are as genuine about your customers abroad as you are about your customers at home, you will find the call to grow beyond just being good citizens in your local community to being good citizens of the world.

Now I would think that anyone with a conscience feels for the victims of the recent earthquakes in China, but if you have a company or you individually are doing business in China, and you aspire to be great in that endeavor (and if you don't aspire to be great at it, what's the point -- to be mediocre at it?), then you should feel a particular pull to respond to this need.  So here's my suggestion -- go to the China Esquire China Law and Business Blog.  Read its ongoing coverage of the earthquake and more importantly go to the specific post entitled "More Ways to Help in the Aftermath of the Earthquake - Updated".  You will find numerous ways to help out including links to a host of charities supporting the relief efforts, at least one of which should appeal to your sensibilities.  I used the site yesterday to navigate to the American Red Cross where I was readily able to immediately make a donation specifically to its efforts directed toward the China earthquake victims.

Now that your business is international, the community that you should give back to is a little bit bigger.  And there are lots of opportunities to give back -- starting now.