The 'elevator pitch' is a game that is played amongst budding entrepreneurs seeking to refine their business idea down to a few snappy sentences. The idea is to imagine that you, as an entrepreneur with a great business idea have just walked into an elevator. The woman standing next to you is a venture capitalist and you have the time it takes to reach your floor to convince her of your business idea.

Writing the introduction to this review feels like a similarly constrained task. However, we think we can be clear about one thing: whilst we hope the ideas might make your eyes wonder over the horizon, we doubt that your reading of this review will make you a millionaire.

This year the four quarterly World Reviews in the Journal of Corporate Citizenship, which make up this Annual Review, have explored issues such as the responsibility of corporations for war and HIV/AIDS, the emerging case for exploring the lobbying influence of firms and the impact of tax-avoidance strategies of TNCs.

As well as asking lots of questions of big companies, we have also been trying to cast a net wider, by exploring connections of responsible business practices to academic fields of economics and development, management education, leadership and business ethics.

There has been analysis of the dance between deregulation and regulation for creating accountability and numerous stories about legal challenges to business – from the ethics-based litigation in South Africa to anti-competitive strategies, the definition of commercial speech to news from the International Criminal Court in The Hague.

We have also written variously about the UN – from an exploration of the work of the International Labour Organisation for supporting health and safety in micro-enterprises to the contribution of its trade and development arm – UNCTAD and a differing opinions about the role of private sector partnerships in the work of the UN.

So do these different events in the world of business in 2003 add up to a coherent story - one that could be pitched in the space of an elevator attention span?

From review to preview

As well as writing a lot about the world out there, as a group of authors we have grappled with how to engage with each other and write informatively and creatively, to look beyond the merry-go-round of PR and press releases and find events, debates and people who add more depth and colour to our understanding of corporate responsibility and citizenship. Looking back at our introduction to the Annual Review for 2002, we concluded by arguing for the need for ourselves as authors as well as others to "pluralise cultural perspectives on corporate responsibility". So here's our pitch: we think that seeking out the meaning of business practices for marginalised people and communities is a critical task, but also one full of potential for personal transformation. If practices conducted in the name of CSR and corporate citizenship don't go "bottom up" in terms of increasing the role of the marginalized, then they may go "bottom up" in the other sense of that term – failure. We wont presume to predict whether more professionals working in this arena will embrace this challenge in 2004 – but we can predict it will remain a challenge, as we have realised ourselves how difficult this is. If you are engaged in this, we would like to hear from you.

You can make or read comments on this review in the discussion area at www.jembendell.com. You can contact us at info@new-academy.ac.uk

Jem Bendell & Rupesh Shah

• 2001 Lifeworth Annual Review of Corporate Responsibility



• 2002 Lifeworth Annual Review of Corporate Responsibility

• Introduction: From Review to Preview: Rupesh Shah and Jem Bendell
• Spring 2003: Jem Bendell and Mark Young
• Summer 2003: Jem Bendell and Wayne Visser
• Autumn 2003: Jem Bendell and Tim Concannon
• Winter 2003: Jem Bendell and Rupesh Shah

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