In conversation with Maria Simpson

This article was published in Living Ethics: issue 79 autumn 2010

Telstra has a long association with St James Ethics Centre and is a great supporter of its National Responsible Business Practice Project. Telstra’s involvement includes participating in the Corporate Responsibility Index, reporting using the Global Reporting Initiative framework and partnering as a key project collaborator for the National Small to Medium Enterprise Project, in particular the Good Business Register tm. Maria Simpson discusses Telstra’s corporate responsibility journey with the Centre’s Amanda Armstrong.

AA: What prompted you to become interested in corporate responsibility?

I started life as a teacher so you could say that I have always had an interest in social development and social wellbeing. My interest grew in early 2000 when I took on the role of corporate relations for Telstra. One of my responsibilities was to produce the second Telstra Corporate Responsibility Report which at the time was more of a community investment report. In considering how the report could be better, or how it could be done differently, I started to explore what was then the emerging concept of corporate social responsibility. I began to see corporate responsibility as a much broader, whole-of-company, integrated approach to good corporate practice rather than just community investment or philanthropy.

This heightened my interest in better understanding the broader concepts of corporate responsibility. I began to recognise that Telstra already did an incredible job in this area but didn’t acquaint this work with corporate responsibility.

AA: How are corporate responsibility principles inherent to the way Telstra conducts business?

Telstra was already engaged in these practices for many reasons but ultimately it came down to Telstra being a well-managed company. We had been led by good leaders who had seriously applied good governance and ethical performance.

In addition to leadership, the fact that Telstra had grown up in every community in Australia and was part of the social development of Australia ensured that responsible business practice principles were core to our business.

Telstra became the communications link. We employed technicians and operators who lived and worked in many different communities in Australia and who were aware of the local issues and involved in their solutions. Telstra’s employees brought that interest and commitment to local communities back into the company. This greatly impacted on the way Telstra performed and considered its customers.

I think because historically Telstra has been part of the essence of the Australian community and had strong leaders it had simply been the way we thought about things. Good business practice was already part of the Telstra DNA.

AA: Do you think being part of the community is integral to embedding corporate social responsibility principles in a company?

I think it was what made Telstra historically good in the corporate responsibility space. You certainly need to have connections with your community and that demands strong stakeholder engagement. You need to understand the mood and expectations of a community and its sense of what is ethically acceptable and appropriate in terms of behaviour. Attitudes change and companies must keep their finger on the pulse of shifting moods and perceptions. Reputations take a long time to build and can be lost very easily.

AA: You mention that staff are important in successfully embedding corporate responsibility principles in a business. How do you motivate individuals to adopt these principles in their work practices?

It is helpful if all staff understand the concept of corporate responsibility because then everyone speaks a common language – but I don’t think this is necessary. I do believe that it is essential that the leadership team ‘walks the talk’. This comes down to ensuring there is a good code of conduct in place and that leadership exhibits a commitment to ethical behaviour in every sphere of its operations. If a company is led in that way I don’t think it matters what it is called as long as individuals understand that it is the culture of the business.

AA: Was there resistance to ‘corporate responsibility’ in the beginning?

If I had come into Telstra and said you must do ‘these’ things it would not have worked. Instead I took a very measured approach in building the agenda within the company.

In the first instance I saw my role as raising awareness within Telstra and building an understanding of all the things we already did that were good corporate responsibility practices. A number of years were spent building that framework. From here we celebrated what we had already achieved and looked at how we could continue to improve. It was an evolutionary process of understanding and I think that is a journey Telstra is still on.

AA: How much personal commitment did it require from you and your team to make this a successful journey for Telstra?

We thought corporate responsibility was fundamental to business. When I started it was a belief that this was important, something we should focus on and that it would take time. I think as long as you believe that it is important, you keep moving forward. You keep trying to engage more and more people in the agenda, increase awareness and continue to address the issues which are pertinent and relevant to the company.

AA: What part of the journey are you most proud of?

It has been an interesting and inspiring journey for me at Telstra and I’ve had the pleasure of working with great people from across the company who do terrific things every day. I think the part of my journey I am most proud of is the young, smart people who I have recruited to work for me. It is a great legacy to bring good people into an organisation and know that they will continue the journey and achieve great things.

Maria Simpson joined Telstra in 1991 and has held a number of leadership roles including Manager Corporate Responsibility and Community Investment and National Manager of the Telstra Foundation.