*From Corporate Social Opportunity to Corporate Social Responsibility DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.105445*

than that initial \$1,000. Businesses can create positive externalities, too. Think of Starbucks paying for its associates to attend college; think of UPS drivers only making right turns. These are (relatively tiny) short-term investments that can have (relatively large) long-term benefits.


any organization is a function of the choices made by the leadership of the organization. And it is the behavior of an organization's people that will determine how effectively and efficiently it achieves its mission, creates social welfare and maximizes economic value. Economic value is created by culture. And all too often, economic value is destroyed by culture.

6.Profits Only Happen Because of People and the Planet – For years, people, planet and profit have been referred to as "the 3 Ps" that determine a company's success; these are the three factors we see in triple-bottom line accounting. People and the planet are inputs, resources essential for the company's operations; profits are the result of how effectively and efficiently the company employs human and natural resources in its operations. No company has ever made a profit without people or the planet. We learned this in 2020: without customers and employees, and with limited ability to employ natural resources during the pandemic lockdowns, many companies lost their profits and had to rely on loans and government subsidies to survive, thus borrowing on a future that may or may not come. The year 2020 gave us a painful reminder that we get to decide how we embrace people and the planet as we move into the future.

The foundation for creating positive externalities and embracing new shareholders represent the company's impact and operations. These tactics will be closely aligned with the company's underlying mission. The foundation for ignoring sunk costs and knowing that all investments and actions have tangible economic impact is the firm's strategy. A SWOT analysis or similar strategic plan can identify the internal resources and external factors that will dictate the cash flows and economic impact of the company's actions into the future, independent of what may have happened in the past. And the foundation for appreciating that culture matters and that profits happen because of people and the planet is the company's authenticity [16]. Culture is an evolving dynamic, framed by leadership, that influences stakeholders' actions; a company's people and relationship with the environment determine the company's profits [17]. Myopic greenwashing, propaganda and riding social opportunities are empty gestures that will destroy firm value in the long-term; being authentic with communication, incentives and investments is the only way to align corporate mission with economic value-creation [18].
