Corporate social responsibility yields new tradeoffs

New objective: Optimize operations to improve environmental and social outcomes in a manner that maximizes overall performance. Executives must manage an intricate new set of trade-offs, according to a study from the IBM Institute for Business Value. The new objective calls for new information, "which many organizations are still missing, by a wide margin," says Big Blue. Those succeeding with social responsibility initiatives are collecting relevant information from many sources, including customers. Study (available next week)