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Strategic Corporate Philanthropy:
Addressing Frontline Talent Needs
Through an Educational Giving
ProgramJoe M. Ricks Jr.
Jacqueline A. Williams
ABSTRACT. Corporate philanthropy describes the ac-
tion when a corporation voluntarily donates a portion of
its resources to a societal cause. Although the thought of
philanthropy invokes feelings of altruism, there are many
objectives for corporate giving beyond altruism. Meeting
strategic corporate objectives can be an important if not
primary goal of philanthropy. The purpose of this paper is
to share insights from a strategic corporate philanthropic
initiative aimed at increasing the pool of frontline cus-
tomer contact employees who are performance-ready,
while supporting curriculum development and infra-
structure improvement for selected university business
programs, creating a win-win situation for the company
and the universities. This paper will address three objec-
tives. First, we will examine the evolution of strategic
philanthropy from the traditional view to its current
position as a strategic option. Second, we will address the
recruitment of front line talent needs (customer facing
jobs in sales, customer service, and marketing) based on
the profit maximization model of strategic philanthropy.
Finally, we will offer conclusions and issues for future
research.
KEY WORDS: CRM, frontline development, intern-
ships, recruiting talent, sales, strategic philanthropy
Introduction
Corporate philanthropy describes the action when a
corporation voluntarily donates a portion of its
resources to a societal cause. Although the thought
of philanthropy invokes feelings of altruism, there
are many objectives for corporate giving beyond
altruism. Some of the objectives for corporate
philanthropy are increased visibility, enhancing
corporate image, and thwarting negative publicity
(Varadarajan and Menon, 1988). Thus, meeting
strategic objectives can be an important if not pri-
mary goal of philanthropy. Executives see them-
selves in situations where there are increasing societal
demands for social responsibility and investor pres-
sure for short term profits (Porter and Kramer,
2002). Because of these conflicting stakeholder
interests, the ability to tie corporate giving to stra-
tegic objectives has grown in importance. Addi-
tionally, when philanthropic activity directly benefits
all parties, including the sponsoring organization, it
is likely to be more sustainable, and less likely to be
one of the first things cut during downturns.
The dilemma, according to Porter and Kramer
(2002), is that what most organizations are describing
as ‘‘strategic philanthropy’’ is not strategic at all. The
implication of the strategic label in corporate giving is
that there is some connection to corporate objectives,
Dr. Joe Ricks is an Assistant Professor and Associate Chair of
the Department of Business at Xavier University of Louisi-
ana. Dr. Ricks has published in the Journal of Consumer
Marketing, Journal of Business Research, and Journal of
Vocational Behavior. Dr. Ricks has also been a faculty intern
at 3M Company, and a visiting faculty at McIlhenny
(Tabasco) Company and Young & Rubican.
Dr. Jacqueline Williams is an Associate Professor of Marketing
in the Department of Business Administration at North
Carolina A&T State University. Dr. Williams has pub-
lished in the Journal of Services Marketing, the Advances in
Business Management Forecasting, the Academy of Mar-
keting Science Review, and the Journal of Consumer Satis-
faction, Dissatisfaction and Complaining Behavior. She is a
member of Beta Gamma Sigma and a Florida Education
Fund McKnight Scholar.
Journal of Business Ethics (2005) 60: 147–157 � Springer 2005
DOI 10.1007/s10551-005-1175-3
but those connections are often loose and vague, if
they are connected at all. This type of philanthropy
describes corporate giving guided by a philosophy of
enlightened self-interest. To move from enlightened
self-interest to strategic corporate philanthropy, cor-
porate giving must be designed to produce a specific,
measurable benefit in an identifiable time period
(Mescon and Tilson, 1987; Stendardi 1992).
This paper will address three objectives. First, we
will examine the evolution of strategic philanthropy
in the U.S., from the traditional view to its current
position as a strategic option. Second, we will
present a model using strategic philanthropy to
address the recruitment of frontline talent for
customer facing positions. Finally we will offer
conclusions and issues for future research.
The evolution of strategic corporate
philanthropy
The traditional view
Strategic corporate philanthropy, where organiza-
tions use philanthropic activity to meet marketing
and other business related objectives, has evolved
over the past century. Philanthropy has been an
important part of American society since the 17th
century. However, prior to the 1950s individuals,
and not companies, conducted this activity. Legal
restrictions and unwritten rules restricted companies
from meddling in social affairs (Smith, 1994). The
legal restrictions were removed in a 1954 Supreme
Court ruling, the Smith Manufacturing Company
versus Barlow Case, involving a stockholder’s suit
against Smith Manufacturing for a contribution it
made to Princeton University. With this ruling, the
court established the ‘‘business judgment rule.’’ Prior
to Smith versus Barlow, organizations were only
allowed to make contributions that were directly
related to their shareholders’ best interest. The ruling
in the Smith case freed managers to make contri-
butions that in their judgment would promote the
company’s best interest (Stendardi, 1992).
Prior to the 1960s, when organizations were
pressured to demonstrate their social responsibility,
the unwritten rule was that business, government,
and nonprofits should do what each does best
without intrusion into one another’s territory. This
industrial style philanthropic approach is based on
the argument that the firm’s primary responsibility is
to increase its shareholders wealth through increased
profits. If the shareholders wish to support a
charitable cause they should do so as individuals;
managers ought not make these decisions for them.
Furthermore, if the philanthropic activity decreases
profits then the manager is spending the shareholders
money and if the activity increases prices then the
manager is spending the consumer’s money
(Stendardi, 1992).
The pressure on organizations to demonstrate their
social responsibility brought about the contrasting
argument for philanthropy as a valid corporate
activity. This argument is based on the belief that
successful organizations must become stakeholder
focused, maintaining good relationships with all of
their key stakeholders, while recognizing that
shareholders are only one stakeholder group. Others
include customers, employees, government, the
communities in which they do business, and society
in general. Additionally, it is thought that if society
views a significant incongruence between business’
activities and society’s needs, then actions will be
taken by society to limit the rights and activities of
business. The positioning of philanthropic activity as
enlightened self-interest emerged as an attempt to
bring together these two competing views of
philanthropy as a corporate activity.
Enlightened self-interest
According to Smith (1994), although it was not the
first to talk about self-interest when discussing
philanthropic activity, the AT&T Foundation was
the first to articulate tenets of a new philanthropic
paradigm where it was suggested that the founda-
tion’s endowed funds should not be ‘a thing apart’
from business. In fact, the foundations activities
should be tied to business functions, and advance
business interest through strategic alliances with key
stakeholder groups. In return, the benefiting business
units should support philanthropic activities with all
their resources, thus producing initiatives that will
benefit society as much as possible.
The key premise underlying enlightened self-
interest is the belief that the organization will benefit
at some point in the future from its philanthropic
148 Joe M. Ricks Jr. and Jacqueline A. Williams
activity, and this will motivate employees to work
for the firm and customers will be motivated to
purchase the firm’s brands. A second premise is that a
healthy company cannot survive in a sick commu-
nity; therefore, companies that use a portion of their
resources to address social problems are helping
secure their own long-term survival. The final
attribute regarding enlightened self-interest is that
the anticipated future benefits were neither imme-
diate, certain, nor quantifiable.
Organizations today, however, are seeking to
move beyond enlightened self-interest by attempting
to tie their philanthropic activity to corporate strat-
egy (McAlister and Ferrell, 2002; Porter and
Kramer, 2002). The London Benchmarking Group
(LBG) has developed the LBG Model for corporate
community involvement. The LBG Model includes
a matrix designed to track inputs, which are the
monetary value of philanthropic activity, including
charitable gifts, community investments, and com-
mercial initiatives in a community. Benefits to the
served community and company, as well as outcome
conditions that can be leveraged are identified as
outputs (London Benchmarking Group, 2004). The
explicit linking of philanthropy to strategic business
outcomes is what differentiates enlightened self-
interest from strategic corporate philanthropy.
Strategic corporate philanthropy
The role of philanthropic activity as a part of
corporate strategy is still evolving. While not all
companies have fully integrated philanthropy into
their overall corporate strategy most recognize its
strategic importance (Smith, 1994; Tokarski, 1999).
Environmental conditions such as downsizing,
decreased domestic profit margins, and Wall Street’s
short-term focus, have created an evolutionary shift
from enlightened self-interest to a similar but more
strategic form of philanthropy that is designed to
produce a specific, measurable benefit in an identi-
fiable time period (Mescon and Tilson, 1987;
Stendardi, 1992).
Strategic corporate philanthropy is defined as an
activity of a firm that involves choosing how it will
voluntarily allocate resources to charitable or social
service activities in order to reach marketing and
other business related objectives for which there are
no clear social expectations as to how the firm
should perform (Ricks, 2002). There are a number
of objectives that can be achieved through strategic
corporate philanthropy including: increasing sales,
enhancing corporate image, thwarting negative
publicity, customer pacification, facilitating market
entry, and increasing trade merchandising activity
(Varadarajan and Menon, 1988). Strategic corporate
philanthropy explicitly links its philanthropic strat-
egy to a corporate objective.
Strategic corporate philanthropy comes in many
forms beyond, and inclusive of, monetary gifts.
Organizations with the goal of being viewed as a
good corporate citizen are heavily promoting their
gifts to make consumers aware that they are putting
money back into the communities that support
them. Other forms of strategic philanthropic activity
help companies and their brands meet image and
exposure objectives. These activities include: spon-
soring local and national special events, sponsoring
cultural and arts programs, and sports sponsorships
(Mescon and Tilson, 1987).
The following section presents a model using
strategic philanthropy to address the recruitment of
frontline talent for customer facing positions, such as
sales, customer service, and marketing. This model is
based on the profit maximization model of philan-
thropy (Sanchez, 2000). The profit maximization
model provides a strategic explanation for philan-
thropic activity, where corporate philanthropy is
designed to directly or indirectly produce economic
gain. Corporate philanthropy provides direct eco-
nomic gain when the activity itself results in an
economic increase. Indirect economic gain occurs
when the philanthropic activity supports a project
that creates an economic climate that may produce
an economic gain. Indirectly, a company may sup-
port a community project that management believes
will increase demand for their products or support a
university that management believes will increase its
labor supply. The 3M Company has given over one
million dollars in financial and other in-kind support
to its partner universities in the Frontline Initiative.
The Frontline Initiative is collaboration between 3M
and nine universities designed to develop perfor-
mance ready frontline or customer touching talent
from their undergraduate student population. The
nine partner universities are a diverse group of
institutions that include large research universities,
Strategic Corporate Philanthropy 149
smaller state universities, as well as public and private
minority and women’s universities.
According to Porter and Kramer (2002) the
availability of high quality human resource inputs is
one of the key factor conditions defining the com-
petitive context of an organization and serves as a
potential indirect economic gain in the context of
strategic philanthropy. Implementation of the
Frontline Initiative has allowed 3M to tie educational
giving directly to the strategic business need for high
quality frontline talent, and to develop requirements
that maintain the connection. The Frontline Initia-
tive is designed, in part, to reduce training time and
cost associated with new-hire productivity goals such
that students at the participating institutions are
‘‘performance ready’’ and aware of high impact,
customer contact activities. Specifically, the goal is to
reduce by 50%, the time it takes for a newly hired
frontline employee to be rated by his or her supervisor
as productive. For example, if it usually takes year for
an employee to receive a productive rating by his
supervisor, the goal of this program is to reduce that
time to six months. This is the type of specific,
measurable outcome that differentiates philanthropy
based on enlightened self-interest and strategic cor-
porate philanthropy that leads to a potential com-
petitive advantage.
It is also the mission of the initiative to increase
awareness of opportunities in frontline positions and
to promote the frontline as an attractive, honorable
and rewarding career path. These goals, though
important, are more vague; thus, they would qualify
as outcomes based on enlightened self-interest, and
not strategic corporate philanthropy. Using the LBG
Matrix as a framework, the goal of reducing the cycle
time for new-hire productivity would be a business
benefit, while the goals of increased awareness and
promotion of frontline careers would be leverage
outputs. The leverage outputs and the financial
benefits to the university, community benefits as
defined by LBG, are consistent with the view that
there are long-term benefits tied to these outcomes;
which by definition, is philanthropy motivated by
enlightened self-interest. Conceptually, the leverage
outputs could be strategic only if the benefits, specific
to 3M, of increased awareness and the promotion of
frontline careers could be measured and explicitly
linked to project activities. Evaluations have shown
that symposia conducted by one of the partner
universities have increased favorable attitudes toward
sales careers. Specifically, over the past three years
approximately 80% of students that reported that they
never considered starting their career in sales or any
other frontline position, stated that they would con-
sider a frontline position after hearing from former
student interns and other frontline professionals.
These results are obviously beneficial to 3M and to all
other companies looking to hire frontline talent.
However, the direct benefit to 3M is immeasurable,
therefore not strategic. The direct business benefit of
reduced cycle time is the measurable outcome that
makes 3M’s support to the universities strategic. The
following sections describe the key components of
the Frontline Initiative model.
Frontline talent needs
Frontline workers have become increasingly
important in strategic positions within firms and as a
proportion of the workforce. Frenkel et al. (1999)
report that the increased percentage of the labor
force is likely to be higher for frontline works than
other categories of work in the United States,
Australia, and Japan. They classify occupations
within the frontline community into three major
groups – Customer Service Representatives, Sales
Representatives, and other Knowledge Workers
with direct customer–client interface, such as con-
sultants. These employees are often the first and only
representation of the firm outside the product or
service offered. Their attitudes, behaviors, and skills
influence customers’ perception of the company,
customer satisfaction, and customer loyalty.
The roles and responsibilities of frontline customer
contact employees are changing as many organiza-
tions place serious emphasis on long-term customer
relationships. Customer Relationship Marketing/
Management (CRM&M) is a philosophy and strat-
egy adopted to achieve growth by building and
nurturing high-value relationships with carefully se-
lected groups of customers (Hartline et al., 2000;
Swift, 2001). Through these enduring relationships
both the customer and the company benefit. The
contributions of frontline workers are further
recognized by company reorganizations that elevate
the positions vital to building strong customer
relationships (Bhote, 1996).
150 Joe M. Ricks Jr. and Jacqueline A. Williams
Although the organizational structure and pro-
cesses play an important role in implementing an
effective customer relationship strategy, the beliefs,
attitudes, and behaviors of employees in direct
contact with external customers are paramount to
relationship building efforts (Crosby and Johnson,
2002; Heskett et al., 1997). Therefore the issue of
business students embracing a customer-orientation
is especially important to meet the demands of
executives for increased relevant capabilities and
business savvy in university graduates (Walker and
Black, 2000). To better prepare university students
for placements in strategic customer facing positions,
a strategic corporate philanthropic initiative was
initiated between the 3M Company and several
universities.
Searching for future leaders, the 3M Company
initiated strategic partnerships with these universities
to develop performance ready talent for key frontline
positions within the company from their under-
graduate business programs. When looking for talent
to fill customer contact positions, the company
recruiters found that most universities address the
need for frontline training with traditional marketing
textbooks and courses (i.e., principles of marketing,
consumer behavior, marketing research, and in some
instances, a professional sales course). The textbooks
and course offerings provide an opportunity for
interested students to learn and practice standard
marketing concepts. However, the company
discovered that significant post-employment training
was required before new hires were productive in
customer-contact roles. In response, the company
initiated partnerships with universities to help attract,
train, and recruit talent for strategic frontline posi-
tions in professional sales and customer service, while
providing resources for curriculum development and
infrastructure specifically for the development of
frontline talent. Thus, developing a corporate giving
program directly tied into the important strategic
objective of reducing the cycle time for new frontline
employees to become productive by reducing the
amount of post-employment training.
Frontline talent initiative
Historically, recruiting high potential students to
fill frontline positions has proven to be difficult.
On many university campuses, students may not
apply for jobs in customer service and/or sales
because they simply do not fully appreciate the
career opportunities in these customer contact
positions. The frontline work that most university
students are familiar with is likely routine, low
skilled, hourly, or temporary positions in call
centers or retail sales. Some students may have
part-time work experience as frontline employees
while working toward their degree and they may
perceive all frontline work as low status or ‘‘tem-
porary’’ jobs. Thus, the initiative is designed to
attract high potential students to frontline positions
and to include responsibilities for both university
and practitioner constituents (see Table I). The
sponsoring organization is required to build
awareness of the program within the organization
so that management and employees understand the
projected outcomes. The sponsoring organization is
also responsible for identifying strategic faculty and
student internship assignments. The appropriate
environment must be provided for faculty and
student internship success by committing time,
resources, personnel, and facilities. Ideally, the
practitioner should have a presence on campus and
participate in on-going university and classroom
activities aimed toward education and awareness
and synergistic training for students, faculty, and
university administrators.
Faculty and university administrators are
responsible for meeting with the sponsoring orga-
nization to coordinate and develop a common set
of goals, discuss program direction and develop-
ment, and ways to improve the partnerships. Fac-
ulty members serve as mentors and coordinators of
student internships. The universities provide peri-
odic written assessments of the program status to
the sponsoring organization and host the Frontline
Customer Contact Conference, which is an annual
research conference in sales and CRM&M prac-
tices and education. Faculty and students actively
support and participate in conferences hosted by
partnering schools where the partners exchange
ideas, best practices, and challenges in imple-
menting the program. Students are required to
complete frontline coursework, a frontline intern-
ship, and a report detailing various experiential
learning activities engaging them in CRM&M
education.
Strategic Corporate Philanthropy 151
Frontline curriculum
Based on existing management and marketing lit-
erature and a collection of corporate documents
regarding the skills and competencies needed for
effective frontline employees, a CRM&M relevant
curriculum is developed. The curriculum builds on
the recommended core undergraduate business
program and standard marketing curriculum
approved by an accreditation body for business
schools. The curriculum includes professional selling
pedagogy and content on CRM&M technologies
and processes that enable companies to initiate and
cultivate more advanced relationships with their
customers and suppliers. The 3M Company lends its
expertise to the curriculum through providing
speakers, conducting symposia, sponsoring faculty
internships, as well as underwriting and actively
participating in the Frontline Conference, by
attending and co-authoring papers.
Curriculum content is recommended to foster
student competency in technologies that enable
companies to initiate and cultivate more advanced
relationships and interactions with their customers
and suppliers. Students need to be introduced to key
vendors supporting customer knowledge software
such as Siebel Systems, a developer of enterprise
software for sales, marketing, and customer service
(Longwell, 2001). Future frontline employees must
understand that the focus will no longer be on
completing an individual transaction. Instead,
customer contact history will provide a rich source
of information for a variety of people across the
company to access and nurture the customer rela-
tionship with the understanding that customers have
a ‘‘lifetime value’’, not just the value of a single sale.
Industry often criticizes business schools for
teaching in functional ‘‘silos’’ – without recognizing
that well-managed enterprises operate more effi-
ciently as integrated units through cross-functional
teamwork (Walker and Black, 2000). The integrated
work environment results in less discrete functional
boundaries in organizations and creates career paths
that often cross disciplines as managerial skills and
expertise are developed. For example, the Frontline
Initiative views the frontline as an integration of
various customer ‘‘touch-points’’ and functions
throughout the company (see Figure 1), such as Sales,
Marketing, Customer Service, and E-business/
e-commerce Processes. Business processes, software,
TABLE I
The frontline academic-practitioner CRM&M partnership program
Responsibilities for Participants
Sponsoring partner participation
Identify specific expectations for faculty to be integrated into the organization and a project for faculty to complete
and provide recommendations to executives
Communicate and organize within the organization so that management and employees are aware of the program and
its projected outcomes
Provide appropriate environment through commitment of time, resources, personnel, and facilities as a contribution to
the faculty learning experience
Participate in on-going university and classroom activities aimed toward education and awareness and synergistic
training for students, faculty, and university administrators
Faculty and administrator participation
Meet periodically with sponsoring organization to coordinate and develop a common measurable set of goals
Serve as mentor and student internship coordinates for undergraduate assignments
Provide periodic written assessments of program status to the sponsoring
Actively support and participate in education and awareness conferences hosted by partnering schools
Student participation
Complete 12 hours of CRM&M coursework
Complete a 3-hour CRM&M internship and submit concluding paper detailing experiential learning activities
Actively engage in extra-curricular CRM&M campus, regional, and national activities
152 Joe M. Ricks Jr. and Jacqueline A. Williams
and technology are linked across the company to
prioritize customer service and retention. As Sautter
et al. (1999) argue, students need an appreciation of
the cumulative efforts of the total enterprise so that
they do not to interpret customer service as the sole
responsibility of any single functional area or channel
participant.
Students must also understand that a customer
orientation requires business processes driven by the
customer (Pisharodi et al., 1990). For example, the
corporate sponsor of the initiative repositioned
customer service from a ‘‘back-end’’ logistics oper-
ations focused on order processing to a front-end
customer touch point operation. Prior to the
restructuring, policies and procedures prioritized
what was best or easiest for company with less regard
for customer requirements and business processes.
The customer service representative entered the
order received via phone, fax or mail and then
followed the order through the system as needed.
Today, frontline employees are required to have an
understanding of the customer’s business processes as
well as the company’s business processes.
Process provides solutions and can be defined as
collections of tasks and activities that transform
inputs into outputs (Garvin, 1998). In a CRM&M
Marketinge-Business
SalesCustomer Service
Inbound Customer ResponseOrder and Product Support
Technical Support and ServiceComplaint Management
Lead ManagementInbound/Outbound TeleSales
Internet/Extranet/Intranet ResponseLiterature Communication/Fulfillment
Figure 1. CRM&M vision of integrated sales, customer service, marketing, and e-Business.
Strategic Corporate Philanthropy 153
business process modeling course, exercises in
process mapping where students develop flow charts
of action steps, decision points, and sequences that
constitute the overall job or service to be completed
are recommended. The graphic helps process
participants understand the flow of work across
functional boundaries and channel partners, and
identifies points through which process refinement
can be accomplished. The ability to tie corporate
giving to curriculum development that addresses
specific company needs prevents the dilemma of
vague goals or a total disconnect between strategic
organizational goals and philanthropic activities.
Frontline experiential learning
The Frontline initiative supports field experience
through internships for both students and faculty.
These internships are twelve-week summer assign-
ments that include corporate training and divisional
placement. Faculty interns should work with area
managers to develop a specific research-oriented
assignment. For example, a faculty intern spent the
summer of 2001 at corporate headquarters and
reported to the manager of the Corporate Customer
Contact Center (C4). The faculty intern toured the
operations of the company and interviewed man-
agement and frontline employees to understand the
skills and competencies required for future genera-
tions of frontline employees. The findings were
presented to an executive council at the completion
of the internship. During the fall of 2001, input was
sought from the faculty to develop the student
internship training program and job descriptions for
the following summer.
During the summer of 2002 a faculty member
from another partner university interned with the
C4 organization. Based on this internship experi-
ence, the faculty member designed two courses for
the sales and marketing program at his university.
One course, Multivariate Analysis, was developed
based on the observation that the organization was
collecting a great deal of data but did not have en-
ough employees with sufficient expertise to analyze
it. The second was a course in CRM&M that fo-
cuses on the current thinking in CRM&M and the
technologies used in the field in general and by 3M
particularly, thus reducing training time. Here the
faculty member used funding from 3M to develop
courses that would directly benefit 3M and give all
of his undergraduate students a skill set that will give
them a competitive advantage at any company.
Students work directly with division managers
and other employees and participate in activities that
provide a comprehensive understanding about
customer and other stakeholder relationships.
Student interns take on the life of professionals as
they gain day-to-day hands-on field experience. In
addition, student interns should have the added
responsibility of accomplishing a team goal with
fellow interns meeting the same challenges at other
corporate locations throughout the country. Thus,
they will have the experience of accomplishing
something with people within the company who are
not physically located in the same place – a common
occurrence for frontline employees.
Several conditions must be met for students to
fulfill the internship requirement. First, the student
must be registered at the university during the off-
campus assignment. Second, the student must spend a
minimum of ten weeks in the off-campus experience.
Third, the student should be required to present a
written report and/or other evaluation criterion that
will be submitted to the supervising instructor. Both
faculty and student interns must participate in a formal
performance evaluation process and should be
required to present a summary of their project/
internship experience during the last week of the
internship to an audience of peers, managers, and top
executives. Appendix A provides an example of a
student internship assignment. As with the curriculum,
the experiential learning component maintains the
strategic connection between educational giving and
the company’s strategic objectives.
Frontline initiative merits and challenges
The Frontline Talent Initiative curriculum builds on
the curriculum recommendations of the accredita-
tion body for business schools and offers a unique
learning experience that enables students to gain the
competencies needed to understand and apply cus-
tomer relationship management business models and
tools. The curriculum is not only appropriate for
business or marketing majors, it is also appropriate
for individuals with career interests in other func-
tional areas (e.g., engineering, technology, health
154 Joe M. Ricks Jr. and Jacqueline A. Williams
and physical sciences) that interface closely with sales
and customer service.
Successful outcomes for students participating in
this program include increasing their performance
readiness through a blend of academic and work
experience. In addition, students can get intimate
knowledge of potential employers. Successful
outcomes for faculty participants include research
opportunities and current examples to use in the
classroom. There are three specific outcomes for
3M. First, a reduction in new-hire training costs.
Second, significant projects are assigned to both
student and faculty interns providing an immediate
return. Finally, the organization gains intimate
knowledge of prospective new-hires. Through the
corporate giving component of the initiative, partner
schools receive funding and in-kind support for
operational and infrastructure resources that have
uses beyond the CRM&M curriculum.
Entry-level marketing and market research posi-
tions, although difficult to obtain, are likely to be
held in higher esteem than frontline work. Students
may not apply for customer facing jobs because they
simply do not fully appreciate the frontline career
path. The experience of most university students
may be with low status frontline jobs as opposed to
high impact entry-level positions. Negative percep-
tions of sales and customer service jobs may also have
originated with parents (Comer et al. 1998).
Upwardly mobile parents do not encourage their
children to seek careers in sales or customer service;
rather they direct their aspirations toward high status
professions such as medicine, law, and engineering.
To promote frontline customer contact positions
as an honorable and viable career option, faculty and
administrators across the university must also come
to appreciate the opportunities in frontline work.
The university placement office, along with other
business school faculty, may be reluctant to promote
frontline careers because of a generally negative
image or limited appreciation of career opportuni-
ties. Thus, additional energies are needed in the area
of frontline awareness and education that target
faculty and administrators.
Conclusion and future research
Through the Frontline Initiative, students and faculty
gain exposure to a strategic view of the frontline
customer contact roles. As part of the academic
community one gets to see how CRM&M, as a
boardroom issue, becomes a guiding philosophy in
strategic decision making and resolving operational
issues. It is crucial for prospective frontline employees
to have business savvy, creativity, and critical think-
ing skills to sustain long-term enterprise profitability.
The implementation of the Frontline Initiative
overcomes some of the criticism that academic
courses are not relevant to the knowledge, compe-
tencies, and skills employers expect of business school
graduates and meets the demand for relevant
curricula. This model helps guide the activities of the
educational institutions such that most of the
resources provided by 3M go toward meeting the
company’s strategic need. Approximately 55% of the
budgeted funds for the partner schools goes toward
program related expenses, which include curriculum
development, faculty development activities, and
equipment explicitly for the sales and CRM&M
courses. Ensuring that most of the funding goes
toward program and curriculum development
maintains the strategic focus of the initiative while
providing financial and infrastructural benefits to the
business school. For example, one partner university
received $80,000 over a two year period to develop
curricula, host the Frontline research conference,
hire student assistants, scholarship support, and
purchase equipment. Another partner university
received $350,000.00 over a three year period to
develop and administer an undergraduate certificate
program in CRM&M. The CRM&M certificate
offers unique learning experiences for students
to develop and apply the competencies needed to
manage relationships (with customers, employees,
business partners, and other stakeholders) in collab-
orative endeavors using a variety of relationship
networks that span the traditional request for
proposals to the emerging electronic commerce
arrangements. The certification is also appropriate for
individuals with career interests in other functional
areas (such as engineering, health, physical sciences)
that interface closely with marketing functions such
as sales and customer service.
Implementation of Frontline Initiative has allowed
3M to strategically tie part of its’ philanthropic
activity directly to its’ business need for high quality
human resource inputs (Porter and Kramer, 2002).
While contributing over $1,000,000.00 in cash and
Strategic Corporate Philanthropy 155
in-kind support to the partner universities since 1997,
3M has created a program that converts 60% of its
internship participants into hires, and converts 85% of
those that actually receive offers. Interviews with 3M
line managers as well as human resource mangers
confirm that students that are hired through the
Frontline Talent Initiative are rated productive by
their supervisors in less than half the time it takes new
graduates that did not come through the initiative.
While meeting specific goals, 3M also benefits from
increased exposure and an elevated corporate image
on the campuses and in the communities where the
campuses are located. These image factors or repu-
tation assets are also potential sources of competitive
advantage (Hess et al., 2002). The partner universi-
ties benefit from the numerous resources and student
employment opportunities provided by 3M. The
Frontline Initiative demonstrates the indirect benefit
profit maximization model of strategic corporate
philanthropy leading to potential competitive
advantages in human resources and reputation assets.
It also addresses the criticism of corporate giving not
being explicitly tide to a strategic objective.
Appendix A
2002 Summer Customer Service Internship
Program
Position: Customer Service Intern
Business Unit Assignment: TCM’s Vehicle Safety
Registration and Identification (VSR&I)
Business Summary: Traffic Control Materials
Division is the dominant supplier of retro-reflective
sheeting used for motor vehicle license plates and
validation stickers throughout the world. The
reflective sheeting is used to add greater visibility
and legibility for license plates as identification/
registration devices of motor vehicles. In virtually
all regions of the world, motor vehicles use public
roadways requiring them to be properly identified
and to pay the necessary registration fees and taxes
for motor vehicles. There are approximately 700
million motor vehicles throughout the world and
more than 550 million of them utilize fully
reflective license plates. Sales revenue and income is
derived from the turnover in vehicle registration
devices associated with: the turnover in motor
vehicle population, new motor vehicle registrations
and the periodic replacement of license plates. Li-
cense plates and registration stickers and forms have
traditionally been manufactured in prison industry
programs in the US market. The company has
supplied these prison industry programs with the
reflective sheeting, inks and equipment used in the
manufacturing process. The motor vehicle depart-
ments distribute the finished plates. This is chang-
ing. Many motor vehicle departments are interested
in electronically ordering their license plates and
registration forms and stickers. This has created an
opportunity to provide digital printing of license
plates and registration forms and stickers. In some
instances, DMV’s are assuming the responsibility of
the manufacturing process themselves. The com-
pany is well positioned to serve its core customer
base, the DMV’s or through market channels such
as the Prison Industry programs. The company is
currently transforming its position in the market-
place from being a materials supplier to becoming a
system and services provider.
Internship Job Summary: Job responsibilities
fall into two separate but related categories
(1) Represent the company in communicating
with external customers and related company
divisions and departments in the following
logistical matters:
(a) Assumes shared responsibility for handling
varied customer transactions regarding or-
der entry, order status, (promise and ship-
ping dates) inquiries, back orders, proof of
delivery, freight claims, payment deduc-
tions or discrepancies, and other related
policies and procedures,
(b) Under supervision prepares quotes, bids,
or proposals. Makes product recommen-
dations and exercises judgement when
identifying and resolving customer issues.
(2) Assist the VSR&I business unit in managing
customer relationships by leading and com-
pleting a customer requirements research
project aimed at identifying and building an
electronic file that contains the following:
Market Profile
Company Product Offerings
Company Market Position
156 Joe M. Ricks Jr. and Jacqueline A. Williams
Note: The finished result will be of great value to
the Marketing and Customer Service Departments
of the TCM VSR&I Business Unit.
Acknowledgements
The authors would like to thank Jimmiee Gaulden
and Ben Nieters of 3M Company for their helpful
comments and for facilitating the authors’ collabo-
ration on this project. This research was funded in
part by the 3M Company.
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Joe M. Ricks Jr.
Department of Business,
Xavier University of Louisiana,
New Orleans, LA 70128
E-mail: jmricks@xula.edu
Jacqueline A. Williams
Department of Business Administration,
North Carolina A&T State University,
Greensboro, NC 27411,
E-mail: jacq@ncat.edu
Strategic Corporate Philanthropy 157
Recommended