From my hotel room here in Sao Paulo I can look out past a huge traffic-clogged highway toward the central city through a thick haze. I'm here in the fourth-largest city in the world to speak at the annual global conference of AIESEC. It's a gathering of over 600 top students from more than 100 countries. The host country, Brazil, is proud of its environmental record and energy self-sufficiency thanks to Biofuel and hydro.
My conference theme is the Digital Generation. I'm preaching to the converted. They're all wired. Smart laptops prevail. Presentations are obscured by a forest of LCD screens as students raise their cameras to capture every ounce of information. One of them asks for an interview. I'm expecting a video crew but he holds up a tiny camera and starts videoing me for YouTube. They are advocates for technology: When asked how technology can contribute to a "more peaceful society" they come up with scores of examples.
At the conference a succession of large corporates have been wooing the students through presentations and workshops. It's not a recruitment fair, but there is still an atmosphere of friendly competition between companies that want to make an impression. This time the focus of the conference is sustainability. These students are evangelistic about the theme. They may have flown half way around the world to get here, but they're obviously trying to make up for that by recycling every sheet of paper and re-using their disposable plastic cups.
The corporate workshops surprise me. Some are impressive, some are dull, and I'm struck by the patient attentiveness of the audience as they raise questions about CSR. They don’t seem like an impatient "me generation" (was that X?). Few ask challenging questions either about business or CSR. Perhaps they are tired by day 4 of their non-stop working and partying, or perhaps this is a culturally-conditioned sign of respect. The debate fails to link the external actions of companies with the internal behaviour and values in doing business or managing people.
Despite this, some of the corporate stories are sophisticated. This doesn't seem like spin anymore. Unilever talks of their journey from reducing harm (1980's style CSR) to today's "building socially responsible brands". Standard Chartered are educating 1million young people about HIV (their potential workforce in some of their countries is dying) and talk of principle-based lending criteria at the heart of their business. Microsoft explains its education strategy designed to bring "the next 5 billion" into the digital economy.
Meanwhile the corporates are rubbing shoulders with niche NGOs like Ashoka, Artemesia and Youth Business International. Contributors include David Cooperrider (founder of Appreciative Inquiry), Ante Glavas (Business as an Agent of World Benefit) and the former president of Bolivia. They don't just fly in and out – they stay and talk. It's a rich blend of people and organisations.
Do I detect a tipping point here? The corporate messages seem more credible. Their level of partnership with the students is significant. Crude spin is scorned. NGOs are engaged. Progress seems tangible.
Yet over dinner I'm chatting with the Brazilian CEO of a global bank and the Latin American head of a global manufacturer, who both seem rather bewildered. This is not their world - not their agenda - attractive though it may seem to them.
My conclusion: CSR professionals and their global CEOs have moved their companies a long way. They need to, if they are to attract students like these, who are on a mission. But there is still a gulf to be overcome. Mid-level executives and national CEOs are insulated from all this inspiring talk by the realities of tough targets or the credit crunch. And as our Digital Generation research will show, when it's published next month, students entering a corporate workplace may find themselves pleasantly surprised with many things, but too often disappointed that they can't see the social impact of their work. They're not sure how to make a difference in mainstream corporate jobs so they end up in central functions, or they leave for NGOs.
I fear we're at risk of growing the next generation of CSR professionals rather than the next generation of business leaders. Surely at this time more than ever we need operational leaders who can embed positive values throughout the daily detail of business practice, and make brave decisions and wise compromises that move things forward.
But then I take another look at this passionate group of talented students, working together in the most internationally-diverse teams anywhere on the planet, and I realise that if only a fraction of them end up in mainstream business then the world will be a better place. This is a good hothouse for tomorrow's global talent, and these are exactly the kind of people who can trigger a tipping point.