CSR For Start-Ups = CSR From The Start!

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Technology companies typically begin to think about corporate social responsibility in the context of "giving back to the community" once they have become large, established market players with a track record of profitability. This is far from an ideal approach to CSR, however, because having a proper CSR framework in place right from day one can young companies avoid problems that can stymie their growth or tarnish their reputation permanently.

Consider, for example, the many networking hardware companies that manufacture products intended to block out inappropriate Internet content at work and at home, only to find that their products are being used to repress human rights in a country where they have never done business before. Or consider the social networking site that changes its terms of service in a way that it thinks is entirely innocuous, but which its users find to be an