Corporate Social Responsibility has now evolved in Greater China beyond just donations to charity. In your opinion, what makes a CSR program today successful or unsuccessful and which of your clients are doing it well?

Penny Burgess: The link to the business is an important element because it allows the company to make a difference to a wide range of stakeholders. The ongoing FedEx Safe Kids campaign is certainly a success because it directly taps into the nature of the FedEx business - it addresses road safety, which is top of mind from government to street level.

Eddi Yang: In China, donations are viewed suspiciously among the public. Staff volunteerism can counter this. Mead Johnson, an infant-formula manufacturer, just ran a CSR program in 10 cities for children of migrant workers in which staff went on a half-day outing with beneficiary children. The involvement of staff was an important differentiator for this program.

b: What is the biggest opportunity that companies might have for successful CSR programs in Greater China that they are currently not taking advantage of?

PB: Actually recognizing the value they bring! Research shows that CSR attracts people towards a business at every level.

Richard Burger: Many companies don't realize what enormous value they can get from a relatively small investment.

Geneviève Hilton: Measuring value is critical. The involvement of regulators, customers and other important decision-makers should be part of the criteria on which the programs are judged. CSR programs are too often measured by the number of press clippings they generate when companies should be looking at all of the opportunities to build relationships that a good CSR program can bring.

b: What are the biggest challenges in running an effective CSR program in Greater China?

RB: In China, it's good to find a CSR program that can meaningfully address the issue of scale. I was recently involved in Lenovo's 1,000-town road show, which donate computers to schools in impoverished Chinese villages, mostly for children who have never even seen a computer before.

EY: In China, scale can be a double-edged sword. While it undoubtedly brings challenges, companies that have outlets all over the market have large numbers of staff which make a great platform for a well-strategized campaign.

PB: The notion of charity is not as well developed culturally in China as in some Western countries. A campaign that requires donations of time or money can face difficulties in recruiting participants, whether employees or consumers, so incentives need to be factored in.

GH: It's getting the CSR decision-makers to engage in any kind of dialogue with staff, operations and regulators in advance - rather than making the decision in a vacuum. What's important to them - the workplace environment? The natural environment? Education? You can only find this by asking!