Power
In many respects, the CSR manager is as powerful as any other senior-level corporate manager—sometimes even more so. In business, the perception of a company in public is very important. Money is speech, and people really do vote with their pocketbooks.
You might not listen to Aunt Susie when she says she won't spend money on products that a company tests on animals, but do you know who is listening? The company that employs you. So you better turn your listening skills up and your backtalk instincts down, because if you want to earn your paycheck, you better get Aunt Susie to start throwing her dollars at you. And to do that, you're going to have to convince your company to set those testing bunnies free.
If you listen to public demand and then construct an educated, creative, innovative, and (ideally) profitable plan to incorporate consumer information into company policy, then the people who have a few extra zeroes at the end of their paychecks will start listening to you. They trust that you'll read the tea leaves and guide them in a good direction, even if that means keeping a factory in the United States when the company could save a little extra cash by moving it to Malaysia.
That's right. As the CSR Manager, you might have enough power to save American jobs, like a corporate Batman (so...like Bruce Wayne). And you'll do it, too―as long as it's ultimately in the best interest of the company you work for. You can only go so far, though; you're probably not going to get your company to support anti-drilling methods if you work for an oil and gas company.
But you might still get them to agree to donate a few million dollars to wildlife conservation. And the power to help preserve rare wildlife and precious ecosystems is pretty cool, if you ask us.