Stefan Messer, CEO of the German firm Messer Group, and his wife Petra Messer well remember their journey last May to Deqin, a Tibetan autonomous county in Yunnan Province in Southwest China.

 

After traveling 56 km on a bumpy mountainous road for three hours, they eventually reached a village school where 19 Tibetan children were having classes.  

 

Only then did they fully realize what a difference a Messer Project Hope school could make. Before the school and dormitories were built, 11 of the children had to walk two hours or more between their home and school, then back again, so they rose before dawn and returned home long after sunset.

 

Through a 256,000-yuan donation from industrial gas maker Messer Group and Messer China, the children now have a decent school. Dormitories enable them to stay on site and spend more time on their studies.

 

It was a turning point for the enterprise's efforts in corporate social responsibility - to move from Europe to emerging regions in a focused and gradual manner.

 

"We used to concentrate in Europe, mainly in Germany, but we are thinking maybe we should go abroad," says Petra Messer, chairwoman of both the Adolf Messer Foundation and Dr. Hans Messer Foundation.

 

The Adolf Messer Foundation is named after Stefan's grandfather, founded in 1978 on the 100th anniversary of his birth. Its main brief is to give financial awards top researchers at two German universities.

 

The Dr. Hans Messer Foundation was established three years later in the name of Stefan's father. Its purpose is to help those who cannot help themselves, mainly through education and healthcare for disabled or poor people.

 

In the past two years, the Dr. Hans Messer Foundation has been active in Germany and Eastern Europe.

 

As a 630 million euro a year business, Messer cannot be as widespread in its corporate social responsibility projects like fellow German companies Siemens or Bayer - both are giant conglomerates - but it can give back to the communities where it operates.

 

"We focus on countries where we have businesses, (to help with) education and healthcare," says Stefan Messer.

 

After doing business in China for 11 years, Messer generates 12 percent of its global revenues and has 22 percent of employees in the country. Its China revenues grew by 27 percent last year, almost three times its overall corporate growth rate. The company now operates at 13 sites in eight provincial regions.

 

After the first Project Hope school in Deqin, the Messers are now planning for a bigger project - to help another minority primary school in the county build dormitories and a dining hall.

 

On their visit last year, the Messers saw a school where 26 children lived in a dormitory less than 40 sq m in size, with eight children squatting in a circle outside around one bowl of potatoes - their only dish.

 

When Petra told the other four board members of the Dr Hans Messer Foundation what she witnessed, they all agreed the foundation should get involved in the school and work with other partners to provide dormitories and a dining hall for the children.

 

In April, Messer's factory in Zhangjiagang of Jiangsu Province also donated five electric motorbikes to local disabled children to help them commute between home and school.

Stefan Messer believes corporate social responsibility has become an issue for all companies to take seriously, but smaller enterprises must do it carefully.

 

He says due to limited resources, small- and medium-sized enterprises should first find a good partner, which not only saves time and energy in project selection, but also helps ensure the effectiveness of projects.

 

In Deqin, Messer worked with the educational organization Yunnan Provincial Youth Development Fund, which passed along information about needs of different schools and arranged communication with the local government.

 

Another tip from Messer is to keep a close eye on the project to ensure its effectiveness. Smaller businesses also have limited human resources, but even so, they should assign a team to work on projects from beginning to end, he says. One basic approach is to focus on infrastructure, the results of which are easier to measure, he notes.