I spent two days last week working with a client a few miles from the ancient city of Maastricht in the Netherlands. It was a meeting with an impressive group of individuals - a CEO, two board members, a chief scientist, programme managers and a range of subject experts.

There is no doubt that all of the attendees were more informed, more experienced in their field and probably a great deal more intelligent than I am. 

So why was I there?

My role was to facilitate. To help the group articulate their positions and reach an agreement on the way forward. Thinking back on those two very intensive days, it occurs to me how much of my work is simply facilitation - helping unlock the knowledge and creativity of others. It is humbling to consider this and strangely liberating at the same time.

In this case, we were there to help develop a strategy for corporate social responsibility (CSR). As a result of our efforts it could be that the company will decide to set up an endowment fund that will see a flow of funding for science and technical education and for water management in the developing world. Corporately they are in the business of trying to help alleviate poverty and ignorance.

I have a very small part to play in this, but I am proud to play it.

And this thought does feed back to what I think is a core business reason for doing CSR. The feeling that you can be proud, as an employee, of what your company is doing in the world - above and beyond providing great customer service and fantastic products. That you can be proud that a company can act - "out of conviction" - as the inspirational CEO put it.

That there is something more to being a company than the pursuit of profit. That there is a place for serious moral conviction at a corporate level.