...just as the accusations that Yahoo and others have kowtowed to the Chinese government and sold out on basic principles has no doubt been a hard pill to swallow (particularly for Google, which promoted itself as a champion for free speech), so too has it been a hard one for the big toy, shoe and apparel brands. The parallels seem obvious. If this is true, then what lessons might Yahoo learn from companies such as Nike that have been under intense public pressure over its China strategy for more than a decade? I think there are three fundamental issues that are usefully transferable from shoes, toys, apparel and retailing in general to the IT sector over CSR in China. The first lesson concerns turning stakeholders’ concerns into action: the longer it takes, the more time critical stakeholders have to find even more dirt....I have no idea how much it has cost Nike to implement CSR globally (or in China), but I can say without fear of contradiction that it would have cost a lot less if it had acted faster...Finally, one of the most obvious shortcomings in the whole debate is how poorly represented Chinese Internet users are. It took Nike a long time to start listening to Indonesian or Chinese workers; it shouldn’t take Yahoo as long. The second lesson concerns transparency. It took Nike 17 years to move from initial criticisms in Indonesia to the production of a CSR report in 2005 that truly engaged with core issues and stakeholder concerns. In the intervening years, the company witnessed the proliferation of scores of anti-Nike and boycott groups, and thousands of negative media stories...The third lesson is that companies need to walk the talk. Platitudes like Yahoo’s “positive force” don’t cut the mustard. Statements need to be backed with action because it’s the only thing that critical stakeholders will believe.