Taking what you get
I am no guru but I have spent a fair amount of time in my professional life talking to companies in India & Western Europe on issues of corporate responsibility, sustainability and their perception on what a company's role can & should be when it comes to engaging with the community in which they operate.
I've come across varying opinions; some inspiring, some practical & some appalling. One common thread across all these meetings & conversations has been the fact that the companies that are serious about sustainability have the right frameworks, talented & passionate people heading these initiatives and most importantly the complete backing of management & resources to carry out engagement programs.
The Tata Group & Godrej Industries made a huge impression on me very early on. As an 18 year old AIESEC member, one would hear stories of how Ratan Tata knew more about AIESEC than we ourselves did or how Adi Godrej's door was always open for AIESEC to meet for assistance or consultation. Usually, these stories rarely bear themselves out but 3 years later, meeting these two gents and seeing for myself repeatedly that the tales were actually true made me a believer that it was possible to be ethical, socially conscious, philantrophic & still do enough to keep your shareholders happy. Indeed the characteristics I just mentioned became as important to these shareholders as profit did. Astounding. This was my first interaction & exposure to how a company viewed the now threadbare acronym that is CSR.
Just as well because I always revert to those experiences when cynicism takes over in the present day. Having interacted with several companies recently its equally astounding to see the callousness with which engaging with the community is viewed. At best, engagement is sought but on terms that would be unacceptable in a commercial agreement; at worst it is a completely public relations driven effort, short term and without any overall strategic objective. I have always believed that engaging with the community in which any company operates should be one of the most important strategic goals. Creating an ethical & socially aware brand only leads to brighter people wanting to join or stay longer with the organization. This is the basic premise on which many of AIESEC's corporate partners work, which is why they are so successful in hiring & retaining AIESEC's brightest.
It will take many years before Corporate India & indeed global corporations reach this stage of thought and until then we'll just have to grin & bear it because the reality that money does grow on trees requires a leap of imagination we aren't yet ready to make.
I've come across varying opinions; some inspiring, some practical & some appalling. One common thread across all these meetings & conversations has been the fact that the companies that are serious about sustainability have the right frameworks, talented & passionate people heading these initiatives and most importantly the complete backing of management & resources to carry out engagement programs.
The Tata Group & Godrej Industries made a huge impression on me very early on. As an 18 year old AIESEC member, one would hear stories of how Ratan Tata knew more about AIESEC than we ourselves did or how Adi Godrej's door was always open for AIESEC to meet for assistance or consultation. Usually, these stories rarely bear themselves out but 3 years later, meeting these two gents and seeing for myself repeatedly that the tales were actually true made me a believer that it was possible to be ethical, socially conscious, philantrophic & still do enough to keep your shareholders happy. Indeed the characteristics I just mentioned became as important to these shareholders as profit did. Astounding. This was my first interaction & exposure to how a company viewed the now threadbare acronym that is CSR.
Just as well because I always revert to those experiences when cynicism takes over in the present day. Having interacted with several companies recently its equally astounding to see the callousness with which engaging with the community is viewed. At best, engagement is sought but on terms that would be unacceptable in a commercial agreement; at worst it is a completely public relations driven effort, short term and without any overall strategic objective. I have always believed that engaging with the community in which any company operates should be one of the most important strategic goals. Creating an ethical & socially aware brand only leads to brighter people wanting to join or stay longer with the organization. This is the basic premise on which many of AIESEC's corporate partners work, which is why they are so successful in hiring & retaining AIESEC's brightest.
It will take many years before Corporate India & indeed global corporations reach this stage of thought and until then we'll just have to grin & bear it because the reality that money does grow on trees requires a leap of imagination we aren't yet ready to make.
Labels: business, CSR, social impact, society
posted by Abs @ 6/06/2007 01:28:00 PM
8 comments
8 Comments:
Hi Abhi,
Was reading my blogroll and caught this post - the temptation was too high not to reply.
I guess there still too much of the idealisation of the Tatas and other industrialists of India. It is easy for them to be philatrophic with the wealth behind the holding (with them behind actually the shareholders) and indeed the clear-cut business case for community engagement - good people joining the company and good for the growth of markets. Can the local-brewed Tata-in-waiting afford the same generosity without the same clear-cut business case? I doubt it. And this is where the real CSR starts. How to find that innovation that will make it profitable for the medium-range company and for the community to engage? There is also responsibility of Tata and Gorej to promote the CSR innovation instead of grand schemes of community engagement that others want to imitate but end up in a mere PR campaigns. And of course I am against those cowboy capitalists who are arrogant towards the community and obnoxious towards the needs of the neighbours. There is always a golden line of ethical capitalism, the mastery is to find it.
Wishes from Brussels,
Volodja
Volody: thanks for sharing. You've spelled out the problem & a solution really well! :)
While you are right that medium sized companies have limited resources, my contention is that the good intent these companies have must be translated into action keeping in mind a larger objective; which is mostly missing at the moment because CSR or any other term one might use, is still seen as "some charity work" that a company does. Mindsets have to change and those will happen only when the trend becomes bigger. Like in the stock market, the smarter companies spot trends sooner and hence work to leverage those trends and then one day a mass of others follow. That's what I see happening with community engagement.
"Creating an ethical & socially aware brand only leads to brighter people wanting to join or stay longer with the organization. This is the basic premise on which many of AIESEC's corporate partners work, which is why they are so successful in hiring & retaining AIESEC's brightest."
That's naive brother. Don't forget that Anderson was a major partner. They attract AIESEC's brightest because of the professional opportunities they create and retain them for the same reason. Using your examples, how many AIESEC alumni work with Tata or Godrej compared to Lever?
Blah: I agree the wording came across muddled. My point is that these companies have realised the importance of CSR & being ethical as ONE OF the key criteria for attracting talent from AIESEC, which is why so many partners are part of sustainability dialogues, CSR workshops etc.
Besides, the world wouldn't be what it is today without a little bit of naivete...maybe one day a strong CSR agenda would become a "must have" recruitment criteria from a "nice to have" that it is today.
Oh and Tata & Godrej don't have AIESEC'ers working for them because they still aren't sold on the fact that we produce global change agents :)whereas truly global corporations clearly see that advantage with AIESEC
Hi Abi, missed the line of responses (still need to figure out how the RSS reader can follow comments updates)
Cocerning the medium range companies taking a strategic view on CSR - I am facing it now every day since I am working on the community of practice CSR Ukraine's creation. Even with the people in the area to who companies are turning for advise and information it is the same situation - it takes a lot of convincing and explanation that CSR is not only philantrophy+CSR reporting. Often people behind CSR movement in developing (and even some EU countries) are either coming from eco-movement and CSR for them equals being green or from trade unions/left movement and CSR for them all about keeping jobs. It is very rare to see people who understand the complexity of issue and understand the capitalistic angle of it. Perhaps spotting the right CSR movement managers could be a first good start for bringing medium size companies up to speed.
Wishes,
Volodja
I think the problem stems from the fact that Business schools do not teach CSR as an enterprise process. The moment we will have good books/other instruments embedded in country realities on the value of business engagement with civil society we should start seeing this trend changing. At the end of the day you need to inspire a generation of business leaders to look at CSR strategically. That is where the change will come from.
Hi all, nice discussion and i wanted to share a few points as well.
On Anirban's point - specifically speaking about Microsoft. The only reason why MS partnered with AIESEC was to work together on CSR. The exchange program as well was established as MS realized that AIESECers know and understand CSR better then college grads. I guess Aakash would agree on this.
On Aakash's point - he is absolutely right. The education part is very important, maybe long term approach but very much needed for creating consciousness in the society and students specifically. I think its the same with entrepreneurship.
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