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BIM's "Crescita 2005 - Kartavya" Held at Bangalore The focus was on how companies were remembered by people. There was also a question raised whether Corporate Social Responsibility activities could be considered as a Public Relations initiative. The magnitude of the Corporate Social Responsibility activities being reduced to an ISO 26000 certification was also debated over with the legal implications also being covered in great detail. The panel discussion was followed by a tea break. The next event was the closing ceremony. The chief guest for the closing ceremony was Dr. Bob Hoekstra, CEO - Philips India. Along with him on the stage were Mr. K. Jothiramalingam IAS, BMP Commissioner, Government of Karnataka, Prof. M. Sankaran, Director of BIM and Prof. S. Sundar, the Event Coordinator. The showpiece of the ceremony was a wonderful speech by Dr. Bob. He succeeded Mr. Jothiramalingam, who made a pretty good presentation. Dr. Bob started with the topic ‘Capitalism’. He emphasized that the United States of America was the driver of the world economy. Then he moved on to the issue of ‘Sustainability’. He queried the audience on how a corporate could take over a country. He said that under Capitalism, there were some poor people but under Communism, all the people were poor. He also readily accepted the fact that Indians were very enterprising. He said that together with foreign multinationals the potential of India must be unleashed. For this he said that the people living in rural areas should be empowered. Dr. Bob also said that the basic aim of any company was to survive. Profit was only a by-product in the process of survival. He then went on to say that governments do not represent the society as popularly believed. Speaking of global organizations, he said that MNCs were the true global organizations being even more far reaching and effective than the UNO. He added that the only country doing meaningful tasks of global responsibility was the USA. In Dr. Bob’s opinion, ‘India thinks that Pakistan is the world’ and ‘Chinese government and companies are professional while Indian companies are more professional than the government’. Contributed by - |
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