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DOCC Committee invites Mr. Anant G. Nadkarni to SPJIMR All of us have read or heard from time-to time that corporate social responsibility is an important aspect of running a company. Most of us aren't even fully acquainted with or understand the concept of corporate social responsibility. Therefore, to enlighten us on this concept, DOCC Committee invited Mr. Anant G. Nadkarni of Tata Council for Community Initiatives to speak on "Corporate Responsibility: A Challenge before Business Leadership". Mr. Anant G. Nadkarni, before launching into the topic, probed the minds of the students through an interactive session, to gauge what they thought of the concept. He examined the meaning of corporate social responsibility, its relevance and the need for inclusion of corporate social responsibility in a business school curriculum. Having gained a general idea of the level of acquaintance of the students with this concept, Mr. Nadkarni moved over to his presentation. To ensure a better understanding of the concepts and presentation, a copy of the presentation and a brochure had been circulated among the students much before the lecture was due. During his presentation, Mr. Nadkarni stressed that he will be dropping the word "social" from "corporate social responsibility" and instead, speak just about "corporate responsibility" since he was dealing with corporate responsibility in a business domain. Mr. Nadkarni started his presentation with a look at some triggers on CSR as he spoke about certain global issues such as environmental deterioration which lead to the development of some global standards. These standards didn't deter global debates on sustainability, amnesty, etc., from happening and resulted in global convergence such as Human Development Index, ILO Declarations, etc. Thus, there was a reinventing of market institutions and roles of responsible business. Moving to the Indian context, Mr. Nadkarni highlighted various events such as Bhopal Gas Leak, Narmada dam, etc., which led to the emergence of the concept of corporate responsibility in India. Mr. Nadkarni explained that corporate responsibility is more about responsible behaviour. He said that there are two concepts of corporate persona - who you are and what you are. Leadership today faces the challenge of balancing the interests of multiple stakeholders. The fundamental question which every business from that of a chaiwala to a MNC needs to answer is, "Are we doing business or simply making money?" Mr. Nadkarni gave examples of the large extent of disparity prevalent in the world and stressed that the main market was in people from lower strata of society. Illustrating Tata's efforts to exploit this market, he spoke about the 2 priority projects of Tata - a small car and a small chain of hotels, which will give high value for money. He said that community building is very important and business is a partner in this exercise. Mr. Nadkarni also reflected upon the importance of corporate social responsibility as viewed by Jamsetji Tata, Founder, Tata Group - "In a free enterprise, the community is not just another stakeholder in business but is in fact the very purpose of its existence". Mr. Nadkarni elaborated upon his lecture with the help of the Tata Business Excellence Model and the Tata index. He emphasized that the Tata index doesn't average scores and instead comes to a convergence. He said that he had never been given a mandate at Tata and that the employees at Tata experienced a high sense of empowerment. Mr. Nadkarni's lecture was followed by a question answer round in which the students posed their queries to Mr. Nadkarni who answered them with great interest. Contributed by - |
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