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Addressing
a workshop on CSR - The Key to Profitability in the 21st Century,
attended by cognoscente of Kolkata. Dr Mehra, President, World
Council for Corporate Governance said, "The poor are our
planet's galactic business opportunity. 800 million poor of India
represent one of the largest untapped consumer markets on this
planet. Their combined economic power is greater than the economy
of some small nations. They are an immense source of innovation
offering the biggest business opportunity of our times".
He says, "Widening disparities are a ticking
time bomb waiting to explode. They drive people to desperation.
People can live in poverty but cannot stand injustice. The business
should have a vested interest in thinking of revolutionary ways
to remove the widening gap".
Dr Mehra was on his way from Singapore where he
had delivered a keynote address at the Roundtable organised by
ASEAN. Dr Mehra said, Test of the progress is not whether we add
more to the abundance of those who already have too much, it is
whether we provide enough to those who have little. "Gruelling
poverty may not be the breeding ground for fundament-alists and
ideologues such as Osama Bin Laden, but it certainly provides
them a lush recruiting ground for promoting terror and mayhem.
We have entered an era where consumers will increasingly make
purchases on the basis of firms' role in society, how it treats
employees, local neighbourhoods and other stakeholders."
Dr Mehra added "Market capitalisation is
today determined not by the profits announced by the company but
the public perception of how they discharge their social and environmental
obligations."
Explaining the role of CSR Dr Mehra said "CSR is essentially
a company's approach to managing stakeholder issues such as customer
- supplier relationship, work force diversity, human rights, work
life balance as well as its efficient management of environmental
issues. CSR is only being paid lip service by companies and is
being used as a public relations tool. It is no coincidence that
companies in oil, mining and tobacco are its biggest public champions.
The pursuit of business today is limited to a
small proportion of the total field of options. There is a lethargy
of innovation. There is a whole new market of untapped customers
and unarticulated demand waiting to be commercialised. Business
can fundamentally alter the rural landscape and stimulate commerce
and development by bridging infrastructure gaps in rural areas,
linking the informal economy to established markets and providing
distribution channels and transaction platforms.
We are living in exciting times. Never before in human history
the gap between what can be imagined and what can be achieved
has been smaller. The question is, do we have the will to do it?
Our will has been corroded by our unbridled greed and obsessive
adulation and addiction to consumerism. The true measure of a
person's riches lies not in the things he or she can buy but the
things he or she can afford not to buy. it is great to make money
but it is a disgrace to die rich". Einstein said: "only
a life lived in the service of others is worth living". We
must ask ourselves - What difference do I make?. Changing our
motivation from greed to taking pride in making a difference will
make businesses sustainable and help us to give up posturing and
get real with CSR. Americans have long been proud of the decade
when slavery was abolished. Let future generations be proud that
it was our decade that abolished poverty and removed inequalities.
The urgency is not because social good is the ultimate human creed
but that the alternative is anarchy where terror and violence
alone will succeed."
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