Corporate social responsibility (CSR), once an obscure term that businesses could ignore, has emerged as the key phrase in business repertoire. CSR, in the 21st Century, can make or mar a business. And that was the thrust of the discussion at the 7th Dubai Global Convention, organised by the Institute of Directors (IOD) at InterContinental Hotel on April 25 and 26, where over 60 speakers from diverse fields in India and abroad were invited.
Actually, the convention began on April 24, with a road trip to Masdar City in Abu Dhabi, billed as a Carbon-Neutral Eco City because it relies entirely on solar and renewable energy sources. The trip was followed by a cruise dinner.
Making Corporate Social Responsibility an Actionable Business Agenda was the title of the convention. On April 25, Saleh Janeeh, chairman, Dubai Quality Group, one of the sponsors for the event, kicked off the programme with his welcome speech. Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al Maktoum was also present for the inauguration.
The Institute of Directors, India, (IOD) is an “independent non-profit network of directors”, said the President of IOD, Lt Gen Ahluwalia. “Over the last two decades, CSR has evolved from simple philanthropic activity to integrating business interests with the community in which it operates, exhibiting social, environmental and ethically responsible behaviour in governance… and long-term sustainability,” he explained.
Lt Gen Ahluwalia advocated the need to integrate CSR in a company’s business model as well as the importance of building partnerships with NGOs. He emphasised that CSR was not to be seen as a public relations exercise.
A special address was given by Ahmad Al Mohairi, the CEO of Community Development Authority, Government of Dubai. He said that helping a community was not enough, but empowering a community to serve itself made a world of difference.
The Ambassador of India to the United Arab Emirates, Kapanaiah Lokesh made a distinction between a developing economy, such as India, and the Western society’s “money for nothing” culture. Sunil A. Misser, CEO of AccountAbility, UK, spoke on The Future of Corporate Responsibility. Misser said that predicting the future was a risky business. “Business as usual is not the norm anymore”. In this century, action is more important.
Dr Bhaskar Chatterjee, IAS, DG & CEO of the first Indian Institute of Corporate Affairs, spoke about Generating Business Value through CSR: Myth or Reality. Chatterjee’s notion was that CSR could be viewed as a vehicle by which corporates and government could work together. He also believed that CSR was intrinsic to the DNA of the company as well as national development.
The session on Transparency and Accountability for Effective CSR was chaired by M G George Muthoot, chairman of the Muthoot Group. “How the business is conducted has become as important as what the business is about,” said Manoj Sonawala, GM, corporate & company secretary of Tata Services Ltd. Phyllis Boardman, MD of PB Energy Solutions Ltd; gave a brief introduction about the ‘Green Deal’ and how it would encourage all UK businesses to focus on CSR.
Sanjay Anand, chairperson of SOX and GRC Institute, GRC Group, USA, explained that GRC meant Governance, Risk Management and Controls and that GRC enabled social responsibilities. He also gave the reasons to be optimistic and pessimistic about reporting CSR, the lack of regulation being the main cause of pessimism.
Dr K K Upadhyay, Team Leader at FICCI, enumerated that bigger businesses tended to include a CSR agenda whereas down the ladder, smaller companies did not.
Stuart Dunlop, Head of ME, ACCA Global, UK, illuminated the audience with the various methods and strategies companies could use to evaluate and measure their CSR.
Professor Colin Coulson-Thomas from the University of Greenwich, UK, differentiated between high performance organisations, which generally could accomplish a long list of CSR activities, and low-performance organisations who fail to incorporate CSR in their policies.
Harpreet A. De Singh, Head of Corporate Quality, Safety and EMS, Air India, spoke about Air India’s surprise when they realised that they had always been performing CSR, even without realising it. “For years, we kept implementing activities but it was never really documented.” She also felt that without measuring such activities, they could not hope to find their mistakes or areas that required improvement.
Mohini Daljeet Singh, Chief Executive of Max India Foundation, the Social Arm of the Max India Group, spoke about the philanthropic work of her company. A short video also accompanied her speech. Aparna Mahajan, Director, Resource Mobilization and Partnerships, IRRAD, spoke about IRRAD’s experiences in India as well as highlighting the future of CSR, while emphasising synergistic partnerships as a core component of good CSR.
U K Chaudhury, Past President, ICSI, outlined the ways CSR could enhance business value – 1) belief in the concept, 2) need for regulations, 3) choosing correctly between voluntary or mandatory CSR, 4) executing CSR according to the needs around the company itself, 5) the company being popular among consumers and public.
‘Social Innovation – The Driver of Economic Growth’ was moderated by Keshav R. Murugesh, Group Chief Executive Officer, WNS Global Service. The first speaker was Abha Negi, Sr GM – Group Corporate Communications & CSR, Jindal SAW Ltd. Negi’s speech was based on accessible structure. She pointed out that the stage could only be reached via stairs, thus, a disabled person would not be able to get onto the stage.
Ibrahim Al Ansari, CEO of Dubai First, felt that society wasn’t always looking for financial contributions. Instead, honest and meaningful support would enhance society further.
Christina Pereira, Vice President, Happy World, Aegis Ltd., agreed with the other speakers of the day that CSR had to be aligned with the corporate formula.
KPMG’s Head of Global Centre of Excellence for Climate Change & Sustainability, Barend van Bergen enumerated the changing attitude to businesses, saying that “people look to business for solutions”. Neetu Goel, Manager, Foundation for MSME Clusters presented her company as a case study for environmental responsibilities. She highlighted the various issues facing MSMEs and the strategies involved in tackling them.
CSR Policy, Guidelines and Reporting, is a fact-based topic. Chairperson Andrew Robinson, a partner of KPMG in Dubai, explained the reporting techniques like ISO 26000, SA 8000, AA 1000, Global Compact, DJSI and MDG.
Ranjit Singh, Assistant General Manager, CSR, Maruti Suzuki, defined the stakeholders of companies as “individuals or groups impacted by company and who can impact the company”.
J Sundharesan, a company secretary, highlighted the need for accountability, reporting and transparency to accompany any act of CSR.
Jon Long from the International Cricket Council spoke of the small budget they had for CSR. However, by joining with UNICEF and UNAIDS, as well as ensuring their advertisers complied with their policies, the ICC built their CSR further. Long also mentioned the ICC’s adherence to the ISO 26000 regulations. The last keynote session of the first day included a short talk by John Peter about the upcoming Rio+20 summit, followed by Adrian Alsop, Director for Research and International Strategy, ESRC, who spoke about Women and the Boardroom. He repeatedly stated the importance of diversity in boardrooms, stressing that it impacted positively on performance.
The second day of the conference began with CSR case study presentations. MARG Limited, NATCO Pharma Ltd., SanDisk Corporation, Vodafone, Samsung, Schneider, NTPC, ICICI Lombard, Steria India Foundation, Lanco Infratech, State Bank of India and Oil India all made presentations on their CSR activities.
Jaydeep N Shah, President of ICAI , chaired the session on Strategic Corporate Social Responsibility: Creating Shared Value. Ritu Jhingon, GM, CSR, CAIRN, showed a moving video of the work that CAIRN were doing in India that brought tears to Hardicon Ltd’s MD Rajeev Arora’s eyes. The Valedictory Session was begun by Pradeep Chaturvedi, VP of IOD, who gave a short summary of all the recommendations given during the conference.
The chief guest, Sanjay Verma, Consul General of India in Dubai, gave a historical and cultural context for CSR.
A closing address from the Chairman, Lt Gen Surinder Nath, was followed by a special address by Professor Ujjwal K Chowdhury, Dean of Whistling Woods and Managing Editor of New Global Indian. Chowdhury focussed on the media’s lack of interest in CSR. He underlined the need to pool human and technical resources to create an integrated CSR medium.
