No. this is not going to be one of those essays where it is claimed that everything that happened till date and everything that is happening is wrong! Nor is this going to be one where a Utopia is pictured as just within our reach.

To do justice to the reader and the topic, I suggest let us set a few ground rules to ourselves.

• We shall be objective and dispassionate in our analysis!
• We shall limit the scope of this essay to draw relevant conclusions without going all over the place!
• We shall end this 4000 words essay with a single line (within 25 words mind you!)

To begin with, let us look at this wonderful country called India. The second most populated country in the world. Which still manages to find a place in the top five nations on GDP (calculated on an currency parity basis) despite all the drawbacks (?) of having a very large illiterate unskilled population, a militant communist workforce, a corrupt bureaucracy, and a very scheming wheeler dealer kind of corporate set up. Notice the question mark ? . The deliberate cynicism is because one is not sure weather these are drawbacks! (Or irrelevant issue). We have managed to grow, we have managed to improve health and education, we have managed to alleviate poverty to an extent, we have managed to manage somehow!!

The point to note is that the world around us has done all of these, and much more, at a much faster pace. More importantly, most other nations have done so more efficiently. Which ought to make us sit back and wonder- are we doing it right?

We shall attempt to put the entire issue in the perspective of systems of governance and the role of the corporates thereof.

Our country has moved- from being governed by another, to being a socialist economy (the famous Nehru formula for success) to a market driven economy. For whatever they were worth, the semi communist mixed economy approached the situation from the point of view of the society. Rules were laid dog and functions defined. Selfishness and profit were not to be the main aim of being in business but societal concern, employment generation and infrastructure building. The responsibilities for the public and the private sectors were set in black and white. The post-independence governing body was to take care of certain industries, which were to be combined with the development of the country’s infrastructure. While the private sector was controlled by a system of licenses and permits only to function in areas not considered critical for a strong independent nation.

And the experiments worked- to an extent. The result: we have roads (though with potholes), electricity reaching to most parts of the country (with a 70 % loss during transmission), education levels increasing (with no fruitful deployment of the educated), and an improvement in health (with average lifespans going up, but with the number of people also increasing at 2.4 persons per minute).

The societal concerns of organizations in this system were at best limited to claiming that all such concerns were a function of the government.

Today, we have opened ourselves to the market forces. We are now trying to make ourselves as part of the global basket of goods. The Indian manufacturer is no longer part of the protected industry. The government does not subsidize substandard produce. We have opened ourselves to competition. Even those industries previously under the purview of the government are part of the private sector. The airline industry is a prime example. With the opening up of airways, we now have private lines. Traveling is now easier, and more comfortable. Let’s take a look at media – Earlier when the viewer had only the liberty of switching off if he didn’t want to see Doordarshan, today he has at least 38 channels (in the last count) to surf!! And look at the wonders this has done to Doordarshan. The examples can go on and on – Telecom, Automobiles, Power, Banking…

Competition exposes inefficiency, increases consumer choice and forces the corporation to be pro-active. The only way to survive in the future is to accept competition as inevitable and the customer as king (maybe even god!!). What could possibly be the social responsibilities of corporations in such a jungle?

We wish to postulate that in this changed scheme of things, the only social responsibility of corporations is survival.

To explain ourselves further, let us see the factors that survival depend on –

Profits – To survive is to have enough for tomorrow. The organization has to be self-sustaining and should have enough moneys to plough back into the organization to ensure growth.

Growth – No growth is equal to death. A stagnant organization is actually dying because the world around it is growing.

Satisfaction of the stakeholder – The ultimate reason for all activity is the satisfaction of the stakeholder. Dissatisfaction of this group would mean a downfall of the corporate. This is provided the stakeholder also exercises his responsibility of voicing his vote. Stakeholder dissatisfaction would meân that the corporation would not have a reason to exist leave alone surviving the competition.

The stakeholders as defined here are diverse. It is anyone connected to the corporation- directly or indirectly. It is the consumer, the shareholder, the worker in the factory, the employee, the society around the factory, and mankind in general

To each segment there is a responsibility.

• The consumer: It is for his satisfaction fat all activity would take place. He has to be given the quality and choice at an appropriate price it is the organization’s responsibility to ensure that what ultimately reaches the consumer is what he wants.
• The shareholder: who put in his resources to fulfil his own requirement of growth of wealth? The corporate has to ensure for him the profits and generation of wealth.
• The worker: A happy worker / employee is a serious responsibility of the corporate. The raining and development of manpower ultimately benefits the corporate. A more productive workforce implies more produce.
• The environment: that provides the resources and the raw material. Protection of the environment and resource affects the survival of the corporate, and the consumers for whom it exists of accepting this responsibility would mean here would be no reason to survive anyway!!

Viewed in this light it can be seen that ¥e corporations of tomorrow have to do for us what the governments of yesterday did, albeit in a smaller way, and solely for the selfish reason of survival.

Then what is in it for governments? They should do exactly that – govern!!

The onus of creation of the systems and frameworks that create and nurture        responsible corporations and at the same time punish and weed out the irresponsible ones is on the government.

And how does the government know about the irresponsible corporations – from the customer of course. The customer has his own responsibilities. His role is to voice his opinions and exercise his franchise. In fact, an aware customer is the starting point of the whole exercise of creating responsible organizations.

In support of this system, we should have stringent laws against violation of the frameworks, Industrial bodies to apply informal pressures for conformity. And finally strong consumer protection groups to empower the customer and help him exercise his franchise.

All this is held together with the feeling call pride. Pride in being a part of your organization, pride in yow work and finally being proud of being a part of this great Indian fabric.

To summarize – The only social responsibility of the corporations of tomorrow is the generation of weal through stakeholder satisfaction through sheer efficiency and pride.

Alas. there has been no dispassionate analysis, no limited scope, no conclusions, not even 4000 words. And does it not sound dangerously close to Utopia? But hey, it can happen if we want it to, just a little bit passion, just a little bit pride and of course, lots more of dedication.