I spent parts of September and October 2016 going through a “conference phase”. Instead of avoiding them like the plague, I found myself attending 3 of them in reasonable quick succession. One was the release of the report CSR in India 2016 by Corporate Responsibility Watch (CRW – http://www.corporatewatch.in), a network of organisations, mainly civil society, whose role is self-evident from its name. The other is the World Business Council for Sustainable Development’s (www.wbcsd.org) annual Council Meeting. And the third, the India Economic Summit zhttps://www.weforum.org/events/india-economic-summit-2016) organised by the World Economic Forum and CII.
The 3 events had some overlaps. While the CRW and WBCSD were by design looking at the role of business in society, the India Economic Forum, which normally focuses on “core business” had sessions on skilling, diversity and empowering growth. There were some interesting takeaways from each but sadly, some of the narratives had not changed, and that was somewhat depressing. Let me tell you what I mean.
Position 1: All companies are bad
The Corporate Responsibility Watch (CRW) event was at IIC Annexe and though I landed pretty much on time, I found myself unable to get past the door. And when I stepped out for a minute to take a call, I couldn’t get back in and despite my height advantage, I finally gave up and went home. The room was full of NGOs – I believe that I was the only company guy there and I barely managed to get the door – and so I can understand some grandstanding but this made me shake my head.
The report (http://www.corporatewatch.in/reports.html), which is based on analysis of information available in a number of publicly available sources is, has some very interesting lessons for companies and I think they should all read and reflect on them. But a scan of the report suggests that no company gets it right. With few exceptions, it is a scathing indictment or corporate irresponsibility and if the idea is to influence better behaviour from companies, NGOs need to read Dale Carnegie’s classic on how to influence people (even if the first part of his book on winning friends is not of interest). What could CRW have done differently? A good start would be to have a brief executive summary and an accompanying slide deck so that people actually read it. And second, as we learnt as parents, that to chastise a child, you also need to give positive strokes – some positive examples will at least get more companies to read it rather than see it as an exercise in company-bashing.
Having spent 15 years in the NGO sector myself, I have a pretty good idea of what happens there. So, while discussing the status of people with disability in companies, when the speaker stops dramatically after giving the total number of such people employed by companies and says he is not even going to calculate the percentage as it is so abysmal (as the crowd roars!), I was waiting for him to contrast that with how the NGOs are doing according to this metric. But that never came, and I can tell you that is abysmal too! Sadly, if you have a roomful of people getting to hear what they want to hear, you tend to be a bit economical with data! And less said about civil society paying minimum wages and other statutory compliances the better.
This is not about who is worse – companies or NGOs. Companies may be but the narrative that all companies are bad is illustrated by the analysis the report does of sexual harassment. Of the 98 companies analysed, 66 reported that they either 1 or nil case. You could celebrate that. Or you could remain sceptical as the report does and say: “The question here is whether in the case of companies with nil cases, it is because there is no sexual harassment taking place or if the environment to report the sexual harassment is in itself unsafe?” That’s how to influence people,
folks!
Position 2: The 2% CSR requirement is meant to fund NGOs
The NGO community really celebrated when the Companies Act 2013, containing the 2% requirement was passed. Subsequent conversations with my NGO friends suggested that a part of the reason for this was many expected this largesse to come their way. Understandable because NGOs really struggle with funding especially since home-grown philanthropy is still in its infancy and India’s growth story has meant many international donors are reluctant to fund India. And therein lies the problem.
Of course companies should partner NGOs – it is the logical thing to do. Many experienced companies already do, but the newer ones are still struggling with how to find these NGOs and what kind of arrangements to have to ensure work happens and there is sufficient accountability. But the whole philosophy behind this clause was to get companies to bring to the development process what they are good at – output orientation, efficiency, project management and so on.
So, the whining continues. NGOs whine that companies don’t pass their CSR funds to them. And when they do, the NGOs whine that companies treat them as vendors and expect the NGOs to comply with the same requirements as any of their vendors including, in one case that I personally know of, requiring them to sign a non-disclosure agreement! Ridiculous I agree and companies need to realise that there are more to institutional relationships beyond vendors and joint venture partners where both partners invest financially. But in the meanwhile, my advice to NGOs is – stop whining! And to companies – CSR is social development and NGOs are the experts and so go forth and build partnerships!
Position 3: Trickle down has worked!
The India Economic Summit had a smattering of NGOs in some sessions but I really missed them in others. This was hard core stuff where GDP was the reigning deity and there was much celebration around how India was the global leader in terms of growth amongst any economy of note and much praise for government of the day including our Prime Minister. The fact is we are numero uno because China has slowed down!
An interesting session was the one on India Economic Update, which had speakers largely from business with one economist thrown in for good measure. After talking about the usual stuff – and China has to come in (our colonial masters are finally off the hook after dominating every discourse up to the 2000s) – someone bowled the bouncer: trickle down has worked! How I missed some articulate development economists and NGO types in that panel!!
The man who said this shall remain unnamed because he is a good and sensitive man but the fact that there was a sagacious nodding of heads after that suggested that everyone in the room agreed. The evidence that was thrown in to support it was the numbers below the poverty line had reduced significantly, never mind the controversy around how this calculation has changed. Of course, the idea of relative poverty was not even discussed, and this in a world that the Credit Suisse Global Wealth Report 2015 indicated that the top 0.7% of the world’s adults control 45% of global wealth while the bottom 71% control a princely 3%!
So folks, it looks like while we will shake our heads at jobless growth, the GDP deity will reign. Because, trickle down works!
Position 4: We embrace diversity – it is our tradition
The session on “Breaking Down Diversity Barriers” was an interesting one too. Speakers included a minister and several corporate folks. No NGO people were in the panel.
The essential outcome of the session was – believe it or not – we are a country that embraces diversity! Scriptures were quoted to show that we don’t philosophically oppose this (Manushastra didn’t get an honourable mention) and so the problem, if it all it exists, has to do with some bad apples in the system. The discussion was rich with anecdotes, poor with data and no cognisance of Dalit agitations or the Gau Rakshak’s campaigns. The tragedy was that everyone seemed to believe that since they didn’t practice any form of discrimination, no one else did! And diversity was reduced to a single point agenda – how do we get more women into corporate India. A worthwhile project no doubt, but certainly only the tip of the diversity iceberg!
The only saving grace to this discussion Parmesh Shahani of Godrej Industries. Openly stating that he is gay, he is responsible to increase the number of LGBTs in the Godrej group and talked with such refreshing frankness. The Godrej project is truly world class and praise-worth but I wondered how his fellow panellists, who talked about our great diversity tradition, even linked this to Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code that criminalise the other in terms of sexual orientation!
Position 5: Only God can help us!
That, in short, is my position. We need to produce goods and services that meet the needs of our people and in a manner that their own incomes increase. Corporate India has a huge role to play by doing this in a manner that is beneficial to people and the planet. If civil society continues to only provide negative strokes and believes that once they get hold of the 2% all will be well, nothing will changel. And if Corporate India believes that business as usual (after removing portions of environmental and human rights laws that hinder growth) will increase GDP growth and that is all that is required as our natural propensity to embrace diversity will ensure that everything trickles uniformly and justly, then we are in deep trouble folks. Only God can save us! Amen!!
October 2016