What is it? In a connected world how does it gets viewed, perceived and measured? Some of my observations may raise eyebrows and few of them may be even be perceived as controversial – you decide.
The world is at a loss now to give any sort of societal meaning to the word responsibility, and now attaching corporations to the entity called CSR seems to look like hanging a double-edged sword on the heads of those who are supposed to get the benefits out of it.
There are many noteworthy causes and noteworthy responses. No doubt about it. However, these are in pockets, but to achieve a ‘transformation’ per se is still a long way to go. Why? There are many reasons for that. The obvious ones are too obvious. If a society is an organic living and these organizations are part of it, then a collaborative effort of the CSRs from these organizations are much more balanced and responsive to the needs of the society than an individual approaches creating a lop-sided benefits.
What amounts to be a CSR activity in a developed world is different from the developing world and is different from the underdeveloped world. Many a times USA had been accused of not taking care of domestic CSR activities while putting global CSR activities on the top of its list. When it comes to a CSR activity of any kind, it is hard to beat the generosity of the citizens of that nation.
Why am I saying this? As a purist, I see that corporations and societies have evolved with a global presence, and the activities carried out by such global entities take on a different meaning when CSR is viewed. The essence of CSR limited to the nation that needs to implement it, gets muddled and interpreted differently by these global entities. They are good in one sense and bad in some other sense.
Without the presence of Charitable organizations, NGOs, Foundations of all kinds mushrooming as the stars get born and reborn each day, the efforts are getting diluted by the desire to have the branding activity and to have a much bigger stage presence than the real work that needs addressing. I was privileged to watch ‘make-a-difference’ segments on Nightly News by Brian Williams on NBC television that hailed many individuals who with meagre resources achieved greater things than those who were blessed with bigger resources. Hence, if one of those activities is perceived as a ‘make-a-difference’ CSR of common men and women, these CSR efforts are amplified much more with much less effort and costs than those spent by big corporates. Eye brows raised? Okay.
The next one.
Bangalore has now lost the charm of Garden city to become a Garbage city. Add to that the traffic problems experienced by mega cities like Los Angeles, the Bangalore moves into a different dimension. Add to that the blocked drains, crumbling road infrastructure and the wrath of rain gods, you can see Bangalore moving into a dimension that no other cities can come close.
Now look at corporations who have become part of that Bangalore. Their combined CSR budget is so huge, it may put BBMP to shame. However, the claims that they are global companies, may help them to move the CRS budget away from the needs of Bangalore to other cities in India and the world alike. Do they think of any ratios of what the city earns for them to think of what they should give back? Do they have any other yardsticks that they can use to divert the monies to the needy as a society that is breaking up and crashing down at it knees than to divert them to places to get some kind of recognition?
IT companies can use IT to transform Bangalore infrastructure by developing intelligent traffic control systems as part of the CSR activity; the developers who are exploiting Bangalore as no others, can contribute to take care of the roads that lead to their properties; the restaurants can support roadside vendors to become more hygienic; the list goes on. Essentially, what I am saying is that they can do the CSR activity within their industry expertise than doing it outside their space just to get the recognition. More importantly, they can even form a CSR NGO to help them to asess the societal needs better and divert the funds and efforts to the places that is lacking or lagging to achieve an overall balance for the society and help the society to blossom than to rot at its roots and the rot going unnoticed with frills covering up the rotting. Sounds controversial? So be it.