https://www.financialexpress.com/life/lifestyle/business-beyond-profit-amp-lossnbsp/4255152/lite/
Today businesses need to think beyond just making money. They need to be socially relevant as well. The government has come up with a mandatory amount to be spent by companies on corporate social responsibility, but that is just the monetary aspect, and money spent has often has been belittled as green-washing. All that is changing now, as companies and corporate heads work seriously to bring about changes in the way business is conducted.
Sutapa Banerjee captures this in her book, where her focus is on what companies should do to go beyond mere profit and loss. There is no better way to do it then get a mélange of experts to talk about the importance of three broad heads—sustainability, equity and breaking stereotypes. There are 24 essays in this book with 20 authors providing their views on various issues under these headings, besides the author who has her say on each of these subjects before having a round-up in terms of structuring a playbook.
There are some stellar names associated with this book, starting with a foreword by Nadir Godrej in a rather catchy poetic style. Others include Abheek Barua, Kiran Khalap, Sanjeev Bikhchandani, Manish Sabharwal, Deepinder Goyal and more.
Abheek Barua has an impressive piece on sustainability and inclusion, which is an economist’s view that talks about the importance of this issue and how corporates can work to make this world a better palace. This can be on projects taken up as well as environment-friendly ways of going about their business. Hence, what is important is doing the same business in a better manner. There is the case of ITC taking up projects to not just tackle waste but also new ways of greening land. Companies have now started projects to address issues concerning product disposal, which is very important.
Mukundan takes up the case of his domain, the chemicals industry, and flags three issues that have to be taken up by corporates. The first is to support bioethanol and biodiesel to ensure that coal boilers become more ecofriendly. The second is to set intermediate targets such as closure of old and inefficient power plants, vehicles, building, and improvement in logistics to enhance efficiency and lower costs. Third is to focus on goals such as providing green hydrogen at $1 per kg by developing smart grids, etc.
There are nine essays in this section with some foreign insights on sustainable agriculture in Africa being provided by MD Ramesh, which can hold clues for us within the country too.
Digital Equalizers
The section on equity and economic participation will appeal to every Indian reader. For instance, the essay on a digital job place by Bhikchandani takes us to how the concept of Naukri.com evolved, which has made searching for jobs easy for both prospective employers and employees. There is an extension now for blue collar workers too, called JobHai.com.
This concept was novel when it started and was an equalising tool for all segments of society. We have also seen the government launch a similar initiative at a different level for MSMEs where a virtual marketplace called GEMS has been launched.
Sabharwal’s name is synonymous with human resources and he has focused on reforms that are needed in the education space. He touches the right chord when he talks of reforms in the twins of education and skilling, which are both priorities of the government. The former is a challenge because it is quite diverse in the country and becomes the basis of fomenting inequality as access to quality education is not the same to all. A similar challenge is on the skills front where the youth do not have them to get meaningful jobs.
Preeti Reddy writes on the gender inequality pervading corporate India. She believes that things are changing as many companies are addressing this issue by making jobs more inclusive. Therefore, the DEI (diversity, equality and inclusion) formula is widely used by them. In USA, however, there has been a slowdown on this front, especially after Donald Trump has come to power, and there have been executive orders passed to restrict race and gender-based DEI programmes.
Reddy highlights the progress made in India and the fact that 97% of NSE-listed companies have one woman director and 48% have two or more than two, which is testament to this commitment. She highlights the need for political will to pursue this cause. She also believes that we need to have more women role models. Here an interesting observation is made that when the CEO is a woman, there tends to be more gender balanced boards.
At a different level, Deepinder Goyal talks about how his model of Zomato quite effectively fostered equality across three constituents in the value chain of food delivery. The customer, of course, is most empowered by getting access to not just knowledge but also to food from various outlets. Restaurants are the second group which are able to enlarge the universe of customers which was not possible in the pre-online model where they had to depend on the locality of their establishment for business. Last is the delivery partner model which has become a large industry given the proliferation in not just these delivery-app companies but also the physical area to be covered.
Pirojsha Godrej talks of the construction industry and the assimilation of migrant labour given that this industry employs 56 million workers, including 7 million women. The efficiency of starting projects and completing on time is contingent on delivery, and the seasonal labour shortage is a bane for the industry. The solution is to give primacy to the worker and ensure well-being as it is the only way to ensure there is limited reverse migration. Business hence has to be more responsible to remain viable and successful.
Banerjee has made this compilation well focused on three subjects which has several takeaways for both existing and prospective entrepreneurs.
