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Showing posts with label community. Show all posts
Showing posts with label community. Show all posts
Tuesday, May 11, 2010
Sunday, December 14, 2008
Social Responsibility
For a while now, I have been thinking of posting some of my Toastmasters speeches online. Here goes unedited version of my 7th speech - research your topic.
Last week, my friend Vikram, while approaching a stationary shop, saw a old lady come out of the shop and drop a 5-hundred rupee note in front of him. She kept walking down the street. Vikram looked around: there was no else there and the lady was now far away from him. No one but Virkam saw her drop the hundered rupee note. So what did Vikram do? Did he return the money to the lady who dropped it, even though she was far away at this point and might’ve taken some effort to catch up with? Did he take the note and run in the shop and quickly spend it?
Did he have any responsibility to return that money? Do we have any responsibility towards another person? Well, the bigger question is: can we survive living our lives in an insular disconnected manner?
We owe our existence, and our values to the society which rears us, we owe some responsibility towards its upliftment. All of us privileged persons, who were lucky to be born in a family that could afford to pay for our education, our clothes and all our frivolous desires. – do bear a responsibility towards our not so fortunate brothers and sisters. It is very encouraging to know that many of us here, like AR, AM, and some others in our office are involved in such an initiative, an NGO called Jagaran that financially supports underprivileged but motivated students.
About one month ago, some of us went to visit a few of our beneficiaries to verify how they were doing academically. We visited one a boy named Imran. We came to know from our local NGO contact that initially the NGO used to sponsor Imran's books as well as his private tuition fees. After a few months, Imran had turned down the aid for tuition fees while continuing to receive books for his studies. When we asked him about it, he replied, with a charming smile, that he finds it immoral to ask for tuition aid when he can very well manage on his own! The facts support his quiet confidence. He has never stood 2nd in his school and was a consistent top performer even in std 11. Here was a person who lived his life out of just one dank room, where his parents, his sister and he vies for each inch of space, who cannot even afford to replace his worn out shirt, yet he dared to refuse aid for something that he could well do without. We had set out in the journey that day to give something to others but this soft spoken, charming, bespectacled boy of 15 gave us so much.
Such is the nature of social work – you get more than you give.
Now the people are what make an organization. So if we, as human beings share a social responsibility towards the society at large, what about corporations?
Corporate Social Responsibility or CSR is concerned with treating the stakeholders of the firm
ethically or in a socially responsible manner. Many people criticize companies which undertake CSR programs because they feel that the companies are trying to distract the public from their unethical practices
Milton Friedman, a Nobel winning economist said, and I quote, "There is one and only one social responsibility of business -- to use its resources and engage in activities designed to increase its profits."He goes on to say, "so long as it stays within the rules of the game, which is to say, engages in open and free competition without deception or fraud." (I'm sure you can think of a few companies that forgot that last part.)
Let's look at some of the side effects of single-minded pursuit of profit
“There were thousands of bodies. There were bodies everywhere. And people were dying all round.” These were the words of one of the victims of Bhopal gas tragedy. On early morning of 3rd Dec’1984, 40 tons of poisonous methyl isocyanate gas was released from pesticide plant of Union Carbide Corporation in Bhopal. Severe cost cutting measures resulting in improper security facilities were to blame for this disaster. The disaster left 15,000 dead, 5.5 lakhs ill, with a polluted environment that is yet to recover. An average monetary rehabilitation of … Rs 200 per year was awarded to each person. Rs 200(!!) for the victims of such a disaster!
We have all heard about the Enron scandal. At the beginning of 2001, the Enron Corporation, the world's dominant energy trader, appeared unstoppable. However, after a series of revelations involving fraudulent accounting procedures perpetrated throughout the 1990s, it stood at the verge of undergoing the largest bankruptcy in history by mid-November 2001. As the scandal was revealed, Enron shares dropped from over $90 to just pennies.
To draw a contrast with the above examples, let’s see a few examples of socially responsible behaviour by corporations.
Let’s take PwC: it has a well developed CSR program worldwide.
Various offices of PwC engage in activities like volunteering in the community (eg. parties for marginalized children), monitory donations by individuals and the firm to supported organizations, free professional Services such as Audit, Tax Advice, etc to community or not-for-profit organizations and so on.
Closer home, the Infosys Foundation has taken a lot of initiatives. While I was in Pune, I was part of one such initiative: we used to go teach slum kids in a place called Khadki. As most of the kids were Marathi, I had to teach them Marathi while I couldn’t even say “Hello” in that language! Well what happened was I knew Hindi and since the alphabets of Marathi are same as that of Hindi, I somehow managed it.Nonetheless it was great fun.
The ITC e-chaupal initiative also deserves mention. The e-Choupal places computers with Internet access in rural farming villages; the e-Choupals serve as both a social gathering place for exchange of such information as market prices of the crops and also help the farmers to locate potential buyers. This system is also a highly profitable e-commerce platform for the company.
The social responsibility of businesses may always be a sticky point to argue about, but plain old responsibility shouldn't be hard to strive for. Sir Winston Churchill used to say, “The price of greatness is responsibility”. It stands to reason that companies with great management teams that focus on profiting from excellence and innovation, and not "profit at all costs," are the ones that will produce sustainable profit growth.
So, today we have examined various instances of both responsible and irresponsible behaviour by individuals and corporations. Personally, I believe in what Samuel DiPiazza, our Global CEO, says, “Our obligation as business leaders and as individuals is to leave the world better than we found it”. So the choice is ours: whether we choose to focus our attention on our own lives or we look slightly above and beyond our quotidian tasks and try to make a difference in the lives of others as well. And to come back to my friend Vikram, he did take that extra step. He did run after the lady and return the money to her. He was socially responsible. Just as you and I are. And we all can, as Michael Jackson sang,
Heal the world
Make it a better place
For you and for me and the entire human race
Last week, my friend Vikram, while approaching a stationary shop, saw a old lady come out of the shop and drop a 5-hundred rupee note in front of him. She kept walking down the street. Vikram looked around: there was no else there and the lady was now far away from him. No one but Virkam saw her drop the hundered rupee note. So what did Vikram do?
Did he have any responsibility to return that money? Do we have any responsibility towards another person?
We owe our existence, and our values to the society which rears us, we owe some responsibility towards its upliftment. All of us privileged persons, who were lucky to be born in a family that could afford to pay for our education, our clothes and all our frivolous desires. – do bear a responsibility towards our not so fortunate brothers and sisters. It is very encouraging to know that many of us here, like AR, AM, and some others in our office are involved in such an initiative, an NGO called Jagaran that financially supports underprivileged but motivated students.
About one month ago, some of us went to visit a few of our beneficiaries to verify how they were doing academically. We visited one a boy named Imran. We came to know from our local NGO contact that initially the NGO used to sponsor Imran's books as well as his private tuition fees. After a few months, Imran had turned down the aid for tuition fees while continuing to receive books for his studies. When we asked him about it, he replied, with a charming smile, that he finds it immoral to ask for tuition aid when he can very well manage on his own! The facts support his quiet confidence. He has never stood 2nd in his school and was a consistent top performer even in std 11. Here was a person who lived his life out of just one dank room, where his parents, his sister and he vies for each inch of space, who cannot even afford to replace his worn out shirt, yet he dared to refuse aid for something that he could well do without. We had set out in the journey that day to give something to others but this soft spoken, charming, bespectacled boy of 15 gave us so much.
Such is the nature of social work – you get more than you give.
Now the people are what make an organization. So if we, as human beings share a social responsibility towards the society at large, what about corporations?
Corporate Social Responsibility or CSR is concerned with treating the stakeholders of the firm
ethically or in a socially responsible manner. Many people criticize companies which undertake CSR programs because they feel that the companies are trying to distract the public from their unethical practices
Milton Friedman, a Nobel winning economist said, and I quote, "There is one and only one social responsibility of business -- to use its resources and engage in activities designed to increase its profits."He goes on to say, "so long as it stays within the rules of the game, which is to say, engages in open and free competition without deception or fraud." (I'm sure you can think of a few companies that forgot that last part.)
Let's look at some of the side effects of single-minded pursuit of profit
“There were thousands of bodies. There were bodies everywhere. And people were dying all round.” These were the words of one of the victims of Bhopal gas tragedy. On early morning of 3rd Dec’1984, 40 tons of poisonous methyl isocyanate gas was released from pesticide plant of Union Carbide Corporation in Bhopal. Severe cost cutting measures resulting in improper security facilities were to blame for this disaster. The disaster left 15,000 dead, 5.5 lakhs ill, with a polluted environment that is yet to recover. An average monetary rehabilitation of … Rs 200 per year was awarded to each person. Rs 200(!!) for the victims of such a disaster!
We have all heard about the Enron scandal. At the beginning of 2001, the Enron Corporation, the world's dominant energy trader, appeared unstoppable. However, after a series of revelations involving fraudulent accounting procedures perpetrated throughout the 1990s, it stood at the verge of undergoing the largest bankruptcy in history by mid-November 2001. As the scandal was revealed, Enron shares dropped from over $90 to just pennies.
To draw a contrast with the above examples, let’s see a few examples of socially responsible behaviour by corporations.
Let’s take PwC: it has a well developed CSR program worldwide.
Various offices of PwC engage in activities like volunteering in the community (eg. parties for marginalized children), monitory donations by individuals and the firm to supported organizations, free professional Services such as Audit, Tax Advice, etc to community or not-for-profit organizations and so on.
Closer home, the Infosys Foundation has taken a lot of initiatives. While I was in Pune, I was part of one such initiative: we used to go teach slum kids in a place called Khadki. As most of the kids were Marathi, I had to teach them Marathi while I couldn’t even say “Hello” in that language! Well what happened was I knew Hindi and since the alphabets of Marathi are same as that of Hindi, I somehow managed it.
The ITC e-chaupal initiative also deserves mention. The e-Choupal places computers with Internet access in rural farming villages; the e-Choupals serve as both a social gathering place for exchange of such information as market prices of the crops and also help the farmers to locate potential buyers. This system is also a highly profitable e-commerce platform for the company.
The social responsibility of businesses may always be a sticky point to argue about, but plain old responsibility shouldn't be hard to strive for. Sir Winston Churchill used to say, “The price of greatness is responsibility”. It stands to reason that companies with great management teams that focus on profiting from excellence and innovation, and not "profit at all costs," are the ones that will produce sustainable profit growth.
So, today we have examined various instances of both responsible and irresponsible behaviour by individuals and corporations. Personally, I believe in what Samuel DiPiazza, our Global CEO, says, “Our obligation as business leaders and as individuals is to leave the world better than we found it”. So the choice is ours: whether we choose to focus our attention on our own lives or we look slightly above and beyond our quotidian tasks and try to make a difference in the lives of others as well. And to come back to my friend Vikram, he did take that extra step. He did run after the lady and return the money to her. He was socially responsible. Just as you and I are. And we all can, as Michael Jackson sang,
Heal the world
Make it a better place
For you and for me and the entire human race
Wednesday, February 20, 2008
A special Sunday - Jagaran
Well Sundays will be Sundays and Indian Cricket team will be Indian cricket team. Yet another lame loss and snatching of defeat from the jaws of victory. The same pugnacious Dhoni who refuses to own up to his own mistakes and continues to play the blame game.
But that is not what I want to write about here. Last Sunday was special coz I had an amazing experience. As part of Jagaran (the awakening) (http://www.jagaran.org.in) , I, along with some others, went for the mid-term evaluation of beneficiaries. A little background information: Jagaran, an NGO, was set up in 2006 by Infoscions - mainly JU passouts. It seeks to provide a platform for poor but meritorious students to live out their dreams. Jagaran financially supports aspiring students, mainly school students. Other activities include career related coaching, mentoring, development of school infrastructure, spreading awareness about environmental protection, etc. There are already over 500 members with over 150 beneficiaries all over the country.
Since all of us are working professionals, it is difficult for us to directly get in touch with all the beneficiaries. So we take the help of experienced NGOs having direct access to the needy students. We provide funds to the NGOs and they supply books and pay the school dues and tuition money for the students. Twice a year, we, the members of Jagaran, visit the students at their homes to evaluate whether the funds are being utilized properly and the students are getting the desired benefits. Last Sunday, about 6 of us jagaran members went to evaluate 3 students in and around the Dum Dum area.
First, we visited a girl named Joyeeta. After walking for more than 15 minutes through a maze of narrow lanes and by lanes, we reached her 1 roomed shanty. She studies in class 11 and lives with her parents and kid brother. Her father is a carpenter and barely manages to earn Rs 1000 a month. But the spark in her eyes is impossible to miss. She scored over 80% in her std 10 xams which is quite an achievement considering her circumstances. She wants to get a PhD in Bio-Medicine in the future. Wish her luck.
Next up was a chirpy boy named Idris, also studying in std 11. In fact all 3 of the students we interviewed that day were in std 11. Idris' family's financial condition was decidedly better than Joyeeta's, TV fridge, etc. His attitude however, was circumspect. His performance in exams was on a downward curve and all we received as explanations were nothing but lame excuses. After some more prodding, we came to realize the main cause ... he hardly studies at all! At most he puts in 3.5 hrs of study per day! After getting a piece of our mind, he promised to study harder. Let's hope he does, for his own sake. For education is the magic wand that can transform our lives. My own life stands testimony to that. It is the only way through which a person coming from a middle class background can seek to touch the stars - to live out his dreams. The only way out of poverty is through sheer dedication and hard work. I hope I was able to put this across to Idris.
The 3rd and last person on our list was Imran. In Urdu, "Imran" means "exalted nation". Well, we were certainly in an "exalted mental state" after meeting him. His behaviour and his attitude set him apart. We came to know from our local NGO contact that initially the NGO used to sponsor Imran's books as well as his private tuition fees. After a few months, Imran had turned down the aid for tuition fees while continuing to receive books for his studies. When we asked him about it, his answer, accompanied by an understated but charismatic smile, stunned us all. He said that he finds it immoral to ask for tuition aid when he can very well manage on his own! The facts support his quiet confidence. He has never stood 2nd in his school and was a consistent top performer even in std 11. Here was a person who lived his life out of just one dank room, where his parents, his sister and he vies for each inch of space, who cannot even afford to replace his worn out shirt, yet he dared to refuse aid for something that he could well do without. We had set out in the journey that day to give something to others but this soft spoken, charming, bespectacled boy of 15 gave us so much.
His long term goal is to be a Robot Scientist. When I asked him how he came to know of this exotic profession, he replied that once in the Calcutta book fair, he had bought a book on Robotic Science authored by an IISc professor. That book had really inspired him. Well Imran, it is YOU who inspire all of us. Wish you all the best.
But that is not what I want to write about here. Last Sunday was special coz I had an amazing experience. As part of Jagaran (the awakening) (http://www.jagaran.org.in) , I, along with some others, went for the mid-term evaluation of beneficiaries. A little background information: Jagaran, an NGO, was set up in 2006 by Infoscions - mainly JU passouts. It seeks to provide a platform for poor but meritorious students to live out their dreams. Jagaran financially supports aspiring students, mainly school students. Other activities include career related coaching, mentoring, development of school infrastructure, spreading awareness about environmental protection, etc. There are already over 500 members with over 150 beneficiaries all over the country.
Since all of us are working professionals, it is difficult for us to directly get in touch with all the beneficiaries. So we take the help of experienced NGOs having direct access to the needy students. We provide funds to the NGOs and they supply books and pay the school dues and tuition money for the students. Twice a year, we, the members of Jagaran, visit the students at their homes to evaluate whether the funds are being utilized properly and the students are getting the desired benefits. Last Sunday, about 6 of us jagaran members went to evaluate 3 students in and around the Dum Dum area.
First, we visited a girl named Joyeeta. After walking for more than 15 minutes through a maze of narrow lanes and by lanes, we reached her 1 roomed shanty. She studies in class 11 and lives with her parents and kid brother. Her father is a carpenter and barely manages to earn Rs 1000 a month. But the spark in her eyes is impossible to miss. She scored over 80% in her std 10 xams which is quite an achievement considering her circumstances. She wants to get a PhD in Bio-Medicine in the future. Wish her luck.
Next up was a chirpy boy named Idris, also studying in std 11. In fact all 3 of the students we interviewed that day were in std 11. Idris' family's financial condition was decidedly better than Joyeeta's, TV fridge, etc. His attitude however, was circumspect. His performance in exams was on a downward curve and all we received as explanations were nothing but lame excuses. After some more prodding, we came to realize the main cause ... he hardly studies at all! At most he puts in 3.5 hrs of study per day! After getting a piece of our mind, he promised to study harder. Let's hope he does, for his own sake. For education is the magic wand that can transform our lives. My own life stands testimony to that. It is the only way through which a person coming from a middle class background can seek to touch the stars - to live out his dreams. The only way out of poverty is through sheer dedication and hard work. I hope I was able to put this across to Idris.
The 3rd and last person on our list was Imran. In Urdu, "Imran" means "exalted nation". Well, we were certainly in an "exalted mental state" after meeting him. His behaviour and his attitude set him apart. We came to know from our local NGO contact that initially the NGO used to sponsor Imran's books as well as his private tuition fees. After a few months, Imran had turned down the aid for tuition fees while continuing to receive books for his studies. When we asked him about it, his answer, accompanied by an understated but charismatic smile, stunned us all. He said that he finds it immoral to ask for tuition aid when he can very well manage on his own! The facts support his quiet confidence. He has never stood 2nd in his school and was a consistent top performer even in std 11. Here was a person who lived his life out of just one dank room, where his parents, his sister and he vies for each inch of space, who cannot even afford to replace his worn out shirt, yet he dared to refuse aid for something that he could well do without. We had set out in the journey that day to give something to others but this soft spoken, charming, bespectacled boy of 15 gave us so much.
His long term goal is to be a Robot Scientist. When I asked him how he came to know of this exotic profession, he replied that once in the Calcutta book fair, he had bought a book on Robotic Science authored by an IISc professor. That book had really inspired him. Well Imran, it is YOU who inspire all of us. Wish you all the best.
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