Social Leadership Initiative with Hutchinson Global Services: A Visit to Dharavi

The Hutchinson Global Services Social Leadership Team

On April 16, 2013, Cristiana Peruzzo and Ankur Shukla participated with GEM employees from Hutchinson Vodafone in a very special CSR initiative centered around the objective of generating compassion towards others and enhancing leadership skills among the company’s leaders of tomorrow. 

GEM leaders had a special occasion to interact with the people of Dharavi and see their homes, their work places, and their spirit while witnessing a small scale industry powerhouse in Mumbai..  The day started with a intensive classroom session to introduce Hutchinson Vodafone employees to the constraint and challenges of slum dwellers as well as the story of Dharavi. Then, the entire group reached Dharavi by local train and experienced a wide range of activities such as : recycling, pottery-making, embroidery, bakery, soap factory, leather tanning, papad-making as well as witnessing the typical day in the life of a family in the area. All the participants were impressed by the outstanding  sense of community and spirit that exists in Dharavi and left Mahim with an enlightened sense of the purpose and determination that exists among the amazing people of Dharavi.

The day was part of a Social Leadership initiative centered around three core activities with the aim to expose each Hutchinson Vodafone young leader to unique challenges in the social sphere in order to develop his/her critical thinking on how to tackle some of the most pressing social issues in Indian society in a professional, humane and caring way. Watch out for our next activity taking place in September 2013!

What's in a Corporate Foundation Name? An Indian Perspective

The topic of what name to give to a corporate foundation has great relevance in an Indian context since creating trusts and foundations still remains the favourite route to CSR practised by Indian companies. According to recent studies, 55 per cent of large Indian companies have established foundations working mainly in the areas of education, health and rural development. Their number has increased steadily in the last few decades and it is set to increase with the passing of the New Companies Act with its much discussed clause of 2% mandatory CSR spending.

Across the globe, there are two schools of thought in relation to foundation naming. On the one hand, there is a strong argument for keeping the name of the foundation ‘slightly separate’ from the core brand and name of the company, while others espouse the benefits of closely aligning the foundation brand with that of the company for branding and reputation benefits.

Many corporate foundations in India have been officially established with the intent to provide a more formal structure for a company’s charitable giving or to set out the founding family’s vision. Family businesses have always been an integral part of the Indian economy and they account for more than 85% of all businesses in the country. As a result naming a corporate trust or foundation after a family member allows for some sort of separation while giving increased ‘social responsibility’ recognition to the corporate counterpart.

With such a rich history of family business in India there is no better example than that of the Tata Trusts, holders of 66% of the shares of Tata Sons, the promoter holding company of one of the largest Indian conglomerates where all trusts have been named after different members of the Tata Family.

Such naming strategy has multiple advantages that go beyond the tax saving benefits, including the reputational benefits for the Tata brand which have been enormous. Throughout India, the Tata name has been synonymous with philanthropic giving for many decades, an association which has come in quite handy, particularly with the recent telecommunication graft scandals in which the group chairman was involved.

The drawback of such an approach is the fact that the majority of corporate trusts and foundations keep working at arm’s length from the company, allowing for underserved CSR co-branding, when in fact there is no formal interaction between the two entities and thus no mainstreaming of socially and environmentally responsible activities in core business processes.

Having a well-known brand as part of the charity’s name and using its logo can help to attract interest and allow for an increased amount of media exposure for the charity and its activities. However, there can be negative implications.

In sharing the parent company’s name, corporate foundations must be mindful of wider reputational risks that could arise from such close branding affiliation in the event of a corporate scandal, as in the case of the DLF company’s involvement in a much talked about controversy involving the concession of land at a very reduced price in exchange for political favour. The corporate reputational damage was so great that it also affected the DLF Foundation’s image in the eyes of many Indians. 

Cristiana Peruzzo is Head of CSR at Innovaid Advisory Services in Mumbai, India.

The Global Conference on CSR

Cristiana Peruzzo participated as one of the panelists at “The Global Conference on CSR”, which took place at the Trident Hotel in Mumbai on April 17, 2013. 

The 2-day event was organized by the Samabhavana Society in partnership with the Indian Institute of Corporate Affairs (IICA) and with FICCI-Aditya Birla Centre for CSR Excellence and sponsored by IBM, HDFC Life and TATA. Its main objective was to bridge the gap between the Corporate world and Civil Society and to create a venue for concrete multi-sector collaboration. 

Cristiana was part of the ‘Project Connect Platform’ and in her presentation she outlined best practice examples of long-term partnerships between Multinational Companies and Indian NGOs.

Cristiana Peruzzo at the Sustainable Business Symposium India 2013

On 21st March 2013, our head of CSR, Cristiana Peruzzo was one of the speakers at the Sustainable Business Symposium (SGS) India 2013 organised by Innovaid partner SGS. The event was a crucial platform to discuss the current trends for achieving business sustainability and address the growing number of environmental issues.

It took place in Gurgaon, Delhi. Cristiana gave a presentation of Corporate Sustainability Reporting and how business can promote sustainable practices that can lead to increased profitability and responsibility. Other speakers were Mr. Wai Ho, VP, Sustainability Services, SGS, Mr. Shankar Das Mehta GM from Coca Cola, and Mr. Pranshu Singhal, Head Sustainability, Nokia India and Mr. Sanjay Bansal from Nestle’.

The Benefits of Strategic Philanthropy

Most businesses are aware of community expectations to engage in some kind of philanthropy. As a start up, or just a company trying to run a sustainable model, this can seem like another hurdle that is best avoided, or put off for a time when business is running smoothly. What CSR becomes at this point is a strategy of reducing the negative impacts of the business upon stakeholders, and this is a hard selling point for customers as well as being a practice that appears too normalised within the market.

Strategic philanthropy presents itself as a more attractive, and often more effective, option to conventional CSR strategies. Strategic philanthropy involves targeting a particular social or environmental issue that holds strategic links with the operations and capacities of a company, so that the mission’s design and implementation can result in positive impact for sustainable solutions.

Rather than money, social impact becomes the deliverable that a firm engaging in strategic philanthropy is assessed on– effectively, outputs are prioritised over inputs. What results is perhaps the strongest point going for strategic philanthropy: it allows the focus of CSR to switch from money to meaningful social transformations. A focus on deliverables not only makes philanthropy a more intelligent and efficient activity, but it also naturally inclines towards a collaborative partnership with local communities – the kind of strategy that holds potential for wide-spread buy-in and is proving itself to be most successful.

The first step in the process of strategic philanthropy is to identify an appropriate cause with which the company can engage – one that is closely related to the core business of the firm will mean that partners and clients are either aware of, or a beneficiary of the firm’s positivity in its CSR practice. An example would be a sports team having an innate connection with the issues of youth development and health issues, or of an automotive retailer being connected to road safety awareness.

There is however, no limit to the applications and usefulness of strategic philanthropy by the size and type of firm engaging in it, as it is possible to visualise an effective strategy for any firm. An IT business, for example, would not appear to be imbued with an obvious CSR initiative outcome set, yet it could well make great leverage on a multitude of social issues. The IT business, the service provider, or the accountancy firm are given a special freedom in their strategic philanthropy, which can be very empowering. A case study in point is MTS Airtel’s involvement in a vaccination program, whereby Airtel provided awareness that immensely improved the reach of the on-ground effort.

After identifying a cause, a path of action must be outlined that is considerate of both a) the degrees of inputs the firm will be willing to make and b) the outcomes that are desired to result from then program. The degrees of inputs include financial contribution, as well as expertise, and access to consumers for marketing purposes, and will determine the possible outcomes.

Outcomes in strategic philanthropy are matched to targets, and are best kept simple so that they can be effectively communicated, e.g. ‘this program educated x amount of farmers correct herbicide use’ or ‘this program delivered an education to 100 rural children’.  The power of these messages are much greater than telling an increasingly cynical market base that an amount of lac or crore have been signed over to a cause

Strategic philanthropy is CSR, where the company is empowered to create real impacts that are core to the nature of the business itself. Positive externalities result in goodwill in the marketplace, which in turn can be a driving factor behind positive business relationships, between the firm and the whole range of stakeholders, and the best way of developing goodwill is through strategic philanthropy.

For companies, ranging from small start-ups to large corporations, strategic philanthropy represents a great opportunity to exert personality in the immediate market through CSR, in a manner that speaks for itself. Effective strategic philanthropy, as it develops the stakeholders, builds social capital and can be integral to a business’ core enterprise as it grows and achieves sustainability within the market.

Emily Harrison at the World Corporate Social Responsibility Congress

Emily Harrison was part of the CEO panel during the World CSR Congress under the theme "Possible to do well, by doing good" which took place of February 18th at the hotel Taj Lands End, Mumbai. Emily along with other eminent speakers such as Dr. Alok Bhardwaj, Executive Vice President, Canon India, Animesh Kumar, Group Head- HR&Corporate Services & Co CEO IDFC Foundation and Vikas Puthran, Vice President- Alliances and Operations, GiveIndia shared with the audience her opinion on the topic of "Mandatory 2% spend on CSR: Will it be just compliance or a trajectory for meaningful CSR?". The moderator of the panel was Ketan Kulkarni, VP & HEAD- Marketing, Corporate Communications & Sustainability, Blue Dart Express Ltd.

Some of the panelists thought that while there is some merit in this bill, it will not significantly change the way Indian Corporate are operating at a strategic business level. The bill appears to have some merit such as promoting growth in the CSR field by creating the need for professional and trained employees in each company's CSR team and allow for a more structured approach to social initiatives by giving a basic road-map for companies. A panelist felt that even if many companies will try to find loophole to limit tier CSR spending, it will at least push for an increase in corporate philanthropic giving. Emily expressed her view that once CSR will be mandated in India, companies should not view it as a check writing liability- on the contrary it ought to be considered within a core business strategy and viewed as an investment platform to build better and more sustainable brands.

Innovaid offering Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) training at the Bombay Stock Exchange

Starting in March, Innovaid staff will begin offering classes to Bombay Stock Exchange (BSE) corporate members under the effigy of the BSE training institute. The courses were specifically design to educate BSE corporate members around the new sustainability disclosure requirements mandated by the Securities Exchange Board of India (SEBI)

The first course offered under a webinar format will be “Introduction to CSR” and it will address the needs of professionals in private companies, NGOs, International Organisations and Governments who are currently involved in CSR, or would like to be involved in CSR, and wish to apply and embed the concept of CSR in their institution. Cristiana Peruzzo, Head of CSR will be the principal instructor.

The webinar is designed to specifically help participants to obtain a comprehensive CSR understanding to enable them to design and implement an effective CSR strategy for their companies as well as communicating their CSR internally and externally. Some of the course objectives among others will be to help company representative articulate an understanding of CSR and communicate it across their organizations and to their wider stakeholders as well as Integrate CSR into strategic planning and regular business practices.

During the two hour course schedule, several Topics will be covered such as The CSR journey, Applying Definitions in Practice - Practical Examples of CSR (Indian Case Studies) and Communicating CSR and leveraging a company’s CSR report.

Other classes are scheduled for April, specifically a course named “How to set up and manage a corporate foundation” whose details will be discussed in our next newsletter.