The Customer Experience Company

TRANSFORMING YOUR BUSINESSby creating CSR and Sustainability

StrategiesNamrata Rana

The new Companies Bill has mandated that organizations of a certain financial strength spend 2% of their net profit on corporate social responsibility (CSR),

Economic Times Jan 3, 2013

Do you have a CSR strategy that can help you meet your social, environmental and legal obligations?

Activities which may be included by companies in their CSR Policies as mentioned in the bill

SCHEDULE VII

1. Eradicating extreme hunger and poverty;2. Promotion of education;3. Promoting gender equality and empowering women;4. Reducing child mortality and improving maternal health;5. Combating human immunodeficiency virus, acquired immune

deficiency syndrome, malaria and other diseases;6. Ensuring environmental sustainability;7. Employment enhancing vocational skills;8. Social business projects;9. Contribution to the Prime Minister’s National Relief Fund or

any other fund set up by the Central Government or the State Governments for socio-economic development and relief and funds for the welfare of the Scheduled Castes, the Scheduled Tribes, other backward classes, minorities and women; and

10.Such other matters as may be prescribed.

What should you do, if you are in the process of creating a Sustainability strategy?

FirstSome Reading

1. Companies Bill 2012 and / or Guidelines on Sustainability for Central Public

Sector Undertakings

2. India’s 12th 5 year Plan

3.The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD)

Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises;

4.The International Labour Organization (ILO) Tripartite Declaration of

Principles concerning Multinational Enterprises and Social Policy and Core

Labour Standards;

5.The UN Global Compact Principles;

6.The Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) Sustainability Reporting Guidelines;

7.The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) standards;

8.The AccountAbility AA1000 Series; and

9.The Social Accountability International SA8000 standard.

10. Millennium Development Goals

Thenask some tough questions

SustainabilityQuestions

How do you capture the opportunities that sustainable development presents for your business?

How will your company build on its particular strengths to profit from sustainability? What are the specific impacts of sustainability issues on its markets, supply chain, staff and so on? What are the innovations which will enable customers to meet their needs, within environmental limits? What are the markets, current and potential, where the company create a profitable, sustainable offer? How must the business shape its context to make sure there is a sustainable base to its competitive advantage?

1

How do you change your organisation to make it Sustainable?

People can feel at once overwhelmed by the size of the task, and frustrated by the slow pace of change and its lack of strategic or transformational ambition.  What are the best approaches for an organisation to take, to manage change? And how would you know whether your approach was being successful?

2

How can you leverage the power of values in Sustainability initiatives?

To achieve real change, it just isn’t enough to have all the right structures, processes and indicators in place. You also need to generate enthusiasm for the change from those who will be responsible for delivering it. This is where personal values come in. The Sustainability agenda and the things it stands for are often closely aligned with our personal values as individuals, either because we have a close personal connection with the issues at stake or because we are growing increasingly concerned with some of the longer term risks.

3

What will be the challenge of embedding sustainability into business strategy, brands and culture?

If the business sector is to play its role in driving sustainable development then it needs to go much further and ensure that sustainability is embedded in everything it does, its strategies, its culture and in particular its brand and public face.

When company attitudes move from defensive statements to a pro-active strategy that involves developing new brand positions, innovation, supply chain changes and the consideration of sustainable development in every decision then that company is well on the way to being a leading edge sustainable company.

But in reality, the number of companies in this position are few and far between.

4

CSRQuestions

Then, ask some tough questions?

WHO - is your core audience, for which CSR initiatives need to be designed?

WHAT - is your value proposition and is this in synch with your core business?

WHEN - did your competition launch their CSR initiatives, do you want to be distinct from them?

WHERE - is the sweet spot, through which you can benefit both the community and the company?

WHY - are you investing in CSR if you cannot deliver what you are promising?

Define your core intent

Run a good business

Give Some thing Back

Do you want to......

Be a good neighbour

Be a beacon to others

Transform an industry or industries

Take a close look at the implementation,after defining the broad areas you want to look at as part of CSR.

Strong partnerships

Fundamental Impact

Improves competitive

context

Events sponsorships

Cause marketing

Employee volunteerism

Mitigate value chain impacts

Donations

Grants

Ask yourself how your CSR will scale from year to year?and develop an approach that is sustainable...

Philanthropic Transactional Integrative

Actions

While developing your CSR strategy it might be useful to look at a Macro view too

Enhancing capacity for

growth

SOURCE - Scenarios shaping India’s growth

For Example: The starting point of the Indian Planning Commission’s consultations with stakeholders for the 12th plan were these challenges.....

Enhancing skills and faster

generation of employment

Managing the environment

Markets for efficiency and

Inclusion

DecentralizationEmpowerment and Information

Technology and Innovation

Securing the energy future

of India

Accelerated development of transport

infrastructure

Rural transformation

+ growth of agriculture

Managing Urbanization

Improved access to quality of education

Preventive and curative

healthcare

Are you ready?

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