Socially responsible business, India, and the long view

I’m starting a research project on socially responsible business strategies, so a blog post seemed like a good way to dive in.  In talking to people about the concept of companies in India going “beyond corporate social responsibility,” I’ve gotten a few different responses – on one hand those who feel that there is a huge class divide and the elite of India pay little attention to the poor; on the other those who think India has huge potential to be a leader in sustainable business.  With Ramalinga Rajus (of Satyam fame) and Nandan Nilekanis (of Infosys, Imagining India and now Universal ID project fame) in the same country, it’s understandable that people would have varying perspectives.

I can also see the appeal of either approach.  India’s non-inclusive growth over the past decade is well known, and the elite have gotten fabulously rich through the information revolution, while the poor have stayed poor and/or gotten poorer.  But poverty is blatant here, slums intermingled with posh neighborhoods, garbage littering the streets – surely people have motivation to develop the country as a whole?  Besides, India is a young economy, free to build businesses with better strategies and learn from the mistakes of the West?  Maybe this is a naïve viewpoint, but I have hard time getting away from it.  In the states we joke about finishing our food because there are starving kids in developing countries.  Here, we can just go outside and give it to them.

Regardless of motivation, there is a debate raging in the international community over the responsibilities of the corporate sector, how and why companies should contribute to society, and whether social values detract from or enhance the profitability and sustainability of a company.  Do Indian companies take the long term view more often or less often than their foreign counterparts?  Can social and environmental practices really contribute to the bottom line?  Did the financial crisis expose a need for more sustainable business practices, or just make everyone tighten their purses and revert to conservative thinking?  I don’t know, but I hope to find out.