NOURISHING ‘CSR’ AT ITS ROOTS
“Giving back to society” is deemed important these days by both socially responsible individuals as well as the corporations that have ‘Corporate Social Responsibility’ (CSR) well etched into their conscience. This is being done so in a wide variety of forms from doling out alms to sponsoring a child’s education or buying products developed by the underprivileged to disbursing financial aid to projects run by NGOs (non-governmental organizations) and so on.
Last year, I had the privilege of addressing a vibrant, enthusiastic group of young students at the Management Development Institute (MDI) at Gurgaon, called “Samaritans”. They hosted an NGO mela at their premises with stalls displaying their stakeholders’ products for sale. The India Sponsor Foundation, (ISF), New Delhi sponsored the mela to encourage NGOs to utilize this opportunity to get sensitized to the customers at the campus and gear up in due course to cater to the aesthetic appeal. This mela was organized on a small scale, being the maiden effort of the ‘Samaritans’.
A documentation and analysis of this kind of mela (at Corporate offices or campuses of this kind) to highlight the relationship between quality, sales figures, aesthetic appeal and so on could help other NGOs absorb various business concepts. A planned mix and match of the well-established ones with opportunities for the lesser-known ones to participate could provide the necessary platform for exposure for the latter. A reward for those with leading sales figures could further build in the competitive spirit amongst the participating NGOs. An interactive session amongst the persons manning the stalls facilitated by the students at the campus could help them exchange notes on product range, feasibility, scale-up operations and other issues worth networking amongst themselves. Randomly chosen buyers could be interviewed for their ‘value for money’ perceptions with respect to the products bought by them.
The Samaritans is now well pruned to take off into new areas of development where their management skills could actually add significant value to the social sector in the long run. On the other hand, there are the Non-governmental organizations, NGOs, Government and Corporates and other institutions, which join hands in conceptualizing and implementing various developmental projects. While the well-managed ones sustain themselves and get scaled up in course of time, there are others that need handholding to complement and supplement their efforts. The support required is at various levels –a) the NGO’s administration level (HRD, OD, etc.), Accounts & FCRA, b) database management, website creation and management, MIS, knowledge management systems to preserve and capitalize on the so called ‘institutional memory’ etc. and c) grassroots level capacity building programs and training modules for field functionaries in the areas of health, micro-enterprise development and management and perhaps many more such as these would make a great difference to the social sector.
The scope of development at the grassroots level in terms of skill development training could be further enhanced by imparting knowledge related to production planning and management, quality, marketing, financial management including break-even analysis, costing & pricing of products etc. in order to help them sustain themselves and cater to export markets in the long run.
In many cases, ironically, some of the exemplary work done at the grassroots level is not even documented meticulously for effective reporting and reviewing purposes leave alone visibility purposes. In the absence of proper training, documentation and exposure visits provided to small entrepreneurs, the future plans and prospects of organizing funds for micro enterprise development projects get affected adversely. The huge disconnect between the macro and micro levels of planning and implementation is also not addressed. Poorly structured programs of this kind face threats of closure, leaving the non-governmental organizations complacent enough to yield to donor driven programs alone, digressing from their own mission many a time. Hence the need for structured capacity building programs towards sustainable development.
The B-school students yearning to make a difference to the social sector need to get oriented to the nuances of the functioning of the social sector at various levels, during their ‘student hood’ itself so as to plan their future investment in a holistic way unleashing their full potential in the form of their freshly acquired knowledge and skills – managerial, technical, financial etc. Orientation at this juncture is ideal, when they are not yet caught in the rigmarole of functions fraught with all kinds of pressures while serving / running their own organizations in the corporate world. They are indeed the budding corporate stakeholders of the future.
NGOs and their stakeholders face problems due to lack of systems that ensure smooth partnership amongst themselves. Corporates too express the need for their CSR policies, procedures, ethics and philosophies being structured and standardized, and seek guidance for this from experts in the social sector. So in due course these problems could also be taken care of by many a group such as the SAMARITANS who could serve as the conduit between corporate offices and the grassroots level NGOs.
The formation of an association of B-schools could facilitate and help evolve federating groups of B-school students from time to time who could get the necessary orientation and guidance from individual experts and established institutions in the social sector. An interactive website with. Q & As / FAQs from students interested in the happenings of the social sector could widen their horizon of knowledge and help them plan the nature of their involvement. The relevant sections of the websites of b-schools should showcase a synopsis of projects undertaken by their students along with highlights of best practices documented by them during the course of their project interventions.
Such federations and action plans could then produce the desired value creation brought about and justified assertively by the ‘B-School’ branding
Vaidehi Krishnan, Consultant - Programs, Social Sector.
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