International Conferences
Mumbai, India
January 4, 2008
Synopsis
By Suresh Sundaresan
Click here for conference agenda
The second annual India conference coordinated by Columbia Business School took place in Taj President Hotel, Mumbai, India on 4th January 2008 before a packed audience of over 100 drawn from Indian industry, alumni and students of Columbia Business School, media and not-for-profit organizations.
The conference was kicked off with an opening presentation by Geoffrey Heal, Paul Garret Professor of public policy and business responsibility, which underlined the basic theme that a principled and long-term strategy by a corporation may actually deliver more value to stockholders than a myopic and short-term vision. The talk began with the observation that corporate philanthropy is not CSR. Professor Heal argued that a myopic behavior by corporate senior management might result in significant contingent liabilities by way of class-action suits and other legal actions. Heal's presentation included a number of real-life cases such as British Petroleum and Starbucks where such corporations took a longer-term view and pursued policies, which are environmentally friendlier. Heal also cited empirical evidence, which suggests that the stock prices of companies with a longer-term perspective have performed better than similar firms, which pursue a more short-term strategy.
Bruce Greenwald, Robert Heilbrunn Professor of asset management and finance, followed with a presentation, which began with the observation that the dramatic increase in the living standards is fairly recent in our history and can be mainly attributed to rapid productivity gains brought about by business. Greenwald emphasized that improved management practices rather than technological innovations have brought about the improvement in living standards, and argued that the CSR practices must be structured to sustain and improve productivity gains. Greenwald's presentation also emphasized the potentially important role of government in encouraging "positive externalities" arising from good CSR practices and punishing "negative externalities" from poor CSR practices. Greenwald also stressed the need for the design of corporate governance and CSR, which reflects the fact that companies in India are moving away from family-oriented model into a more widely held stock holding companies.
Mr. Pradeep Bhargava of the Confederation of Indian Industries (CII) offered closing remarks, which called for "sanity" in the field of CSR. The presentations of Heal and Greenwald were followed by a case study of corporate initiatives by Pankaj Baliga of Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), an organization with revenues exceeding $3 billion. TCS views CSR as a tool for corporate sustainability and their approach includes, corporate philanthropy at one end of the spectrum to addressing broad-based societal needs such as adult literacy at the other end using satellite and mobile-phone technologies, which are already being utilized by NGOs in India.
The conference was concluded by a spirited panel discussion moderated by Suresh Sundaresan, Chase Manhattan Bank professor of finance and economics. The panel's agenda was motivated by Sundaresan who remarked that the government can provide a strong accounting, disclosure and legal framework to protect investors and customers which will foster the development of good CSR and corporate governance.
Mr. Samuel Riskin, managing director of sales and marketing for Federal Express stressed the importance of designing CSR within the core competence of the company. He also presented a short video, which highlighted the efforts that Fedex has undertaken to bring eyesight to afflicted children in India.
Mr. Sorav Majumdar of the Financial Express, who was the other panelist, emphasized the need for companies to move away from the model of corporate philanthropy into a more serious CSR framework that is a part and parcel of a well-formulated corporate strategy. The conference was characterized by many questions from the participants and spirited debates concerning the role of altruism and enlightened self-interest in furthering good CSR policies.
