The Hindu Business Line : 'Corporate social responsibility starts with one's company'

Instead of viewing CSR as something extraneous to their core activity, businesses should make it a built-in strategy and view it as a source of creativity and innovation in order to maximise business opportunities, says Mr David Grayson.

Hyderabad , Feb. 17

THOSE who believe that corporate social responsibility (CSR) is something about building a hospital or taking up some other welfare activity need to think again and correct their understanding of CSR.

Welfare activity like building a hospital, according to Mr David Grayson, a well-known proponent of comprehensive CSR practices by businesses, is just one aspect of CSR.

"CSR is about how a company deals with its core activity, its employees, its supply chain and its marketing activity," Mr Grayson, Chairman of the UK Small Business Consortium, told Business Line.

Companies would soon realise that they could not succeed in a global, connected economy without serious commitment to responsible business practices. "It is about minimising negative environmental and social impacts and maximising the positive impacts," he pointed out.

Mr Grayson, who writes extensively on `Responsible Business' and `Corporate Citizenship', was here to enlighten academic communities and corporates on what formed the core of a meaningful CSR. Instead of viewing CSR as something extraneous to their core activity, businesses should make it a built-in strategy and view it as a source of creativity and innovation in order to maximise business opportunities.

Asked why companies should take to CSR, Mr Grayson said there was a mix of reasons. Increasingly investors and talented human resource, employed and would-be employees, looked at companies' reputation with regard to their sensitivities with regard to the surrounding communities, environmental and social impacts.

Businesses needed to talk to the communities, employees, customers and all stakeholders to find out the most significant impacts of things relevant to their respective businesses. These interactions should also discuss effective strategies to minimise the negative impacts. Mr Grayson, who is touring India on British Council invitation, said future business leaders and those who would be involved in building businesses needed to be trained during their business studies.

"Business schools have an important role to play," he pointed out. It was very important to introduce the issue of corporate social responsibility into the curriculum of business schools.