Daily Post 1271
CSR – MANDATED BY LAW / HEAD & HEART / WORLD HEALTH WAR?
Corporate Social Responsibility has been hogging the headlines since the time 2% post tax profit was legally mandated to the used for this purpose by the corporates. This cumulatively means a lot of money to be invested for societal benefit. The captions, the slogans, the funding, the compliances and not to miss out the well anointed events, we see on regular basis even on the social media, besides the fast churning corporate publicity machine is what we remember. Mandated by law fulfilled with elan, with lots of NGOs doing the facilitation part.
Mandated by law for the peacetime seems to the feeling which has set in since the beginning. Neat depts and personnel have been assigned for these purposes. And the corporate machine surges forward. Innovation and creativity is peppered as a general sauce. Might be all corporates are in the same standard act. Has it moved foreword to the stage of CSR by Head and Heart. This means it becomes something like a core business function and same level of application of mind and seriousness is applied in planning for it, execution and impact as well.
Unfortunately, CSR comes out hardly as a complimentary / supplementary task to the core function. It’s on the sidelines. Only the quantum of money involved has changed the scenario, nothing has changed at the core. Have they been able to reorient any of the CSR plans post COVID-19? Is there even a thought on these lines? The whole world conspires for their profiteering in peacetime. Business leaders talk and behave as if they can guide our destinies.
What is CSR in war time? This is the time of transformation and for showing your mettle. The business machine of the world has the resources, gumption, skills, expertise to add to the might of the ongoing was in our favour. They have the leadership as exhibited on numerous occasions. The best of the brains are there, their contribution to the present mammoth effort can provide that winning tilt. We live together in this world, we have to battle it together, this is not a war of the militaries.
TRANSFORMATIONAL CSR FOR THE HEALTH WAR WILL ADD TO THE BATTLE STRENGTH.