Friday, October 05, 2012

Sustainable Capitalism is the food

CSR is Passe , Sustainability is in. And B-Schools alike are Waking Up To This Fact. B&E’s Amir Moin writes on why for The Moment, Sustainable Capitalism is the food for thought For Sustaining Capitalism

B-schools today stand at a juncture where they have the historic opportunity of giving the gift of ‘sustainable capitalism’ to the world. It will be a system that will not just ensure profit maximisation but will also make people (the society as a whole) better-off. And there are steps being taken in this direction. Starting the new MBA batch of 2011-13, students at the IIMs will be solving case studies discussing Maoists rebellion and the displacement caused by large industrial projects. Students would also visit villages in remote areas, for the purpose of making this an experiential exercise and help solve issues of the villagers. In fact, The Indian Institute of Planning and Management (IIPM) has been in this race, teaching concepts of sustainable development, ever since its inception in 1973. Even today, all students enrolling for any of the institute’s post-graduate and under-graduate programmes are taught concepts such as ‘Survival of the weakest’, ‘Trickle-up effect’ and ‘Happy Capitalism’. In an exclusive conversation with B&E, Dr. Ranajoy Bhattacharyya, Professor of Environmental Economics & Intl. Trade, The Indian Institute of Foreign Trade (IIFT), expresses his concern on the lack of such an initiative. “Sustainable capitalism is a rare concept where human welfare and profitability are very closely related. This is separate from CSR. In our B-schools, the issue of CSR has been largely taken care of. But, it is in the field of environment management where there is a scope for a lot more to be done. Embedding sustainable issues and policies in corporate strategies is not necessarily a CSR issue; it makes a lot of business sense as well.”

This very year, CEOs of 29 global corporations, including the likes of Accenture, Infosys and Boeing collectively produced a report titled Vision 2050 on behalf of the World Business Council for Sustainable Development. The report lays out a pathway leading to a global population of some 9 billion people living well within the resource limits of the planet by 2050. The deep-rooted significance of the vision fostered by these CEOs may appear promises on paper, but it is a start. According to a survey of global CEOs commissioned by Accenture in 2010 for the 10th anniversary of the UN Global Compact held in New York at the end of June, while 93% CEOs voted for the fact that “Sustainability issues are critical for the future success of their business”, an overwhelming 96% promised that “Sustainability issues will be fully integrated into the operations and corporate policies of their respective companies”. But the warning here is that the performance gap (what is needed and how much is being implemented) in dealing with sustainability issues has only increased over time – from 27% in 2007 (survey by McKinsey in 2007) to 32% in 2010 (survey by Accenture in 2010). This therefore calls for b-schools to make the much needed change in curriculum to include the topic of Creative Capitalism, as Dr. Mukesh Kumar, COO, Vedanta Aluminium says, “A business cannot prosper unless it realises the presence and contribution of the society. It is now an imperative for B-schools to imbibe sustainability aspects in the course content. In times to come the demand for inclusive growth will become even more pressing” says Kumar.


Source : IIPM Editorial, 2012.
For More IIPM Info, Visit below mentioned IIPM articles.
 
IIPM : The B-School with a Human Face
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