Inner-driven vs outer-driven CSR

CSR is about responsibility.

Responsibility for your employees.

Responsibility for your business partners.

Responsibility for your clients.

Responsibility for your stakeholders.

Responsibility for environment (which actually means responsibility for people who are living on the planet earth because sustainable environment benefits the people who are living in this environment).

Responsibility for your community. (includes CSR initiatives (in the worst case donating to the NGO for social cause) - the most common understanding of CSR which is only a fractional/tiny part of CSR).

What does being responsible mean?

Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary provides the following definition for responsibility:
The quality or state of being responsible: as a : moral, legal, or mental accountability b : reliability, trustworthiness

From the definition above a (moral, legal, or mental accountability) could be described as an outer-driven responsibility that might come within the law, social norms etc., whereas b (reliability, trustworthiness) could be described as inner-driven responsibility that comes within our own state of mind.


Lets draw these parallels into the CSR context.

Outer-driven CSR - comprises CSR activities under the PR and law regulations
In this case undertaken CSR activities are superficial. The reason is to improve the corporate image and foster the sales. Or the CSR activities are driven from the law regulations where the government agitates corporates to involve into CSR.

Inner-driven CSR - comprises CSR activities and policies evolved from the management level. It is all about they do the business, the responsible business. Company is doing what is right, not what is easy.
In the case of Inner-driven CSR, the whole CSR concept is embraced. CSR is part of the strategy and there is no decision made that contradicts the core of the CSR.

What I want to say is that Outer-driven CSR is not the true CSR. This is just putting on the mask and using CSR as a tactics, not as a strategy.


A lot of outer-driven CSR is happening out of there. And even more is about to come if the governments and politicians don't stop announcing the policies for the companies to engage into CSR.

'Closer home several state government has begun framing rules to make
companies become more responsible to their stakeholders. The Gujarat
government is drafting a fresh Company law which will make it
mandatory for companies to spend a goodly part of their profits on
corporate responsibility.'

Does the government really think that the Company law will transform the companies' performance? Okay, they will donate the money to the NGO (which they will choose from some NGO of their relative or friend, so this is pure business again where the dirty money matters only). And that's it. Company will take it as an outer-responsibility and will not care about the cause and why they are doing it.

In contrast if there is no such a law, the companies that spend on the cause are at least thinking to some extend why they are doing so. (The true companies are thinking about it anyway). Thus outer pressure is not leading to the true CSR. It only suppresses it.

One more point about the company law on the mandatory donation. Why don't the government just spend the certain amount of money on the social cause? Companies are paying taxes anyway. Why to make it too complicated and keep adding different laws?
Simplicity should be the key to all the regulations. And contributions should come from the inner-state, not from somewhere above.


If you take the responsibility for yourself you will develop a hunger to accomplish your dreams.
-Les Brown

Multitasking

Recently I came across a book - The Brain - thanks to the blog of my friend (Thank You German for sharing!). My attention was engaged particularly on the topic of multitasking. According to the scientific studies our brains are not designed for multitasking and while doing so our attention is declining, mind destructed and the time needed to complete the task doubles. Just watch the video!



Is it really like this?

Well... when I am observing my own experience then I can pretty sure say that multitasking is not for me. I need to concentrate and focus on one task. The reason could be that I have been taught to work/learn on this mode. At my high school times I was not allowed to do my homework while listening to the music or watching TV. My parents taught me to study in the silence and with full concentration. By virtue of the teaching of my parents I had been kept this approach to learning.

Now while I am working in the office sitting in one room with around 20 people and with 3 more people around one table there is a lot of noise out there. Yes, it is my first 8:30 to 5:30 office job and this is quite a lot different from what I have been used to before. I can feel that my mind is disturbed and the efficiency is low although I cannot say with assurance that it is because of the crowded office. The change in my work environment is not the only change in my life right now thus it is impossible to say whether the noise and constant "being online" is the reason for inefficiency.

Anyhow lets take another perspective. We might think that scientific studies reveal how the brain is working and they communicate the objective truth only. I don`t think so. A scientific theory could be invalidated just with an other scientific proof that argues just the opposite. In (neuro)psychology it could be seen quite clearly how different theories offer different approaches and there is nothing as just one true theory.

Coming back to the multitasking myth theory. Lets speculate that it is objective truth that brain is not constructed for multitasking (in present time, in our 21st century). Anyhow we should not forget that brain consists of neurons and neurons are very flexible. Neurons can connect to each other in any way and build the new structures for brain. 1 000 years ago, 5 000 years ago, 1 000 000 year ago and so on, the human brain was totally different from today`s brain. Evolution is happening all the time and the world is in the constant transformation. Change is a natural part of the life, of the life of a person or of the life of the human evolution). Thus what is natural today might be destructive tomorrow. If the path of the evolution is to move towards multitasking then suppressing multitasking today is dangerous. At the same time, if all the people stop multitasking today then the human brain will never develop the multitasking ability. For developing the multitasking ability there should be at least a bunch of people performing this procedure of brain.

In all should people ignore the multitasking today or not? Multitasking might be myth today but will it be myth tomorrow? Do you want to run on efficient mode today and to be dead as a spice in the future generations? How surprising it isn't it depends a lot what majority of people will choose, whether they will keep on multitasking or they will stop doing so. And even this might not be the answer or even close to the answer! World is unpredictable.

My traineeship at Technopak

I have not yet much written about my current work at Technopak Advisors where I am doing my traineeship. Lets do it, as I really like my workplace!
The first perception about the office in the beginning was impressive. I did not expect something like this from India which is considered relatively poor country. Now, as I see it in Gurgaon, many international companies have their offices here - Ericsson, Oracle, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Microsoft etc... There are also many call centres operating in Gurgaon providing the outsourcing for the U.S. comapnies.

DLF Cyber City, Technopak office is located in the Tower A

I am working in the Mindscape - strategic consumers insights division.



Within Mindscape there are three kind of directions:
- shopper insights (Environsell)
- trend insights (Future Forward)
- design & innovation insights (Magic Box)

Until now I have been involved into some work within shopper insights and most of the time I am busy with trend insights. Right now we are working on 2 Outlooks (quarterly reports by Technopak) - Indian Wedding Industry Outlook and Consumer Trends 2009 Outlook. Probably I should post a separate write-up about the Indian weddings. I have not participated in any wedding yet (although it is not difficult to be invited to the wedding, I guess I have recieved around 5 wedding invitations to my e-mail from my collegues at work but most of them took place quite far), but I already have gained quite a deep knowledge about Indian weddings. I am learning a lot... sometimes it seems this is the only thing I am doing - learning - and I am not delivering as much as I should for the company, but everything is new and first I need to understand this new environment and work role.

What I am not so much happy with is the Indian time management or rather the absence of any time management. I feel that I am not able to impart my frustration that I had in the beginning about the time management and order because I am already used to it. I should had written about this before as I dont have these negative feelings any more and sometimes it seems like I am becoming like one of them in terms of time managemet :)

"Walt you talk" - this has been my motto. In India you raraly see this phenomenon if ever at all. And yes, in some sense I might behave as indian a bit... but I know it will change once I get back to the Western culture.

The company has taken a good care of us (means trainees) while helping with the basic formalities as FRO (Foreign Registration Office), insurance, local bank accounts. Doing everything by ourselves would had been quite complicated.. although even the FRO registration with the help of one employee was not easy. We went there twice (as we were missing some documents) and even then it was not completed.. as still something was missing. This could be a long and funny story how it finally got done!

What I can say is that I am already starting to believe in the potential on Indian economy! There are huge resources and possiilities. The only problem is the education. The literacy rate of Indian population is about 61% (2001 census) which is 73% and 48% respectively by men and women.

Anyway, I believe in India and it is not out of question that one day some business plans will be considered with this country.

Technopak office

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This internship experience I am getting by AIESEC - the world`s largest student organization that provides international platform for young people to discover and develop their potential.

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