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.

Visit:

www.aiesec.org
(AIESEC International)

www.aiesec.ee
(AIESEC Estonia)

Getting Internet Connection in India

Today, finally the Internet is working in the room 19 (means my & Marieke`s room). Let me describe the procedure from the beginning until now.
On wednesday I called up the guy from the Youtele.com. Unfurtunately, wednesday was his day off. Next day I called him again and he promised to come at 7 o`clock. Yes, he did come with another guy. On the phone we did talk to a third guy because these two were not able to decribe everything in English properly. We did pay the pre-payment, installation & modem bill and we were told that the next day someone is coming to do the installation job. Next morning Marieke got the call in concern that the Internat guy is not coming and he will come on Saturday at 10 AM. We did wake up by 10 AM as the person might come. Only around 3 PM he was here, in between I did many calls to the service provider and every time he promised the guy to come in one or half an hour. Anyway, this person drew only the cable. He did nothing else than drawing the cable from outside into our room. He was saying that an other person has to come to set up the modem.
While calling the service centre again, they promised to send the person with the modem the next day. Of course I was waiting again many hours that guy to come. Now everything is finally done! :)

This was an example how things work in India. Many people are involved in one task. Everyone has their own part in the completion of job. And everything takes time, a lot of time. Time management is very poor. If they agree the time for 10 AM, then it might turn into 4 PM. And you waste the whole day for waiting.

One of the reasons of splitting the task is creation of more jobs. India needs many new jobs. There are many people to help to rise up, especially in the villages. Still this justification is not enough. Better workforce managemet can lead India to the economical prosperity.

First impression about India

By now I have been in India for 2 weeks already. The time here passes by really fast. Anyway... lets start from the beginning...

My trip to India started on the 28th of Oct about 5 AM. After a long car & bus trip I reached Tallinn. The next destination was Helsinki where I reached by cruise ship Baltic Princess. From that point foward I was not alone any more as I met Estonian trainee Killu who I came to India together with. From Helsinki airport we had our flight for 6-7 hours. The plane landed in Delhi about 6 AM (29th Oct). Some AIESECers were supposed to pick us up from the airport but we could see none. So we kept waiting inside the airport. We observed the people and tried to figure out who is the person responsible to meet us at the airport. After 2 hours I got a call that someone is waiting for us outside the airport. We went out and saw Yatin. He has been waiting for us outside the airport for 2 hours.. a bit stupid situation as we both were waiting. Waiting inside the airport was rather funny for me and Killu. If I had been alone waiting there... it would not have been funny at all...

The first day Yatin helped me and Killu with establishing in India. I had my home stay at his place as well. Indian hospitality is really huge. If you are a guest they do take a lot of care for you. They keep on serving some food even if you are already full. That time when I arrived to India the weather was quite hot. And of course you dont need that much food when it is hot. Just water. I was taken to some places in South Delhi. It was a Diwaly period (a holiday in India that is as important as Christmas for us). The streets were bedighted with lights and some kind of decoration. One could see fireworks outside.

The same day I met two more trinees who just arrived - Marieke from Netherlands and Sunny from Hong Kong. All 3 of us are working in the same company.

During the night me, Yatin`s brother and his friend Sagar explored the night life in Delhi. There were some nice pubs but they were about to close quite early. Later I was experiencing some really crazy driving.. about 120 km/h on the roads of Delhi.

The next day I was dropped to Gurgaon. It is a sattelite city of Delhi which is about 20-30 min away from capital. Many bussinesses have their offices here, it is a big agglomerate of office buildings. There were nothing about 5 years ago. It was a plain landscape and some kind of fights were held here. Now some say this city is the fastest growing city in the world. Officially the population of Gurgaon was ~200 000 in 2001. The unofficial number might be around one million by now. The city is really dusty. You will never see a blue sky and yellow sun. This is hidden by dust. There is a lot of contrast in Gurgaon. Beautiful towers and slums. Rich and poor. Nice cars and cows.

I am living at U-59. It is a trainee house in DLF phase 3. I am sharing a room with Marieke. We have a medium sized room with a kitchen, bathroom and balcony. In the beginning I was afraid of cockroaches in our room. I started a strategy of touching them and now I am absolutely fine with cockroaches.

There are more trainees at U-59. The Polish people are dominating (btw tonight we are having a Polish independence party at the rooftop). Some Indians are also living there. The rooftop is a commonly known place for parties or just for gathering. U-59 is here as a big family.. together you go out for a dinner, cook a meal, party, travel...

There is no India without Indian food. Before coming here I was kind of worried about the food here as it is spicy. But now I really like it. Dal makhani, paneer, nan, chabati (last two are breads) - these are really good. And the food is not hot spicy, it is just normally spiced. Anyway if you dont like Indian food you have here McDonalds, Pizza Hut, chinese food etc. You can find everything! Okay... maybe not Estonian black bread.. but you cannot find it in Europe as well.

The weather here right now is perfect. It is not that hot and still not cold. I am walking along the streets without any jacket. Soon it is gonna be colder and I need some warm cloths to buy.

I am already working in the office (right now I am there) but I will make a post about my work the next time. Tomorrow we are having a family day at our company. So everyone brings their family along to some place in the countryside.

Lets enjoy the weekend now!

INDIA

My journey to India will begin soon! Jippiii! :)

So Karina.. WHERE ARE YOU GOING???

Well I am going to my AIESEC traineeship at Technopak (http://www.technopak.com/) in India. This is an international management consulting firm that provides strategy advise and implementation support to leading companies across the world in the focus areas of food & grocery, fashion, consumer durables, consumer electronics, fast moving consumer goods, healtcare, hospitality and human resource development. (believe me or not but I didnt copy it from the home page, I already know how to introduce my work place!)
Technopak has it`s head office in Gurgaon and this is only 30 min away from Delhi, the capital of India. There are also offices is Bangalore (which I might visit as well) and in Mumbai.

Okay. Nice. What are you going to do there?

My job will be market research. I liked the most MindScape - the strategic consumer insights division of Technopak. It is the place where I can apply my background (psychology & economics) fully. Consumer psychology is a distinct branch!

It seems interesting! When are you going?

I am leaving Estonia on the 28th of October and I will be in India on the 29th of Oct. There will be 5 trainees starting work at Technopak and we are going to start from the 1st of November.

And for how long?

I am going there for 1 year. Yes, the whole year of new experiences, diversity, people from all the corners of the world and continius professional and personal growth! Isn`t it amazing?

Would you like to add anything?

Yes, I promise to keep my blog more fresh and up to date with my adventure in India!

Thank you Karina for these news and next time hear about you in India.

Thank you for listening as well and greetings from Pattina!

Lack of communication in organisation (communication assumetry) = absence of caringness

I had a personal development talk in AIESEC today. I gave some feedback to the work of AIESEC Tartu local commitee. What I am not happy about is the lack of communication or let`s say communication assumetry - not delivering the right information at the right time to the right people.

After having talk with Ege I thought a lot about this fenomen. I tried to find out - why is it so. I reached the routs of this fenomen.

The reason is the absence of caringness. When someone wants to ensure the well being of other person, then it will come automatically that the information will be delivered to the right person. Communication is the tool. Communication as it is, is not the final goal. No one communicates because of the communication itself. If people would have the ability to read what other think, there would be no need for the communication as it exists nowadays. And when you think about the well being of other person - communication comes as a natural part of the process.

Care(=communicate) about the people around you!

Who are we?

Today I had a great experience. I got a chance to verbalize a reasonable example of one of my basic beliefs - WE CAN BE ANYTHING.

We were discussing this and that - me, my grandmom and 2 more granddaughters of my grandmom. I was mentioning that I have a home task in Self-Presentation and Impression Management. The home task contains of 3 self-reflection writings - me, ideal me and how others see me.

Grandmom asked me - how can I know who I am if I don`t listen what others say about me. I strongly opposed her. How can others know my values, my beliefs if I don`t communicate it out? Thus others cannot judge what they are not seeing. Then... a reasonable example crossed my mind and which I expressed. What if I get different perspectives from others? What if one person says I am stupid and an other says I am smart? Then who am I? There might be a lot of different opinions from different people and which one a person should identify with oneself.

Here comes the answer - you can be anything you decide to be. People are not deciding for you who to be. You are the master of your life.

I am discovering that people are a great source of learning. Even if they are not sharing the same values and believes as you do.

CSR

I think I found the field that I am interested in. It is CSR - Corporate Social Responsibility. When I was teenager I thought I will become a business lady. Actually I didnt think about this so much, it was natural for me going into business. I wanted to do something by my own or if I would not have been come up with some good idea then I thought about taking over the business.

My mind changed when I was about to graduate the high school. I didnt like the world of the dirty business. I saw there a lot of corruption and it seemed impossible to do something alone without playing the game with others. My values didnt match the business world. So I went to study psychology because it was a way to help other people. Psychology and ethics are usually going together although sometimes you might hear about some "psychologists" who have no relevant education.

While discovering AIESEC I understood that actually business is not only about dirty games. There are many people who are living the right values and want to be a true leader.

Now I found CSR. Still I have some controversy with some people but I dont believe in Friedman`s doctrine - the business of business is business. And I believe that CSR is the future. It must be.

CSR is not as popular in Estonia as it is in West Europe. Hansapank is the first - they are building their CSR division. From this year Äripäev is also launching the CSR Index. So it is starting from somewhere atleast. And I want to do my seminar work in CSR (research related to values, personality...).

First post this year

I havent written anything for some time in here. Why? I feel busy. Somehow there is so many things to do so that I hardly find time for myself. To reflect. To enjoy free moments. Being alone with my thoughts. Yes - this feels like nostalgia. Earlier i used to have these moments more often.

Today i had my last exam. Now i feel i have more time. And there is no tension any more.

Many times i felt like writing down some of my experiences but then i couldnt sit down and do it because all the time it seemed like being in hurry and every minute seemed to be important - even if i did nothing at this one minute.

As it is a new year so i want to sum up the last year. What was different from previous years.

The year 2007 didnt begin with good news. There was a lot of trouble just from the beginning. And it continued wholly the first half of the year. I dont feel like sharing all the details but it was not an easy period.

Still there was a lot of positive things during the year 2007.

In february i participated on my first youth exchange in Macedonia. It was really exciting experience. After this youth exchange we organised a youth exchange in Estonia. It was very useful and fun. There was so many thing to learn by doing. In August i participated on my third youth exchange in Sweden. I liked it as well.

In february i joined AIESEC. It was my aim to be the member of this organisation because i understood it is a place what i really want to belong to.

In july i was a group leader in a camp. It was quite cool altough sometimes it is not so easy to manage teanagers.

From September i belong to ProjectEDU team. My dream of making change in education system in Estonia is coming true.

What about university? Yes.. in 2007 i started studing econimics as my minor. I planned to take both modules and now i am almost finished with them - only some more subjects are left that seem easy. And my psychology studies are going well. (One more semester and then my studies are supposed to be finished.)

When i think about my last year i feel like doing too much. Both semesters over 30 credit points, volunteer at youth centre, AIESEC, street dance trainings. Yeah... thats why i dont feel like studing ahead right after finishing my bachelor degree. I feel i need some time for myself, finding some vision for next period in my life. Right now i even prefer doing MBA than masters in psychology. Anayway - i need some clarity. Probably a gap year is the best solution.

So.. what about this new year? I have some high expectations towards this year. We will see what is going to happen :)

This is how i spent the 1st of January 2008.