Question: Are Indian corporate on the way to taking sufficient actions and initiatives to check climate change and plan for sustainable development?
Answer: As mentioned before, many Indian companies have started realizing the importance of integrating Sustainability issues in their business/ corporate strategies. However, not many Indian companies have gone to the second stage of conceiving such strategies. Most of these companies, perhaps, are struggling to understand the complex linkages before they actually go and do something.
Question: Can you name some companies in India who’s CSR/ sustainable development initiatives you have found commendable and to be followed?
Answer: As socially responsible businesses in India, the name of Tata Group always comes at the top. Some of the Tata companies have undertaken excellent initiatives in the area of Sustainability. Some of the other companies include Wipro, Infosys, ONGC, ITC, 3C, HLL, etc. TISCO, for example, has its own three Trusts which take up social welfare activities for TISCO employees and their families as well as for communities living in and around the plant. Similarly, Wipro Care, established by Wipro makes laudable contributions in the field of education. In order to take care of its environmental responsibility, Wipro has started an initiative known as Eco-Eye which tries to integrate environmental dimension in all of Wipro’s projects. ITC’s e-Choupal model has tried to remove large scale inefficiencies in the supply chain of agricultural commodities in many states which have benefitted the agrarian communities.
B. About MBA Programmes and Courses on Sustainable Development at IIM Lucknow
Question: What are the courses available under sustainable development at IIML?
Answer: There are two courses at present:
a) Corporate Environmental Strategies and Carbon Markets for PGP, PGPABM, IPMX, and WMP students
b) Business, Society, and Governance for PGP, PGPABM, and WMP students
At present, these courses are offered as electives. However, if we look at the numbers, almost all students enrolled in WMP and PGPABM programmes and most students enrolled in IPMX opt for this course (Corporate Environmental Strategies and Carbon Markets). In PGP programme this year, the number of students opting for this course has risen to 83 from 40 last year.
PGP – Post Graduate Programme in Management
PGPABM – Post Graduate Programme in Agri-Business Management
IPMX – International Programme in Management for Executives
WMP – Working Managers Programme
Question: Since when has IIM Lucknow been imparting these courses?
Answer: Since 2006.
Question: What is the vision behind incorporating these courses in various programmes? How do these courses add value to an MBA programme?
Answer: One of the criticisms faced by most business schools today is that their graduates are far removed from the social and environmental realities of their broader business environment. They do not understand the complex interactions between their various stakeholders and, hence, do not appreciate the importance of stakeholders’ involvement in business planning and decision-making. When confronted with the challenge of meeting their traditional bottomline, ‘economic profitability’, today’s corporate managers perform exceedingly well. But, in order to maintain competitive advantage, they are required to meet two more bottom lines: ‘social responsibility’ and ‘environmental responsibility’. It is here that most corporate managers start feeling the heat. They are confronted with exceedingly difficult challenges in balancing their economic, legal, ethical, and philanthropic responsibilities.
All this requires that today’s business managers should have deep understanding of different stakeholders. They should be sensitive to the needs and expectations of societal members from the businesses beyond their economic goals. They should have appropriate skills, tools and techniques so as to enable them to perform by multi-stakeholder management.
The courses being taught at IIM Lucknow aim at providing the students an understanding of changing relationship between business and environmental/ social management, and make them aware of the strategies being adopted by businesses throughout the world. The courses focus on how businesses can move beyond an approach that seeks simply to minimize environmental/ social impacts to strategies that seek to proactively manage various environmental/ social issues.
