With a view to provide insights to its students on implementing sustainability in businesses and discuss current trends, IIM Lucknow organized its Leadership Summit – Udyam 2010 – on November 13 at its NOIDA campus with the central theme, “Architecting Sustainability”.
Dr. Devi Singh, Director, IIM Lucknow, delivered the keynote address and emphasized the need for businesses to incorporate ‘sustainability’ in their business models. He also laid importance on the growing awareness on environmental and social issues and to equip MBA students with better perspectives to manage businesses.
Eminent speakers from the industry participated in the two panel discussions. Professor Sushil Kumar from IIM Lucknow – an expert on climate change and CSR issues – moderated the panel discussions.
The pre-lunch session focused on ‘Sustainability: A Business Imperative’. The panelists were Mr. Subir Hazra (VP Strategic Planning, GMR Group), Mr. Karandeep Singh (MD, Sapient India), Mr. Poul V. Jenson (Director, European Business Technology Center), Mr. Ajay Davessar (Global Head – Green Initiative, HCL Technologies).
Sharing his thoughts on traditional Indian culture and values that were based on principles of sustainability, Prof. Sushil Kumar referred to a survey conducted by Havas Media that Indian consumers are second only to the Japanese in terms of environmental-consciousness, and are most sensitive to corporate attitudes towards sustainability.
Mr. Karandeep Singh acknowledged Prof. Kumar’s point about consumer-consciousness in India when, in response to a question on whether companies are willing to spend to be ‘good’, he replied that companies had no choice. If they didn’t, their customers would react negatively, and the demand for their brand would plummet.
This was echoed by Mr. Poul Jenson when he said that CSR can help companies gain competitive edge currently, but in near future, it will become critical for existence.
Mr. Singh also urged companies to start publishing their environmental accounts in their annual/quarterly reports, in an effort to encourage companies to start competing and differentiating themselves on this parameter.
Mr. Subir Hazra hinted that laws regarding ‘green business’ may be in the offing soon, and that CSR could be backed by legislation in the future. At this point, Mr. Poul Jenson alerted the audience to the challenges of implementing environment-friendly measures in India, as pricing issues limited import of relevant technology. He also said that the practice of (say) donating appliances like solar-cookers was not true CSR, since the initiative was sustainable only as long as the life of the product.
The second session focused on ‘Healthy Business via Healthy Environment’. The panelists were Mr. Ranjit Gupta (CEO, Indiabulls Power Ltd.), Mr. Anil Patni (Head Communication and External Affairs, Tata BP Solar), Mr. V. Subramanian (CEO, Indian Wind Energy Association), Mr. Daman Dev Sood (VP, Green IT Practice, Continuity & Resilience), Mr. Kula Saikia (DIG, Assam).
Mr. Subramanian started the discussion by mentioning that smoke used to be an indicator of growth earlier, and that the situation has dramatically reversed over the past few decades. He emphasized on the importance of development of new business-models by young managers emerging from institutions like the IIMs.
Mr. Daman Sood continued the discussion in the same vein by saying that investing resources into a business was like taking a loan from the environment and from the future generations, and that providing a sustainable environment was the only way to repay the debt. He also stirred interest amongst the businesses by citing several ‘green’ projects undertaken by companies which resulted in substantial monetary savings to them.
Mr. Ranjit Gupta brought in a completely new angle to the discussion by saying that CSR was not a business’ core-competence, and that some companies engage in CSR simply to ‘check-the-box’. He said that businesses should be made responsible for contributing to sustainability (by way of money), but the actual implementation should be carried out by the Government.
ThinktoSustain.com was the Exclusive Online Knowledge Partner to the event. ThinktoSustain.com – a market space for ideas… is an IIM alumni initiative to bring awareness on climate change and its related issues. The portal – www.thinktosustain.com – features efforts taken by corporate, research community and entrepreneurs in the area of sustainable development.
Star TV was the Exclusive Media Partner for the event.
