Participants at the CIB conference in India, November 2011

by the CIB India team

Senior Indian and Japanese business executives discussed the balance between economic growth and human responsibility, when they met at the sixth annual conference of Caux Initiatives for Business (CIB), Asia Pacific regional group. The conference, on ‘Making growth sustainable’, took place at Asia Plateau, the Initiatives of Change conference centre in Panchgani, Maharashtra, from 19 to 23 November.

CIB encourages business leaders, young professionals, NGO representatives, trade unionists, experts and decision makers to work together to bridge the gap between the theory and practice of values— in personal conduct and economic life. This leg of CIB brought together business leaders from a number of countries including Switzerland, the USA, Australia and Germany, as well as strengthening Indo-Japanese relations.

Among the many taking part were:

• Kishor Chaukar, Managing Director, Tata Industries Ltd, Mumbai;

• Rajeev Dubey, President (Group HR & After-Market), Mahindra &Mahindra Ltd, Mumbai;

• Hironori Yano, Senior Advisor, Central Nippon Expressway Ltd, Japan andChairman, Initiatives of Change, Japan;

• Neville Gandhi, Regional Compliance Officer, Siemens Ltd, Mumbai;

• Minoru Inaoka, Senior Advisor, Ito-Yokado Ltd, Japan;

• P.S. Bawa, Chairman, Transparency International, India.

In bringing together delegates from varying fields, the conference resonated the famous words of the Tata industries’ founder, Jamsetji Tata: ‘In a free enterprise, the communityis not just another stakeholder in business but is in fact the very purpose of its existence.’

Following the global financial meltdown of 2008, the speakers acknowledged the unavoidable interdependency of organizations in the global economy and the responsibility of each organization to the economy and all stakeholders.

In an environment where greed, lubricated by a desire for short-term gains under the guise of fostering growth, has been the flavor of business, the CIB conference identified a need to cultivate future leaders into strong-minded individuals of high purpose who are not driven by avarice. Such individuals must have the ability to think deeply about the consequences of their decisions on all stakeholders.

Major companies such as The Tata group, Canon, Mahindra & Mahindra and others presented their strategies on corporate social responsibility (CSR). The conference participants found it enlightening to understand the work being done for the community by major business houses in India.

It was also inspiring, at a time when financial scams are lowering the repute of the corporate sector, to hear the story of the transformation of the Siemens group, who are reclaiming their reputation, and the public’s goodwill, after a major rigging scam in 2006.

Presentations like these and many others encouraged the participants to believe that economic growth without keeping in mind responsibility to society will never do an organization good in the long run. Rather, there is an immense purpose in holding up values in the arena of business.

A full report of the presentations by the conference participants will follow shortly.