Anant G Nadkarni
In his book Beyond the Bottom Line, Michael Smith observes that in 1999 the three richest people in the world were worth more than the combined GDP of the world's 34 poorest nations. As many as 51 out of the 100 largest economies were not nation states, but corporations. A staggering 1.2 billion people are barely able to survive. So much for the advances in 'management practice' and 'organisational development'. 

McKinsey India recently said the future markets of the world will emerge in a decade or two in Asian, African and South American countries. This is actually where the world's poorest live - some four billion people if the lower income groups are included. 

Conventional wisdom informs us that business serves markets backed by purchasing power. In the coming years, business faces the challenge of meeting the needs of almost two-thirds of the human race that is economically deprived and not yet a 'customer'. If market forces are to include all of humanity in their sweep, they must reckon with this huge domain of possible markets and answer key questions: Will poverty reduction also become a central business concern? If so, what new capabilities would be required? And, how can business become more inclusive to reach this segment? 

Social responsibility should not be confused with charity. It should mean enhancing sensitivity and incorporating in the corporate mainstream developmental concerns as 'strategic responsibilities'. For instance, car makers seem to operate better in the 'small car' segment to help customers access a better lifestyle. Products and services apparently gain financial viability more by shifting the nature of product design and commercial viability to address new market needs. 

Companies could divert a sizeable percentage of sales to balance 'social' with 'conventional business' considerations. Financial institutions promote micro-credit and assist self-help groups. Insurance companies support micro-insurance on a really big scale. Consumer goods manufacturers employ underprivileged women to market their products, enabling them to increase their incomes almost instantly. Large-scale experimentation on strategic social marketing is in the offing. This could address the challenge of making market mechanisms work for all. 

Over a hundred years ago, pioneering industrialists who contributed to the vision of independent India defined free enterprise as a situation where the community determines the very purpose of existence of business. To attain that purpose organisations may move from measuring only financial 'returns' to charting larger economic, environmental and social goals as well. 

For want of better indicators, social performance conveniently remained as an add-on 'responsibility'. However, organisations have progressively moved from pure funding into more focused social investment to assist the underprivileged to really become a part of the more 'developed markets'. 

There is an urgent need for leadership in business to reconcile 'perspectives on inclusion' with the art of 'balancing stakeholder interests' — something like Mahatma Gandhi's vision of trusteeship and Vinoba Bhave's system of sarvodaya. Some of our industrialists have given back to society what they took from it. Socially inclusive approaches may have to be reinvented for our times. Typical management practice should blend into larger domains of governance, where organisations become efficient and focused, and network with social capacities to assist community-building processes. 

Corporations could adopt business models that assist all stakeholders to relate an organisation's values with their daily transactions. Business drivers such as leadership, strategy and customer focus are to be integrated with economic, environmental, social and ethical values at each stage. This would entail connecting decision-making and employee action to attain value-driven goals. 

These approaches encourage every employee to conserve resources, save energy, buy eco-friendly materials, design better products, volunteer in the community to guide initiatives and innovate towards improving the quality of lives of the people at large. Building community at the workplace, in the neighbourhood or for the nation become real possibilities where business leaders demonstrate sustained psycho-spiritual exertion. 

It may seem natural to doubt guaranteed outcomes of a development-driven approach. But it is also in the nature of frontiers, like any other, that there are no easy formulae to relieve one completely of anxieties and risks. But the frontiers of developing a community, region or the nation with its vast human spaces are enormously exciting for business leaders who have dared to blend technology and managerial expertise with social capacities to encourage the participation of the marginalised. They have infused every endeavour, business or otherwise, with a human purpose. 

The sorry few who chase financials on a single-minded basis are obviously of another kind. In their mindless pursuit of growth, they would leave behind deforestation, global warming and poverty. Fortunately, many corporations are trying to redefine themselves in an age of crisis and opportunity.