ronmental and technological problems that people face in their communities.
Relevance of CSV in Emerging Markets
It is particularly more relevant in emerging markets as the states are often inadequate to solve people’s problems. Productive economic activity at the business level is what is at the core of this next evolutionary form of capitalism. Education, healthcare, law and order, infrastructure are just some of the public challenges where the Indian state even after almost seven decades of independence has not been able to deliver entirely. It is because in a developing country context like India the resource allocation is often inadequate and even where it is adequate it is inefficient. The solution, therefore, does not seem to be a ‘bigger state’ but a more efficient and effective one which focusses on enabling solutions and outcomes. A rule based private sector development based on appropriate regulation can end up achieving the social and community goals that are essential to this more humane form of capitalism.
Shared Value or Inclusive Businesses?
The initiative recently mapped enterprises that have been engaged in the ideation and, more importantly, the practice of moving towards creating shared value and celebrated their achievements and ways and means to take the movement forward. This was done by the creation of an Inclusive Business list. Inclusive Businesses show businesses that are moving towards the practice of creating shared value but are yet not there. This list had enterprises which have contributed to enabling societal development through their business models and are moving towards the practice of creating shared value in India.
In 2015, quite a number of such enterprises were identified. These enterprises were committed to bringing a change in understanding the key societal challenges and addressing them through their business models. In a way, it was a unique initiative to identify, assess and recognise the organisations operating in India, which are creating a measurable socio-economic value by identifying and addressing social and environmental problems that intersect with their business.
In India, several companies have been doing commendable work as ‘Inclusive Businesses‘. The list is truly diverse with businesses operating in distinct sectors of the economy. These include enterprises like Jain Irrigation, Amul, Novartis, Vaatsalya, and Godrej, etc. that have done commendable work for societal development at the same time generating profits for these enterprises. All of the companies on the list have enabled societal development and at some level trying to embed the principles of creating shared value in their business models.
Methodology for Assessment of Inclusive Businesses in India
The core principle driving the evaluation of Inclusive businesses was how well their past and present activities take into account societal value within their business models and as part of their overall strategy. Post this a well-established assessment approach was deployed, and a thorough evaluation was done in the case of several enterprises out of which 21 were then recognized as Inclusive Businesses.
The organizations were mapped on the basis of their past and present activities, and on how well they adopted the principles of societal value creation as a part of their business strategy.
- Identification of companies: Companies advancing societal initiatives via their business activities were identified. Enterprises who imbibe the spirit of societal value and are actively involved in doing activities at the ground level were considered
- Setting Parameters: Companies were assessed on the following parameters
- Social issue and challenge being addressed
- Coverage of activities creating a positive impact on society
- Link between social problem being addressed and company’s competitive position and strategy
- Assessing Companies: The outcomes of assessment based on the aforementioned parameters were then discretely analyzed by team from SVII.
- A thorough evaluation of companies was done, and enterprises wh