The Hindu Business Line : Why CSR often fails

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is often thrust on the shoulders of management, even as the board remains a bit removed from reality, observes Andrew Kakabadse in one of the essays included in Going Green (www.tatamcgrawhill.com). He finds that about a third of the world's top teams are permanently divided on vision. "So you'll have the chief executive and the various directors going into meetings, having a really good discussion, making a clear decision, and then walking out of the meeting and doing something different to what they just decided."

Another disturbing trend that the essay reports from a global survey of 12,500 organisations spanning 21 countries is the inhibition in top teams, with the directors feeling uncomfortable about voicing their views perhaps because the chief executive has championed the subject.

"What you have is people who know what's wrong with the company, who know what to put right, and who know the consequences of saying nothing - and will still say nothing," cautions Kakabadse.

He advises that pushing CSR down the line can create tensions arising from `a difference of opinion between the CSR strategy and its application and costs.' In today's mature markets, where you make money as much by being cross-disciplinary as by making profit, which line managers are really going to spend and invest in CSR when they also have particular budget constraints to fulfil, the author wonders.

Worth a responsible study by the top.

Chugging along

Why did the Railways, in profits up to 1953, slide down to near insolvency by the turn of the century? Because bulk goods were lost sight of, says Vivek Khare in The Turnaround Story of Indian Railways (www.ameyaprakashan.com). "The prime source of revenues for the Railways was freight. In the rush to increase passenger traffic, freight was sidelined, and revenues began to drop."

The malaise, as the author describes, was that the Railway officials, despite being a smart lot, were used to carrying out instructions from `up above,' starting a train when told to start, building a station when told to, and drawing up a new route when told to, thus avoiding adverse markings on their record.

"Most decisions were populist. There was constant political interference in the working of the Board and the officials. The Railways was a Government enterprise. Anyone could walk in and throw his weight around."

Yet, after the magic that Lalu Prasad, who took over as the Minister for Railways in May 2004, started unfolding, the giant organisation became the cynosure of B-schools and corporate world. What was Lalu's secret?

"The first thing is that a milch cow must be fully milked, or she falls ill. The second thing is that a rail wagon is a race horse that must be exercised regularly, or he will dig in his heels. In short, the roti must be turned while being roasted, or it will get burnt," reads an apt snatch of Lalu-speak.

A book that deserves a berth in your reading list.

D. MURALI

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