Eating My Values...and Sometimes My Words

04 Aug 2010 – Shankar Venkateswaran

A bunch of us were sitting last week in the swanky office of a leading Indian multinational group in central Delhi awaiting our dinner as we worked. The dinner came and as we started unpacking it, I asked the group if they knew that the owner of the restaurant chain that supplied the food was actually in jail for murdering his wife! “And therefore”, I asked, “Are we being true to our personal values by eating this food?” We decided to go ahead because wasting the food was not an option for most Indians; and in any case, the restaurant chain probably employed a large number of people just making an honest living.

But the reason I asked the question was because all of us around the table are a part of a Guidelines Drafting Committee constituted by the Indian Institute for Corporate Affairs. SustainAbility is a member of this Committee along with others representing businesses – Indian private, Indian public sector and multinationals, micro small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) – human rights and environment NGOs, government and industry bodies. The aim is to to develop Voluntary Corporate Responsibility Guidelines for companies in India which, we hope, will form the basis for what the Government of India will formally make official in December 2010 as an update to the guidelines published in 2009.

I have to say that the process has been extremely enriching. Getting a bunch of highly experienced, capable and opinionated people to pull together has been a challenge and heated exchanges have been a part of this. But the mutual respect and trust in the room has been palpable and has made for great learning. You have people who have been part of national and global standards setting processes, others that bring fascinating insights into processes of development in India while others work in or with companies, big and small, to get the group to ensure these guidelines are practical.

For me, representing SustainAbility, committed as we are to contributing to and learning from experiences in the emerging economies, this has been a fascinating opportunity. Our global experiences will, hopefully, enable these guidelines to be sufficiently forward-looking. At the same time, the need to make them relevant and applicable to an Indian context means digging deeper into the realities that is India, and it is fascinating to realise how much of my past is still in the present.

So, here is looking forward to SustainAbility being a part of creating something that challenges. Even if it means sometimes eating my words!