[Music]
finally we’ve gathered technology
working good afternoon everybody
what I want to talk about is responsible
business it’s good business I am a
businessman as my introduction already
said and I begin by first explaining
what I mean by good business good
business business is generally about the
pursuit of profit and profits rise and
either you can increase your sales or if
you can reduce your busts and and if you
can do both of them at the same time
that’s even better but more important in
profits to sustain be consistent here on
your a month month decade on decade and
if that is the kind of business somebody
wants to run then it is very very
helpful for that business in fact I
would go as far as to say it is
absolutely necessary for that business
to be responsible but what do I mean by
the word responsible well if you look at
the Oxford English Dictionary you will
find that responsible comes with four or
five definitions for the most important
one is which says being capable of
fulfilling a responsibility or a trust
that capability you have therefore you
are responsible or if you have the
authority or the control over delivering
then obligation and the third definition
that the OED gives is you are
accountable you are answerable all those
apply to a business ultimately whether
it is small or big whether the business
employs one person for a thousand people
or a hundred thousand people a business
behaves collectively as its people make
it behave and when a business begins to
believe it is responsible the collective
behavior of the people within the
business as well as the people that
business contacts that behavior change
tends to change and that is what makes
that business responsible we talked
about answerability and
accountability well what and who and to
whom is a business accountable when
things go badly wrong if you have a pile
of gas tragedy or if you have a
Kingfisher Airlines laughs then
governments tends to step in and hold
the business accountable but what
happens in the norm day-to-day of a
business who is holding the business to
account well the short answer is all the
stakeholders all the people that the
business that have an interest in the
business or the business has an interest
in and the usual is two stakeholders is
customers employees suppliers banks
government community environment
shareholders but if you think about it
on a day-to-day basis these people are
not holding the business to account the
business must hold itself to account and
be accountable and responsible for these
various shareholders for these various
stakeholders and if it does that you get
good business now let me drive this
point home by a few examples the
simplest way for a business to continue
its sales and reduce its costs is to
have the same customer coming back to it
day in day out there is a famous panwa
Lionel a punchy fan wallah those from
vapor will probably know he is a
landmark he has existed in that same
area since I was a schoolboy and he’s a
business that has endured for 50 years
if you go to him after 10 years he would
recognize you and he knows what fun you
like he has a spate of customers who
will only go to him for
he’s not out there advertising his
business he has no advertising across he
has no central marketing US customers
keep coming back to him purely because a
of the quality of pond he produces and B
of that smiling customer service which
he and now his progeny I guess and been
delivering for the last 55 years if you
can keep customers coming back that’s
the cheapest thing for a business and
that is probably why once Econoline
givers there is a famous internet
company it started in the 90s it is a
very successful company today it
survived the 2003 2002 dot-com crash it
has a peculiar way of bringing customers
to the center stage every meeting room
in that company’s offices has an empty
chair and every meeting has that empty
chair and that chair represents the
customer all managers whoever it is
who’s joining that meeting always
remember the customer sitting here when
I be saying this in the presence of the
customer no I would I said as if the
customers here and that changes behavior
within the company to bring keep
bringing customers back and for an
Internet company to endure for something
like 20 odd years through these
companies has endured it’s only because
of that and they are profitable I know
of a company which number of Japanese
companies fall in this category who say
whatever we produce doesn’t have any
defects zero defects is a way of life
many people think producing zero defects
is actually a very expensive thing to do
it costs money to build quality into
your products the reality is if the
pursuit for zero defect actually reduces
your costs first and foremost your
customer is happy second he gets no
rejections or defects and therefore his
costs come down and when his cost come
down he continues to buy from you there
was increased sales but most important
your own custom down your custom down
because you are producing less defects
yourself your supplies are producing
less defects yourself and overall it
becomes good business therefore taking
responsibility for customers in a
variety of ways I’ve given you three
examples here is good business let’s
look at another stakeholder employees
how many company annual reports have
read which use the words our employees
are our most important asset assets need
attention and care but in many companies
the managing directors Mercedes car gets
more attention than employees do with
employees there is an illegal contract
and there is an emotional contract and
if you are serious about being
responsible to your employees of the
business you ignore that emotional
contract at your peril some of you will
remember newspaper reports of about a
year two years ago when an IT business
issued pink slips retrenchment notices
to a large number of its staff on an SMS
which was probably a low-cost way of
sacking employees if you’re in a hurry
that’s the way you would do it but they
completely forgot that a large part of
the same people colleagues are the same
people would continue to work for them
think of the broken emotional contract
for the people who remained in the
company would they really be putting
their best in or would they be voting
with their feet and saying this is how
my company treated my colleagues maybe
I’m next so I may as well go find
another job had this company been
responsible to its employees it wouldn’t
have behaved like that and it would have
had a motivated workforce which for an
IT business is very very important
ultimately I tease about people a great
way to engage even workers is what is
known as the quality circles movement we
have a lot of experience with quality
circles and workers
when they’re solving the problem on a
day to day basis they learn a lot and
they care for what they learn they
become better individuals a lot of that
learning ends up in their forms and in
terms of problem-solving methodologies
and things like that and that is a very
positive way to nurture this employee
asset so the right moves taking
responsibility for the people for their
growth for their development for their
learning and keeping in mind they’re
human beings and there is an emotional
contract is good business
coming to partners and banks these days
we’ve heard so many cases where big
businesses borrowed mega bucks and is
unable to repay the banks and the banks
are suffering from the so called non
performing assets I read a few days ago
a statement of one large group which has
had to sell a very substantial part of
its business empire to repay some of
these debts and the managing director
statement was well we borrowed this
money in 2005 and 2008 and everybody was
chasing throats and things happened and
our loans went bad we couldn’t repay
them well there you go you started with
the business which was doing well it is
not as profitable anymore it is bad
business in order to just survive in and
have to sell a part of its own Empire
and the managing director says well I
just followed the trend you know why
blame me the assets my if I couldn’t
repay the loans I don’t think that is
responsible behavior a responsible
business before it borrows things long
and hard in good times and in bad will I
be able to repay this loan and if they
can only then will they borrow
so being responsible that business has
lost a lot of money and will continue to
do so if it continues to behave
such irresponsible ways and lastly let
me give you a couple examples are being
responsible to the community and to the
environment supermarkets in the UK over
the last ten years have driven a serious
reduction in the quantity of waste that
they throw away and that waste mostly
comes from packaging so they work very
hard to reduce packaging waste well what
did they find
you know eliminate plastic make the
packaging recyclable reduce the
kilograms of packaging per kilo of
product so what they found was anything
or reducing waste but at the same time
that costs were coming down so when your
costs come down it is good business I
was in conversation with a the managing
director for a leading IT company and
this IT company for the last 12 years or
so has been running a community
volunteering program employees go out
and perform voluntary service either
teach in a slum school or go clean some
streets or work with handicapped people
or blind people whatever it is that they
choose to do the company allows
employees to participate in this
voluntary activity over the last 12
years
he said the percentage of people
volunteering has gone up from something
like 5 to something like 45% more and
more people are volunteering from within
his company now one of the big issues
with IT companies is attrition staff
join them staff leave them and every
time somebody leaves
you’ve got the extra costs of hiring a
replacement training them bringing them
up to speed and so on so attrition is a
big cost to the IT industry and what he
said was two interesting things one he
said my attrition rates are half those
of the industry so in the industry at
that time the IT industry at that time
was something of the order of 18 to 20
percent per year and he was something
like 9 or 10 percent but
that amongst the people who volunteer my
attrition rates of 4% so here was a
company which was doing community
service this is before the CSR Act came
in allowing its employees time they were
working volunteering on company time
allowing it its employees at the time
but it was reaping big-time business
benefits so being responsible for the
community was good business for this IT
company so but this is all about big
business what about us you and I we may
or may not be in a business remember or
may not be running a business women just
be employees we may be self-employed how
does this good business thing extend to
all of us well think of this share
stakeholders as an individual my
stakeholders could be my family my
parents my wife my children my friends
my community my environment and can I
think of how my behavior can impact that
stakeholder or individually or collect
and if I can then I may as well become
responsible for that stakeholder and in
the context of the individual I would
say being responsible is a good life
thank you
[Applause]
finally we’ve gathered technology
working good afternoon everybody
what I want to talk about is responsible
business it’s good business I am a
businessman as my introduction already
said and I begin by first explaining
what I mean by good business good
business business is generally about the
pursuit of profit and profits rise and
either you can increase your sales or if
you can reduce your busts and and if you
can do both of them at the same time
that’s even better but more important in
profits to sustain be consistent here on
your a month month decade on decade and
if that is the kind of business somebody
wants to run then it is very very
helpful for that business in fact I
would go as far as to say it is
absolutely necessary for that business
to be responsible but what do I mean by
the word responsible well if you look at
the Oxford English Dictionary you will
find that responsible comes with four or
five definitions for the most important
one is which says being capable of
fulfilling a responsibility or a trust
that capability you have therefore you
are responsible or if you have the
authority or the control over delivering
then obligation and the third definition
that the OED gives is you are
accountable you are answerable all those
apply to a business ultimately whether
it is small or big whether the business
employs one person for a thousand people
or a hundred thousand people a business
behaves collectively as its people make
it behave and when a business begins to
believe it is responsible the collective
behavior of the people within the
business as well as the people that
business contacts that behavior change
tends to change and that is what makes
that business responsible we talked
about answerability and
accountability well what and who and to
whom is a business accountable when
things go badly wrong if you have a pile
of gas tragedy or if you have a
Kingfisher Airlines laughs then
governments tends to step in and hold
the business accountable but what
happens in the norm day-to-day of a
business who is holding the business to
account well the short answer is all the
stakeholders all the people that the
business that have an interest in the
business or the business has an interest
in and the usual is two stakeholders is
customers employees suppliers banks
government community environment
shareholders but if you think about it
on a day-to-day basis these people are
not holding the business to account the
business must hold itself to account and
be accountable and responsible for these
various shareholders for these various
stakeholders and if it does that you get
good business now let me drive this
point home by a few examples the
simplest way for a business to continue
its sales and reduce its costs is to
have the same customer coming back to it
day in day out there is a famous panwa
Lionel a punchy fan wallah those from
vapor will probably know he is a
landmark he has existed in that same
area since I was a schoolboy and he’s a
business that has endured for 50 years
if you go to him after 10 years he would
recognize you and he knows what fun you
like he has a spate of customers who
will only go to him for
he’s not out there advertising his
business he has no advertising across he
has no central marketing US customers
keep coming back to him purely because a
of the quality of pond he produces and B
of that smiling customer service which
he and now his progeny I guess and been
delivering for the last 55 years if you
can keep customers coming back that’s
the cheapest thing for a business and
that is probably why once Econoline
givers there is a famous internet
company it started in the 90s it is a
very successful company today it
survived the 2003 2002 dot-com crash it
has a peculiar way of bringing customers
to the center stage every meeting room
in that company’s offices has an empty
chair and every meeting has that empty
chair and that chair represents the
customer all managers whoever it is
who’s joining that meeting always
remember the customer sitting here when
I be saying this in the presence of the
customer no I would I said as if the
customers here and that changes behavior
within the company to bring keep
bringing customers back and for an
Internet company to endure for something
like 20 odd years through these
companies has endured it’s only because
of that and they are profitable I know
of a company which number of Japanese
companies fall in this category who say
whatever we produce doesn’t have any
defects zero defects is a way of life
many people think producing zero defects
is actually a very expensive thing to do
it costs money to build quality into
your products the reality is if the
pursuit for zero defect actually reduces
your costs first and foremost your
customer is happy second he gets no
rejections or defects and therefore his
costs come down and when his cost come
down he continues to buy from you there
was increased sales but most important
your own custom down your custom down
because you are producing less defects
yourself your supplies are producing
less defects yourself and overall it
becomes good business therefore taking
responsibility for customers in a
variety of ways I’ve given you three
examples here is good business let’s
look at another stakeholder employees
how many company annual reports have
read which use the words our employees
are our most important asset assets need
attention and care but in many companies
the managing directors Mercedes car gets
more attention than employees do with
employees there is an illegal contract
and there is an emotional contract and
if you are serious about being
responsible to your employees of the
business you ignore that emotional
contract at your peril some of you will
remember newspaper reports of about a
year two years ago when an IT business
issued pink slips retrenchment notices
to a large number of its staff on an SMS
which was probably a low-cost way of
sacking employees if you’re in a hurry
that’s the way you would do it but they
completely forgot that a large part of
the same people colleagues are the same
people would continue to work for them
think of the broken emotional contract
for the people who remained in the
company would they really be putting
their best in or would they be voting
with their feet and saying this is how
my company treated my colleagues maybe
I’m next so I may as well go find
another job had this company been
responsible to its employees it wouldn’t
have behaved like that and it would have
had a motivated workforce which for an
IT business is very very important
ultimately I tease about people a great
way to engage even workers is what is
known as the quality circles movement we
have a lot of experience with quality
circles and workers
when they’re solving the problem on a
day to day basis they learn a lot and
they care for what they learn they
become better individuals a lot of that
learning ends up in their forms and in
terms of problem-solving methodologies
and things like that and that is a very
positive way to nurture this employee
asset so the right moves taking
responsibility for the people for their
growth for their development for their
learning and keeping in mind they’re
human beings and there is an emotional
contract is good business
coming to partners and banks these days
we’ve heard so many cases where big
businesses borrowed mega bucks and is
unable to repay the banks and the banks
are suffering from the so called non
performing assets I read a few days ago
a statement of one large group which has
had to sell a very substantial part of
its business empire to repay some of
these debts and the managing director
statement was well we borrowed this
money in 2005 and 2008 and everybody was
chasing throats and things happened and
our loans went bad we couldn’t repay
them well there you go you started with
the business which was doing well it is
not as profitable anymore it is bad
business in order to just survive in and
have to sell a part of its own Empire
and the managing director says well I
just followed the trend you know why
blame me the assets my if I couldn’t
repay the loans I don’t think that is
responsible behavior a responsible
business before it borrows things long
and hard in good times and in bad will I
be able to repay this loan and if they
can only then will they borrow
so being responsible that business has
lost a lot of money and will continue to
do so if it continues to behave
such irresponsible ways and lastly let
me give you a couple examples are being
responsible to the community and to the
environment supermarkets in the UK over
the last ten years have driven a serious
reduction in the quantity of waste that
they throw away and that waste mostly
comes from packaging so they work very
hard to reduce packaging waste well what
did they find
you know eliminate plastic make the
packaging recyclable reduce the
kilograms of packaging per kilo of
product so what they found was anything
or reducing waste but at the same time
that costs were coming down so when your
costs come down it is good business I
was in conversation with a the managing
director for a leading IT company and
this IT company for the last 12 years or
so has been running a community
volunteering program employees go out
and perform voluntary service either
teach in a slum school or go clean some
streets or work with handicapped people
or blind people whatever it is that they
choose to do the company allows
employees to participate in this
voluntary activity over the last 12
years
he said the percentage of people
volunteering has gone up from something
like 5 to something like 45% more and
more people are volunteering from within
his company now one of the big issues
with IT companies is attrition staff
join them staff leave them and every
time somebody leaves
you’ve got the extra costs of hiring a
replacement training them bringing them
up to speed and so on so attrition is a
big cost to the IT industry and what he
said was two interesting things one he
said my attrition rates are half those
of the industry so in the industry at
that time the IT industry at that time
was something of the order of 18 to 20
percent per year and he was something
like 9 or 10 percent but
that amongst the people who volunteer my
attrition rates of 4% so here was a
company which was doing community
service this is before the CSR Act came
in allowing its employees time they were
working volunteering on company time
allowing it its employees at the time
but it was reaping big-time business
benefits so being responsible for the
community was good business for this IT
company so but this is all about big
business what about us you and I we may
or may not be in a business remember or
may not be running a business women just
be employees we may be self-employed how
does this good business thing extend to
all of us well think of this share
stakeholders as an individual my
stakeholders could be my family my
parents my wife my children my friends
my community my environment and can I
think of how my behavior can impact that
stakeholder or individually or collect
and if I can then I may as well become
responsible for that stakeholder and in
the context of the individual I would
say being responsible is a good life
thank you
[Applause]
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