2. DEFINITION
Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is how companies manage their
business processes to produce an overall positive impact on society. It
covers sustainability, social impact and ethics, and done correctly should
be about core business - how companies make their money - not just add-
on extras such as philanthropy.
Corporate social responsibility is the practice of integrating social and
environmental goals into business operations. Common roles
of CSR include helping control costs, improve a company's brand, attract
top-quality talent and facilitate long-term financial success
3. THREE PILLAR NOTION
CSR represents a tremendous opportunity for businesses to build trust,
bolster their reputation, and give back to the community. When creating
and/or ramping up a CSR strategy, there are three pillars to consider:
clients, people, and community.
4. 1. CLIENTS
Implementing CSR initiatives can give a competitive advantage to brands that are
highly competitive on price, quality, and convenience. Embracing socially
responsible policies helps a company burnish its image and cultivate positive
brand recognition by demonstrating that it is compassionate and trustworthy.
These values go a long way towards attracting and retaining clients. Clients and
consumers (depending on the business model) want to be associated with
businesses that are doing good and have a good reputation. By building client
loyalty, CSR helps companies achieve increased profitability and long-term
financial success.
A marketing and advertising agency can practice CSR by working with nonprofit
clients, as well as for-profit businesses. A compelling campaign for a children’s
hospital or a conservation non-profit telegraphs to other clients that the agency
is committed to giving back, and clients will want to be associated with that
goodwill. Charitable giving is another way businesses can use CSR to strengthen
their client relationships. During the holiday season, businesses can donate to
charitable organizations on behalf of their clients, which has the dual benefit of
supporting meaningful causes and showing clients your business cares.
5. 2. PEOPLE
Just as CSR cultivates goodwill and loyalty from clients, it too can have the same
effect internally. Making CSR a priority creates a positive work environment that
inspires and unites employees. It supports recruitment, retention and employee
satisfaction. Good CSR tends to attract employees who are eager to make a
difference in the world, which is mostly millennials, and can help attract top-tier
talent who are looking for jobs that have meaning and impact, not just a generous
salary.
Social responsibility empowers employees to leverage corporate resources to do
good and those collective employee efforts can achieve substantial results. This, in
turn, increases workplace morale and boosts productivity. Having a sense of pride in
the company they work for creates engaged workers who are happy in their jobs
and committed to their employers. Put simply, they are more likely to stick around.
6. 3. COMMUNITY
The third pillar of CSR is community. Businesses have a role to play in making local
communities and the planet a cleaner place to live. The Earth is the only life support
system we have, and companies should be passionate about protecting it by applying
green thinking to every decision. Every business, no matter the size, can have a positive
impact on the environment by implementing green practices and procedures designed
to address climate change.
The opportunities are endless: recycling programs; purchasing environmentally
preferable office products like paper towels and cleaners; a water filtration system to
reduce plastic water bottles; technology that automatically goes into energy saver
mode; employee tree planting days; bonuses for green methods of commuting to work,
like bicycling or public transportation. The list goes on, and no measure is too small.
7. COMPANY EXAMPLE OF CSR – INFOSYS
Infosys Limited, is an Indian multinational corporation that
provides business consulting, information
technology and outsourcing services. It has its headquarters
in Bangalore, Karnataka, India.Infosys is the second-largest
Indian IT company after Tata Consultancy Services by 2017
revenue and 596th largest public company in the world based
on revenue. On March 29, 2019, its market capitalisation was
$46.52 billion.
8. HISTORY
Founded on -
July, 1981
Founders -
N.R. Narayana Murthy
Nandan Nilekani
S. Gopalakrishnan
S. D. Shibulal
K. Dinesh
N. S. Raghavan
Ashok Arora
PRODUCTS AND SERVICES
Infosys provides software development, maintenance and independent validation services to
companies in finance, insurance, manufacturing and other domains.
One of its known products is Finacle which is a universal banking solution with various modules for
retail & corporate banking.[
Its key products and services are:
• NIA – Next Generation Integrated AI Platform (formerly known as Mana)
• Infosys Consulting – a global management consulting service
• Infosys Information Platform (IIP) – Analytics platform
• Edge Verve Systems which includes Finacle, a global banking platform
• Panaya Cloud Suite
• Skava
• Engineering Services
• Digital Marketing
9. CSR Policy of INFOSYS
CONTEXT
Infosys Limited (‘Infosys’ or ‘the Company’) established Infosys Foundation in 1996 as a not-
for-profit nodal body aimed at providing a dedicated approach to community development
and also to fulfill CSR commitments is headed by Sudha Murthy
• OBJECTIVES
Infosys CSR Policy intends to:
• Strive for economic development that positively impacts the society at large with minimal
resource footprint.
• Embrace responsibility for the Company’s actions and encourage a positive impact through its
activities on hunger, poverty, malnutrition, environment, communities, stakeholders and the
society.
FOCUS AREAS
• Hunger, poverty, malnutrition and healthcare
• Education
• Rural Development projects
• Gender Equality and Empowerment of Women
• Environmental Sustainability
• National Heritage Art & Culture
10. SOCIAL PROJECTS OF INFOSYS FOUNDATION
Healthcare
• The foundation advances healthcare by augmenting existing healthcare infrastructure, access to primary
healthcare, awareness of basic hygiene, and treatment of underprivileged patients, and has donated more than
6.9 millions dollars to expand the capacity of hospitals across India.
• The foundation has constructed hospital wards and built guest houses (rest houses) at the National Institute of
Mental Health and Neuro Sciences (NIMHANS) in Bangalore. The Foundation has also donated medicines and
medical equipment to hospitals, in addition to organizing health camps in rural India.
Education
• The foundation partners with schools in rural India to enhance education and library facilities, and promotes
primary education among underprivileged children.
• The foundation has donated significantly to various educational institutes in India, such as the Chennai
Mathematical Institute, and the Indian Institute of Science.
Arts and culture
• The foundation promotes traditional art, dance and craft. The foundation assists underprivileged artists and
authors by offering financial assistance, promoting their art, or helping them receive recognition.
• Infosys Foundation contributed 5.5 millions dollars for the academy established by the Education Trust.
Underprivileged and talented young artists will be promoted by the Education Trust by providing them a platform.
Destitute Care
• The foundation supports programs of NGOs in rural areas across India.
• The foundation provides vocational training to help the destitute to live with dignity and earn a livelihood, and
partners with NGOs to support destitute children and women.
Rural Development
• The foundation undertakes programs to improve the welfare of people in rural India and has donated more than 4
millions dollars for rural development and livelihood projects such as awareness campaigns on hygiene,
sanitation, vocational training and entrepreneurship.
• The foundation works with local administration to achieve community development goals. The foundation
constructs roads, provides drainage systems and electricity, and rehabilitates flood-affected victims in rural areas.
11. HOW DO COMPANY IMPLEMENT CSR?
Know your goals
• These should be aligned with the company’s culture and core values and is somewhat significant to
what the company does. Set SMART objectives that are linked to the three main elements above
Create the initiatives
• This includes creating a budget; know the costs involved as well as how much you can afford to
spend. Finding a location; taking in consideration the health and safety of the people who will be
involved. Knowing who/what the beneficiaries are, setting a timeline of the whole program (pre,
during, post activities)
Measure the CSR
Here are several ways to measure CSR programs:
• Leverage – This is the amount of additional fundraising that your organization does for a particular
cause. This could be as a result of sponsoring a charity's marketing campaign, or "matching"
donations for a community project that's sponsored by a public program (where the government
body matches funding from outside donors with funds of its own).
• Social impact – This could include measuring the number of people who benefit from an activity,
whether directly (by participating in a program) or indirectly (due to the number of jobs created or
additional facilities provided to a local community).
• Business benefits – This may cover things like evaluating improved brand recognition and business
reputation, enhancing recruitment and retention, or increasing sales during a cause-related
marketing campaign
12. POSITIVE AND NEGATIVE ASPESTS OF CSR
POSITIVE ASPECTS
Benefits of corporate social investment for businesses
The potential benefits of CSR to companies include:
• better brand recognition
• positive business reputation
• increased sales and customer loyalty
• operational costs savings
• better financial performance
• greater ability to attract talent and retain staff
• organizational growth
• easier access to capital
Responsible business reputation
• Corporate social investment can help you to build a reputation as a responsible business,
which can, in turn, lead to competitive advantage.
• Companies often favor suppliers who have responsible policies, since this can reflect on how
their customers see them. Some customers don't just prefer to deal with responsible
companies - they insist on it.
13. Costs savings
• By reducing resource use, waste and emissions, you can help the environment and save
money too. With a few simple steps, you may be able to lower your utility bills and achieve
savings for your business. See how to reduce your business waste to save money.
Finding and keeping talented staff
• Being a responsible, sustainable business may make it easier to recruit new employees or
retain existing ones. Employees may be motivated to stay longer, thus reducing the costs and
disruption of recruitment and retraining.
Other benefits of CSR to companies
By acting in a sustainable, responsible way, you may also find it easier to:
• access finance - investors are more likely to back a reputable business
• attract positive media attention - eg when taking part in community activities
• reduce regulatory burden - good relationships with local authorities can often make doing
business easier
• identify new business opportunities - eg for the development of new products or services
14. NEGATIVE ASPECTS
Subject to greater scrutiny
• CSR if done quietly does not reap many benefits. But when a company conducts it in a public space, it
subjects itself to greater scrutiny. Thus, a mistake or irresponsible behavior on a company’s part will be
criticized much more than the appreciation it will receive for its CSR activity. Thus all in all a company
might receive more blows to its brand image because of CSR than claps.
Competitive Disadvantage
• CSR, when integrated with a company’s operations, might increase the cost of production of the product
or service a business offers. This, in turn, will increase the prices of the products. In recent times, with
rising awareness, people are willing to spend a bit more, if they feel the company they are buying from is
ethical and socially responsible. But broadly, people tend to purchase products that allow them to spend
less. Thus, a company who practices CSR is at a disadvantaged position in comparison to companies who
do not.
Risk to Reputation
• When an organization’s operations are based around ethical and socially responsible activities, they are
often compelled to express and share a number of shortcomings of their own products to the customers in
the market. Because of such sharing of information and shortcomings of the products or processes of a
corporation, the organization becomes vulnerable to a number of negative impacts upon its own
reputation in the market.
Contrasting Business Interests
• Normally, the main aim of any business organization is to create profits. Corporate Social Responsibility
requires the companies to keep the interests of the people into consideration. This can cause a conflict in
the business objectives of the corporation while making important decisions. For example, whether or not
to buy an asset or an equipment that is beneficial for the business needs, but such buying may cause harm
to the community or environment.
• Embedding CSR into a company’s operations is a difficult and tricky task. But it is also an important one. A
company in today’s time cannot get away with unethical practices. CSR is imperative for an organization to
sustain. Thus, the best a business can do is understand the disadvantages of CSR thoroughly, plan well and
tread carefully to minimize the damage and increase the benefits of it.
15. Ideas suggestions reviews & conclusion
• As the coin has two sides same way the CSR has two sides also.
• CSR is good as it how the company gives back to or improves the community.
• For eg.a large manufacturer may donate money to land and wildlife
preservation and organize and sponsor volunteer, environmental clean up
efforts.
• CSR has become fashionable these days regardless of it was mandated by
government.
• In this age of social media, involvement with the local community, CSR gives the
ideal opportunities to generate positive press coverage which is beneficial.
• CSR motivates organizations to address social problems, it energizes and rewards
workers, it strengthens ties to community and it improves the image of
organization.
16. • Though the government of Countries are doing its bit, an organisation cannot
be successful unless it carry the society along. Organization requires the
genuine goodwill not people. it is not charity. The challenge is that it has to
have acceptances of highest levels in organization only than sustainable CSR
can be driven. It is not easy to communicate this shared value through the
organization. It has to be recognized and accepted by the people who’ll be
working at ground level.
• Encouraging and even mandating employees to participate in charity runs or
volunteer days can bring benefits—CSR may help to attract better quality
employees and improve productivity, especially if the company is convincing in
their genuine intent on doing good
• We find the share of cheaters to be the highest when we frame CSR as a pro-social
act on behalf of workers.
• Csr has become a tool for moral licensing.
• Today, people just don’t expect companies to be socially responsible, ethical,
transparent and inclusive – they demand it.
• Engaging in CSR is not always cheap. It can rely on expensive structures and
strategies to plan, execute and measure.
17. • A poorly planned CSR strategy that doesn’t deliver what it says can quicly become a
failure and business liability. The impact on business's reputation can be
detrimental, and the community will be quick to scrutinize its actions.
• In a time when social impact is demanded, many companies are shifting their
strategies to incorporate activities for the greater good. However, this doesn’t
necessarily mean they’re doing it well. For many businesses, corporate social
responsibility becomes a way of changing perceptions and reputations, rather than
creating and measuring any substantial positive impact. For others, what they say to
the public can be misleading.
• Citizens are more concerned about organizations treating their workers well and
obeying laws than about engaging in philanthropic activities, and CSR may allow
organizations to distract consumers and legislators from the need to tightly regulate
corporations.
• Ghost beneficiaries are one of the issue that organization face when CSR funding
spend unexpectedly.
• Unethical spending can be done by organization by preferring a particular
beneficiary( NGO, trust or institute), Diversion of funds or activities to the
Committee /Board’s relatives or connection, disproportionate budget
allocation to derive personal gains or inflated bills.
18. • There may be improper utilization of funds, gaps in monitoring and lack of
transparency when dealing with local agencies.
• Executives may inadvertently engage fake NGOs, run by dubious individuals, or
Contribute towards fictitious projects.
• Fines, imprisonment, reputational damage and debarment from public
procurement in case of deviation from applicable laws.
• At an initial stage, organizations should have details of the committee and key
decisionmakers through mandatory disclosures. This can cover other business
activities, investments, directorships held and family details. Implementation
partners should undergo robust due diligence before on-boarding, covering general
and financial information, and background checks of key employees. Once the
implementation partner is shortlisted, organizations should determine adherence
to terms of contract, purchase orders and payment processes. They should also
conduct periodic audits of books of accounts to identify possible high-risk
transactions or payouts, systematic diagnosis of the end utilization of funds,
identify trends, assess gaps in implementation and document CSR activities.
19. • All stakeholders should be given access to the organization’s whistle-blowing
mechanism. Typically, internal stakeholders are the first line of defense to identify
any kind of misconduct. Companies should also examine reports of alleged fraud or
illegal activities, embezzlement, corruption that may violate laws, analyze vendor
relationships or activities that may be suspicious and conduct surprise visits.
• A sound governance structure to oversee the sanctity of CSR initiatives is
imperative, with a formal committee or a designated individual entrusted with the
responsibility of bringing any issues forward. Annual reports and the corporate
website should have a disclosure on the CSR committee’s composition and other
compliance measures undertaken. Senior management should also play an active
role in supervising and directing the CSR agenda.
20. Infosys recent activities.
• Recently, Infosys Foundation announces 10 millions dollars support to help the country (India) contain the
Covid-19 virus outbreak
• The contribution will primarily be utilized across three broad areas. To expand hospital capacity for treatment
and enable hospital stays for Covid-19 patients, especially the poor, across India. To provide ventilators, testing
kits, and Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) like masks, and other protective gear for frontline healthcare
workers.
• The Foundation recently said it would help set up a hospital in Bengaluru exclusively to treat people infected by
the virus.