Tbl Issue 4 People

july-august 2008 issue 04

a specialized csr journal

10 cover story

vc analysis: rooting out detractors

14 entrepreneurship

developing entrepreneurs in your organization: the trade off

17 children's rights

child labour: a tragedy

20 alternative measures happiness-spirituality as the fourth bottom line

32 enabling empowerment

the care and growth leadership model and empowerment

36 futuristic angle

future scape: an organization of one

22 csr talk:

clean development mechanism

CSR of the company, by the company, and for the people A Publication of Asiatic Public Relations Network (Pvt.) Ltd.

contents regulars 6 global briefs people - planet - profits

22 csr talk clean development mechanism

28 innovative csr toolkit

the sustainable value approach

30 breather

strategic humour

43 book in focus mad, sad and bad management

44 musings do more

features 10 cover story vc analysis: rooting out detractors

14 entrepreneurship developing entrepreneurs in your organization: the trade off

17 children's rights

Editor-in-Chief Zohare Ali Shariff Editorial Director Khadeeja Balkhi Managing Editor Rutaba Ahmed Research, Distribution & Development Raza Tahir Mehfooz Aleem Creatives Kamran Rauf Shireen Lotia Umair Anwar Reprint In line with our mission, we encourage reproduction of material, provided tbl and content partners are given credit Publisher Asiatic Public Relations Network (Private) Limited Printed at Nikmat Printers, Karachi Disclaimer The views expressed in tbl are the authors’ and not necessarily shared by tbl and/or APR Declaration From the office of District Coordination Officer, City District Government Karachi NO.DCO/DDO/LAW/CDGK/109/2007, Karachi Dated May 22, 2007

child labour: a tragedy

20 alternative measures happiness-spirituality as the fourth bottom line

24 carbon disclosure survey confronting climate change: supply chain leadership collaboration

32 enabling empowerment

Subscription, advertising and feedback at: tbl:

triple bottom-line

the care and growth leadership model and empowerment

34 case study behavioural safety at workplace

36 futuristic angle future scape: an organization of one

38 indus basin irrigation system report

Address: A-7, Street 1, Bath Island, Clifton, Karachi, Pakistan. Tel: (92-21)-5837674, 5823334 Fax: (92-21)-5867103 E-mail: [email protected] Web: www.triplebottomline.com.pk

indus basin irrigation system of pakistan

40 opinion: consumer protection consumer: king or slave?

42 5 minutes with the ceo csr: 5 minutes with the ceo

Subscribe to a full year of tbl (6 issues) at the special rate of Rs.1,000 and save the cost of an issue. If you wish to subscribe to tbl, or unsubscribe, please write to us at [email protected]

july-august 2008

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The term ‘Triple Bottom-Line’ (TBL), which translates into “People, Planet, Profits,” captures an expanded spectrum of values and criteria for measuring organisational (and societal) success - social, environmental and economic. Through our masthead we personify the term TBL. Essentially, our ‘bottom line’ is a grey bar with a burgundy border which runs through the masthead, at some points overlapping the letters and running under them at others. Here ‘t’ stands for triple and is represented through the three shades of the letter. The ‘b’ stands for bottom and it sits below our grey line with the line going through it - since this magazine is a below the line activity, the two gel in together. The ‘l’ stands for line and the letter sits comfortably on top of the grey ‘bottom’ line.

mr tbl

acknowledgement The tbl team expresses its profound gratitude to the companies whose names appear below, for their agreement to support this publication. Bringing out a knowledge-based publication like tbl involves considerable effort and costs. It may not have been possible to bring out tbl in its present format without the invaluable support and contribution of our Founder Sponsors. Through their support to tbl our Founder Sponsors have confirmed that they share our Mission of disseminating triple bottom-line knowledge to a diversified group including corporate, social development and general business groups. We believe that helping to spread awareness of true CSR is in itself an element of CSR. By becoming our sponsors, the following companies have taken that vital first step with us in our journey to facilitate awareness and understanding of true CSR in our country.

National Foods Limited Founder Sponsor

Mr. Tanveer B. Lone is indeed a busy man, laden with his struggle for the truth in the Sustainability industry. His first name, Tanveer, according to our wonderful Ferozsons Urdu-English dictionary means 'illuminating'. We feel he is sometimes the seeker of enlightenment, and at others, the seemingly lone bearer. Driven towards his destination – the true light of CSR – he sometimes feels like a lone voice buried amidst the complex factors he confronts on the way. Yet as he sets forth, oft-alone on this journey, he knows he will meet companions along the sub-paths his journey takes, merging at destinations common with him. There will be occasions where we can all relate to him. At times, though his capitalist-training-bred financial focus may fluster us and his understanding towards disseminating the true implications of the triple bottom-line. Watch out for Mr. TBL, as he shares his views and thoughts in articles and other features in this issue! Feel free to share ideas with Mr. TBL that might help clear the oft-murky waters he'll encounter in his expedition at [email protected]

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English Biscuit Manufacturers (Private) Limited Founder Sponsor

editor’s note

please the people

I

received a call a few days ago from a gentleman in a successful private sector organization, who was first of all kind enough to compliment us on bringing out TBL. Then he expressed his concern over the poor state of the public places in Korangi Industrial Area in Karachi and especially of the medians on the main roads and the land on either side. He pointed out that these have been earth, dust and rubble forever and he wondered why all the industries in the area could not spend some money to beautify the area. The ugliness he highlighted is by no means restricted to Korangi Industrial Area. It is all around us. Several times different city governments have solicited the corporate sector's participation for the city's beautification. The response has generally been lukewarm and unfortunately more dictated by marketing concerns than by a spirit of CSR. Some prominent roundabouts and road intersections were 'adopted' - a little landscaping, prominently overshadowed by branding claiming the credit. Not quite what the city needs. Especially as the landscaping and plantation is seldom maintained. Two questions come to mind. First, is such activity corporate philanthropy or corporate social responsibility? Second, can such activity not be improved and made sustainable? To answer the first, while some examples of corporate largesse are clearly philanthropy, others are borderline cases overlapping into the realms of CSR. This issue of TBL is about people - one of the triple bottom lines. The general public as consumers or employees or vendors and suppliers, constitutes people. So I would tend to argue that anything done for the betterment of the people will contribute to their giving back more to the corporate sector, in terms of higher productivity as employees, more purchasing as consumers and so

forth. In this respect a happier population if you will, should be a CSR desirable. Do serene and beautiful environs contribute to the people's level of happiness? If you agree they do, then city beautification falls into that overlap territory of philanthropy and CSR. Some would argue this is too general a contention. Well, this brings me to the second question posed earlier. The city's beautification and its maintenance thereof cannot be the responsibility of one or a few companies. As we have seen, this is not sustainable. So, I would like to suggest here that perhaps the various associations, trade bodies and chambers of commerce and industry which represent the corporate sector, should take the lead and undertake city beautification as large groups, rather than as individual companies. The funds available will be substantially more and by engaging suitably qualified landscaping companies, the responsibility of maintenance will also fall to specialists who can be made fully accountable. Thus, while individual companies will not get whatever dubious credit or mileage they expect from branding roundabouts, the corporate sector as a whole will get a much prettier and harmonious city, with a citizenry that is ready to give back much more. Is this wishful thinking or the practical way forward?

Sincerely,

Zohare Ali Shariff Editor in Chief

This publication is being sent complimentary to 1500 decision-makers and opinion-formers in the corporate sector, the government, NGO sector, international institutions and academia. Recognising that your sphere of work has the potential to compliment and reinforce the essence of our mission, we have taken the liberty to present tbl to you. It is also available at selected outlets. We would love to hear from you. Please do contact us at [email protected] with your thoughts, feedback and input from your corporate or social practices. tbl strongly believes in knowledge dissemination and sharing. Please feel free to share tbl contents with your peers and teams - of course we know you’ll give tbl the credit when you share our work.

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letters to the editor

I

read the 3rd edition of TBL and I want to congratulate you and your whole team for bringing out a journal that is not only different from stereotype corporate journals but actually has material to educate people.

All the best for future editions! Fahad Qadir Public Affairs and Communications Manager The Coca Cola Export Corporation Lahore

T

hank you for sending us TBL. We found the material very informative especially for our resource centre.

Wish you good luck for your future initiatives. Farah Naz Programme Officer Resource Center Sahil Islamabad

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hanks for sending me a copy of TBL. I enjoyed reading it. What I liked the most about it is the space it has created, for CSR people, social entrepreneurs, and consultants like myself. I think you people have created a platform, whereby people from different walks can come and interact with a common wavelength. That is a great outcome. Congratulations! Best wishes, Ali Salman Senior Partner Development Pool Lahore

Dear Readers, Thank you for sharing with us your valuable feedback and views on TBL. Mr. Qadir, we appreciate your compliments on TBL. In future issues, we will continue to publish material that is informative and insightful to a diversified group. Ms. Naz, thank you for taking the time to write to us and for your compliments on TBL. Mr. Salman, we appreciate your thoughts on TBL. TBL will continue to serve as a platform for a diversified group of people to interact and create wider awareness about CSR. We hope that TBL will continue to serve as a vehicle for disseminating triple bottom-line knowledge and creating wider awareness and understanding of CSR through our readers’ active contribution and debate.

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welcome on board The tbl team is honoured to introduce our editorial advisory board. Comprised of diverse leaders and practitioners, our goal is that the board will steer our efforts to their highest potential. In each issue of tbl, we will highlight a member of our editorial advisory board.

Ayesha Tammy Haq Member

Corporate lawyer, legal and media consultant. Concurrently a freelance journalist and host of a weekly current affairs television programme. Based in Karachi. Anwar Rammal Chairperson

Chairman of Asiatic Public Relations (Private) Limited, Pakistan’s leading communications and PR agency, affiliated internationally with Hill & Knowlton. Also Chairman of JWT, Pakistan. Based in Karachi.

Khadeeja Balkhi Executive Member

Khadeeja's experience spans from strategizing, implementing and documenting sustainability programmes to hands-on multiparty programme implementations; the TBL platform is among her favourite initiations. Her business journalism career took root in South Carolina and Jeddah. She has published over 90 articles in Arab, Pakistani, American and other publications. She composed the first Pakistani company's, multiple-award winning Sustainability Report. In addition to working with companies and NPOs, Khadeeja is Chair, RSD Foundation; Vice Chair of the CSR Standing Committee, FPCCI and President, CSR Association.

Habiba Hamid Member

Founder of Saracen Consulting, a corporate governance and responsibility consulting firm. Currently articulating the Dubai Model of sustainable development. Based in Dubai.

Abrar Hasan Founder Sponsor Member

Chief Executive of National Foods Limited, Pakistan’s pioneering multi-category food company. Innovative businessman and industry leader. Based in Karachi.

Vivian Lines Member

Khawar Masood Butt Founder Sponsor Member

President and Chief Operating Officer of Hill & Knowlton’s Asia Pacific Region and concurrently President and CEO Southern Asia. Based in Singapore.

Chairman and MD of English Biscuit Manufacturers (Pvt.) Limited, Pakistan’s leading biscuit company. Entrepreneur and business visionary with a firm commitment to CSR. Based in Karachi.

vision and mission

Vision: To steadily facilitate the germination of sustainable visions for organisational growth, sharing specific triple bottom-line knowledge and tools Mission Statement: To disseminate triple bottom-line knowledge to a diversified group including corporate, social development and general business groups primarily through a specialised journal, expanding in accordance with organisational capacity and market readiness july-august 2008

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PEOPLE

global briefs

Remake a Living: The Jobs Are Blowin' in The Wind Turbines are sprouting like wildflowers after rain in Texas, California, Iowa, Minnesota, Washington, Oregon, Colorado, Illinois, and Oklahoma. Not to mention China. As the hype about "green" jobs has grown, the wind-energy industry has done a pretty good job of reporting accurately on their job creation. Industry analysts estimate that wind energy currently employs about 50,000 domestic workers, both on-site at wind farms and down the chain of products and services needed to build, transport, install, and operate all those turbines. The number of jobs is growing quickly and wind companies could support as many as 500,000 jobs 20 years from now. That's according to a U.S. Department of Energy report that outlines a plan for the nation to get 20 percent of its electricity from wind power by 2030. The World Wind Power Association says that wind already provides 19 percent of electricity production in Denmark, 9 percent in Spain and Portugal, and 6 percent in Germany and Ireland. The fastest growing job title in the wind-energy world might just be wind technician. Community colleges across windy states are gearing up to train big incoming classes. Technicians perform a wide variety of tasks in the construction, operation, and maintenance of wind turbines. Requirements include a year of mechanical experience and a basic understanding of hydraulics and electrical systems. 6

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Several hiring authorities recommend that technician positions are great career development starting places for people interested in the wind power industry. After gaining some experience in this field, technicians can explore education in technical/engineering fields, sales, and marketing, management, finance, and regulation professions. Shared by Grist, an online environmental news magazine

Green Banking Innovation Award China's first-ever award specifically focused on green banking and sustainable finance, called the Green Banking Innovation Award was given to China Industrial Bank in July this year. This is a bank that promises to integrate social responsibility and sustainable development into its strategy, and has implemented numbers of activities. At the event, Xiaogang, Director of Green Watershed, said that: "Green Banking is defined from two dimensions. Internally, a green bank often improves resource efficiency and encourages employees to participate in environmental activities. Externally and more importantly, it has to minimize indirect environmental impacts through financing activities, and explores new opportunities from environmentrelated business." The jury committee, consisting of eight NGOs, developed an approach to assess the overall performance of nominated banks based on materials submitted by banks as well as public information.

Affairs, Green Earth Volunteer, Global Environmental Institute, Civil Society Watch, China Development Brief and Green Volunteer League of Chongqing. SynTao, a leading consulting firm in China on CSR, was an advisor to the award.

"Green Rating" of Colleges: Princeton Review The Princeton Review recently released its new "Green Rating" of colleges for 2009 - a measure of how environmentally friendly, responsible, and committed the institutions are. The Princeton Review developed the Green Rating, which is a numerical score on a scale of 60 to 99, in consultation with ecoAmerica , a non-profit environmental marketing agency. The Green Rating was based on data collected from the schools in the 2007-08 academic year concerning their environmentally related policies, practices, and academic offerings.

The award promotes banks and other financial institutions to consider their roles in environmental protection. This initiative shows that Chinese NGOs are using more diversified approaches to advocate sustainable development, and highlights the efforts of Chinese banking sector on environment.

The review rated 534 U.S. colleges on their commitment to environmental responsibility, provision of "healthy and sustainable" campus life, and preparation of students for "citizenship in a world defined by environmental challenges." The review graded on factors including energy use, buildings, transportation, food, recycling, and classes. The institutional survey for the rating included questions on everything from energy use, recycling, food, buildings, and transportation to academic offerings and action plans and goals concerning greenhouse gas emission reductions. The highestscoring schools, in alphabetical order: Arizona State; Bates (Maine); Binghamton (N.Y.); College of the Atlantic (Maine); Emory (Ga.); Georgia Institute of Technology; Harvard (Mass.); U. of New Hampshire; U. of Oregon; U. of Washington; and Yale (Conn.). Arizona State and U. of New Hampshire.

The Green Banking Innovation Award is backed by Green Watershed, Friends of Nature, Institute of Public & Environmental

The Green Rating scores appear in the website profiles of the 534 schools and are posted on The Princeton Review's website.

PLANET ECO Pedal System Improves Fuel-efficiency Want to be an eco-driver but can't seem to keep the pedal off the metal? Nissan Motor Co.'s recently announced its new "ECO pedal" system, which pushes back against excess foot pressure to encourage fuel-efficient driving. It makes the gas pedal press upward when it senses motorists are speeding up too quickly. It calculates the most efficient rate of acceleration in a vehicle based on how fast fuel is being burned and other factors and causes the gas pedal to push back to alert overzealous drivers. The ECO accelerator will be installed in some Nissan cars starting next year and be accompanied by a real-time dashboard display of fuel consumption. Nissan says the ECO pedal could help drivers increase fuel efficiency 5 to 10 percent, and the device can easily be switched off by those who don't like Big Brother watching their lead foot.

Gorilla Census Finds 125,000 More Western Lowland Gorillas than Expected A new gorilla census in the Republic of the Congo has found about 125,000 more western lowland gorillas than expected living in the northern part of the Montana-sized country, effectively doubling the known population of the species. Western lowland gorillas are one of four gorilla subspecies, all of which are in danger of extinction. "These figures show that northern Republic of Congo contains the mother lode of gorillas," said Steven Sanderson of the Wildlife Conservation Society. However, very real threats to the gorillas remain, including hunting, disease, and habitat loss. "Far from

being safe, the gorillas are still under threat from Ebola and hunting for bush meat. We must not become complacent about this. Ebola can wipe out thousands in a short period of time," said Emma Stokes of the Wildlife Conservation Society. A separate study released this week by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature found that almost half of the world's 634 kinds of primates are in danger of extinction due to deforestation and hunting. Shared by Grist, an online environmental news magazine

Climate Change Adaptation Report: WBCSD The World Business Council on Sustainable Development (WBCSD) has published 'Adaptation: An Issue Brief for Business' which briefly explains the potential impacts of climate change on business and associated risks and opportunities for a number of sectors including tourisms, retail, logistics and manufacturing. Adaptation refers to "taking the right measures to reduce the negative effects of climate change (or exploit the positive ones) by making the appropriate adjustments and changes". The report emphasizes that adaptation implementation should be assessed as it could generate tangible and short-term benefits for business operations. It could also yield benefits for local communities. Key drivers of adaptation planning or implementation include: competitive advantage, cost savings, liability management, investor pressure. The WBCSD highlights that minimizing risk and leveraging opportunities require the building of adaptation strategies into risk management and business planning processes across the value chain. According to the report, the impacts of climate change are still not fully understood. That is why the effects of climate change should be evaluated on a sectoral and geographic basis. The report states that: "From a business perspective, climate change is likely to affect the location, design, operation and

marketing of infrastructure, products and services. From a human perspective, climate change will have socioeconomic implications for workforces and markets."

Biodiversity Bank Established for Rainforest Conservation A biodiversity bank has been set up to raise funds to protect and conserve the biodiversity-rich 34,000 hectares of Malua Forest Reserves in the east coast of Sabah. The rainforest is inhabited by the Sumatran rhinoceros, about 1,000 orang utans and other rare animal species. The Malua Wildlife Habitat Conservation Bank, or Malua BioBank will be jointly managed by New Forests and the state government. The Malua Wildlife Habitat Conservation Bank (Malua BioBank) is a first-of-its-kind business model for investing in tropical rainforest conservation on a commercial basis. Located next to one of the last areas of virgin rainforest in Sabah, Malaysia on the island of Borneo, the Malua BioBank will restore and protect 34,000 hectares (80,000 acres) of critical orangutan habitat called the Malua Forest Reserve. The Malua BioBank project will entail rehabilitation of the Malua Forest reserves and sell Biodiversity Conservation Certificates, with each certificate offered at US$ 10, representing 100-square meters of rainforest restoration and protection. The certificates will be registered in the TZ1 environmental registry and will be tradable, or can be retired. Nothing like this has ever been done for the biodiversity in tropical rainforests. The sale of certificates will make rainforest rehabilitation and conservation a commercially competitive land use. By figuring out a commercial model for biodiversity conservation in the tropics, you effectively increase the pool of possible funds for rainforest conservation. july-august 2008

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PROFITS What Gets Measured Gets Done The International Council of Forest and Paper Associations (ICFPA), in association with the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) and the World Resources Institute (WRI) recently announced the development of a methodology for calculating greenhouse gas emissions from pulp and paper mills. This innovative calculation tool will serve as a simple unified industry approach to emissions accounting and is an example of the forest products industry taking the worldwide lead in developing simple, transparent methods to calculate greenhouse gas emissions. ICFPA President W. Henson Moore (also President and CEO of the American Forest & Paper Association) said that: "The tool can be used on any scale, from determining emissions from a specific mill, from a specific company, or for our industry as whole." The collaborating institutions recommend that governments and other organizations recognize the tool they developed as the appropriate method for calculating greenhouse gas emissions for pulp and paper mills. Other industry sectors, including cement and aluminum, have recently adopted similar methodologies utilizing the GHG Protocol to calculate total industry as well as factory specific emissions. This process provides a model for other industry associations developing sector-specific greenhouse gas calculation tools," said Jonathan Lash, WRI president. The tool is based on protocols

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previously developed by WRI and the WBCSD, and was peer reviewed and endorsed by their project, the GHG Protocol. According to WBCSD President, Björn Stigson: "This new calculation tool will enable the forest and paper sector to collect and report accurate data in a unified way, thus helping to achieve comparability worldwide".

China's Renewables Sector Booming: The Climate Group Study A study by nonprofit The Climate Group reveals that China's renewable-energy sector is growing substantially. China is the world's largest carbon emitter and builds about one coal-fired power plant a week on average. The country's renewables industry is also setting records. In 2007, China's $12 billion investment in renewables was second only to Germany's; by 2009, China's renewables-investment is expected to be the world's largest. According to the study, China already has the world's largest installed capacity for renewables generation, due in large part to the huge Three Gorges Dam. The report states that China is the world's fifth-largest wind-power producer, the biggest manufacturer of both solar panels and solar water heaters, and will soon be the world's top exporter of wind turbines. "Everybody sees China as this monster polluter, but it is doing so much more than that," said Changhua Wu of The Climate Group. "China has got the green message."

Advocates Pushing LEDs into the Spotlight Compact fluorescents have had their time in the sun; it's time to herald the era of LEDs, say advocates. Light-emitting diodes are bright, extremely long-lasting, über-efficient, and can color-shift by remote control (fun!). The bulbs shine in many traffic lights, colored

the Times Square ball on New Year's Eve, may soon light up the Empire State Building, and are becoming the bulb of choice for commercial lighting. Many bulb manufacturers expect that they'll soon widely light up households as well; so sure is Philips Lighting, in fact, that it is spending no R&D money on CFLs, focusing solely on LEDs. The downside, however, is price. A 60-watt incandescent bulb costs about $1, a comparable CFL $2; Philips will introduce its equivalent LED bulb in September at the eyebrow-raising price of $107. That will no doubt drop as time goes on, but some experts say the barrier is high enough that LEDs' reach will remain limited. Shared by Grist, an online environmental news magazine

Full Steam Ahead Google.org, the philanthropic arm of the search giant, has announced a $10.25 million investment in geothermal energy technology. The money will back two start-up companies that specialize in enhanced geothermal systems (EGS), the process of pumping water underground to crack hot rocks and use the resulting steam to power a turbine and create electricity. "EGS could be the 'killer app' of the energy world," says Dan Reicher of Google.org. "It has the potential to deliver vast quantities of power 24/7 and be captured nearly anywhere on the planet. And it would be a perfect complement to intermittent sources like solar and wind." Geothermal currently supplies a mere 0.5 percent of global energy supply and 0.4 percent of U.S. supply. The investment is a part of Google.org's RE
Compiled by Rutaba Ahmed

cover story

vc analysis: rooting out detractors by khadeeja balkhi for tbl

The rather significant ass-u-m-ption in using the term value chain (VC) as opposed to supply chain is that only processes or people that add value to a product or service are considered to be a part of the value chain. In reality, this is often not the case, especially where middlemen often are observed to be detracting, rather than adding, value. Which, is precisely where the value chain analyses methodology can fit in, first of all in developing economies such as Pakistan's: Eliminating the people who detract

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disproportionate economic gains in relation to their roles in the VC.

Creating Stakeholder Value Along VCs CSR Value chain initiatives examine every stakeholder along the supply chain (including the planet as a stakeholder), exploring where mutual value initiatives may be untapped. Following the stakeholder mapping exercise, companies must analyse the value exchange and honestly evaluate where they can manage their operations to add more value to parties involved in a particular process. Through even a basic study, the company may often find that through its current role, it is not adding value to significant VC actors; or worse, that it is playing a role in an exploitative process; albeit sometimes without being cognizant of it. Hence the Nike child labour and similar scandals. Clearly it is wise for companies to initiate such studies internally and act themselves, before the media or civil society begin highlighting the weak links in their supply chains.

Why Value Chain Analysis? In addition to the obvious synergies manifest in the areas of productivity, business development and market access, from the social or macroeconomic progress aspect, developing country populations seem to have much to gain from Value Chain Analysis (VCAs) since they are often along the downstream end of global value chains, if at all a part of them. Pakistan's largest export revenue generating industry, the hailed, albeit troubled textile industry, contributes to less than 3 percent of its global value chain. Although until recently, Pakistan was still confirmed as the fourth largest producer of cotton in the world. The nation's output was until 2007 close to 8.5 percent of the total

global cotton production, according to the Pakistan Textile Journal. Pakistan's peak production was in 2005, contributing 14.3 million bales of cotton to the global cotton VC, according to the Textile Institute of Pakistan. It's been a negative trend since, with a 13.4 percent decrease in our output the next year. Clearly, value addition to our agricultural produce remains relatively limited. The disparity between our production and our role in the global VC may be where a localized beneficiation imperative kicks in (see beneficiation box on next page). Why the apparent tangent? We're small global VC players, even if vicariously through our larger industries: hence our negotiation powers tend to remain limited.

Development (AGRIDEA). For instance, farmers or sharecroppers that live in generations of debt, seemingly cannot exert any negotiation power in situations where the bonded labour label would be a euphemism for their circumstances. "Some actors are stuck in value chains that exploit low income possibilities," Roduner asserts in a report based on the insights gained during the online debate on the forum 'Value Chains in Rural Development'. "Value chain actors are those who directly deal with the production, processing, packaging, trading etc. of a product," Roduner clarifies. "Usually they own the product for some time as it travels along the chain."

Reforming Political Financing: Anywhere on the Horizon for Pakistan? Over eleven years ago, in 1997, the Thai Constitution introduced new party, political finance and election laws. Under the Organic Law on Political Parties and the Organic Law on Elections, it empowered an independent Election Commission of Thailand (ECT) with exacting oversight authority. These laws and the Commission were set up to regulate party operations and accounting practices to enhance transparency and accountability within the party system. A key objective of the legislation was also to strengthen parties as ideological bodies and broaden their membership bases - with the aim of reducing the prevalence of patronage and vote buying. Now that's a great euphemism, especially if applied to Pakistan's current political context. Hence all the more critical for us to examine fair practices throughout our end of the value chain, where the need for global price competitiveness urges a blind eye towards ideas such as fair wages.

Actors, Exploitation and Opportunities "More important than belonging to a value chain is the role people play in it, i.e. their negotiation power in the value chain," reinforces Daniel Roduner of the Swiss Center for Agricultural Extension and Rural

Highlighting the macrodevelopment angle, Roduner adds that "by strengthening one actor in a value chain there is the possibility of creating competitive advantages for the whole system." There's a positive ripple effect here and several groups of stakeholders competing in local or global markets can benefit from such advantages. As a nation, being a part of the downstream global VCA means that Pakistan's factories or businesses negotiation influence or

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global leverage is dwarfed by the buyers at the end of global supply chains. The multinationals and other large corporations at the end of global supply chains unabashedly flex their muscle over the factories whose very viability is dependent on the orders from the macho end of the supply chain.

Remaining Cautious Apparently enough, value chains are intrinsically dynamic, constantly evolve and can swiftly change. Any value chain analysis faces the limitation of providing a static picture, a snapshot at one moment in time, Roduner cautions. VC analysts or other practitioners, he adds, must learn to supplement VCA methodologies with analytical tools that help them understand

these dynamics and tendencies. Hence, VC actors themselves need to learn the skills to explore their value chains and how markets are evolving, so that they too can evolve and remain competitive. People only temporarily a part of the value chain, such as development agencies, must be careful to structure required VC interventions that nurture entrepreneurial solutions along value chains and do not stifle them. As with all tools, VCAs must have strict metrics to measure success. The Foreign Investment Advisory Services, for instance centres its success measurement on increased competitiveness in global value chains and inward investment promotion.

Developing Economy Examples The Indian government introduced its own carpet labeling initiative, Kaleen, in response to European consumer awareness of child labour in the South Asian carpet industry. Initially civil society groups introduced the 'Rugmark' initiative in response to demand for human rights along VCs. Carpet exporters perceived 'Rugmark' as foreign intervention and overly stringent. So they initiated 'Kaleen', their own industry-wide, selfregulated code of conduct administered by the quasigovernmental Carpets Export Promotion Council and a national monitoring committee chaired by a government representative.

CSR Buzzwords Examining Beneficiation Prospects in Global (and Local) Supply Chains Among the buzzwords in the 'real' world of CSR is anything related to value chains. This is old news for many, perhaps particularly the organized development sector. Michael Porter articulated his value chain model in 1985, mainstreaming it via his best-seller, Competitive Advantage: Creating and Sustaining Superior Performance. Many have since successfully run with the idea. And there are plenty of exciting, relatively newer manifestations of value chain-based CSR opportunities. For instance, beneficiation. In the inclusive economic development or CSR context, the term describes the proportion of the value derived from asset exploitation which stays 'in country' and benefits local communities. We didn't just make this up: the beneficiation idea was inspired from the series of processes through which ore extracted from mining is reduced to particles that can then be separated into mineral and waste. The former is suitable for further processing or direct use, the next series of value addition processes. Since the concept took root in the extractive industry, we'll take the diamond industry as an example. Beneficiation would advocate that the cutting and polishing processes within the diamond

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value chain should be conducted in the same country as they were mined, to maximise the industry's local economic contribution. The case, however, is often that the countries with the mines process the 'waste' and the valuables extracted are shipped and processed within the company's country of preference. The latter is often developed countries with the technological manufacturing already in place. Beneficiation would contend that while the company is investing its reaping mining expertise -often developing- country, it must also invest in setting up further processes of its value chain in the host country: thereby truly adding value via employment, technology transfer etc. to its extractive initiatives in the developing country.

Truly Local Economic Growth The beneficiation philosophy can be further narrowed to fit non-multinational perspectives, focusing on bringing economic growth to the localmost or rural levels. For instance, for a Pakistani agri-based manufacturer, the CSR VCA would explore how to retain or shift select processes upstream. Upstream of a manufacturer means closer to the farmer, and unfortunately in our case, closer to dire poverty. Where there is poverty in a value chain, the CSR Value Chain Analyst sees

opportunity, although not without caveats. If a set of people, e.g. sharecroppers, are adding value to a supply chain and not being fairly compensated for it, it is, (over-)simplistically put, a matter of identifying where that value is usurped and passing it on to the source(s) of value addition. Even if social dynamics including the feudalistic reality complicate such a solution-process infinitely, hope is still visible, with successful examples serving as motivation in the face of ongoing frustrations. For instance, in a globally notorious industry, the timber industry, Ghana managed to institute a law that stipulates legal agreements with communities that live where timber companies cut wood. This is a progressive step for an industry that tended to subtract environmental and social value from local communities. Instituted in the 1990s the regulation stipulates that companies tendering for timber cutting permits would be assessed in terms of their respect for the social and environmental values of local residents. Under the new law, which came into operation a decade ago in 1998, logging companies are There are similar examples underway in Pakistan. The ambitious Pakistan Competitiveness and Compliance Initiative (PCCI) adopted by the FPCCI (Federation of Pakistani Chambers of Commerce and Industry), for instance, aims to bring all social, environmental and security compliances into one scorecard within the next decade. That means almost reducing the average 35 not-directly-productrelated audits into one complete system. The first industries participating in this are of course the export-intensive textile and leather industries.

Proudly Pakistani? Proudly South African is a nonprofit company that promotes South African companies, products and services in order to support job creation and economic growth. Equally as important, it also requires companies to demonstrate their commitment to social responsibility. A logo signifies to consumers that the company satisfies criteria on local content, quality, commitment to fair labour

required to secure a 'Social Responsibility Agreement' with the customary owners of the land. This agreement follows a standard pattern, to include a code of conduct for a company's operations - guiding environmental, employment and cultural practices - and a statement of social obligations, which is a pledge of specific contributions to local development, seemingly akin to Pakistani laws for exploration companies. Each agreement must be fully negotiated with the local community. There is a strict procedure for developing an Agreement with local representatives and the district forest office before submission to a central evaluation committee. While at the time of research these agreements were still in their infancy, the policy itself already provided useful lessons for other countries where high-value timber is logged. They provide guidance on how to implement a fairly simple, cost-effective, accountable system to support sustainable and socially responsible logging - all while maintaining a sharp focus on the interests of the stakeholders at the beginning of the forestry value chain, the communities hosting the trees and the value chain's impact on their lives.

standards and sound environmental practices. Not only do such initiatives promote a focus on truly beneficial local economic growth, but they also improve member companies' competitiveness. For instance, membership status was already recognised as a factor in government procurement decisions by the Department for Education. Members were given preference in tenders. Similar labelling initiatives can be found in many countries, but South Africa's is among the few that requires labour and environmental ethics to qualify for the label. There are numerous global VC initiatives that Pakistan can become a part of, such as the Fairtrade label. Remember, when looking at effective VC initiatives, the more the merrier: the more stakeholders that are invested in an initiative, the more effective it is likely to be. Taking key groups into confidence is, well, key to the long-term sustainability of any VC actor.

References A Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Diagnosis Module for Application in Value Chain Analysis (VCA) (2006), Foreign Investment Advisory Service; World Bank/International Finance Corporation; Overseas Development Institute: programme on Business and Development Performance, London. Roduner, D. (2007), Donor Interventions in Value Chain Development: Community of Practice on Value Chains in Rural Development, Swiss Centre for Agricultural Extension and Rural Development (AGRIDEA) Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC), Berne. Fox, T., Ward, H., and B. Howard (2002) The Public Sector's Role in Promoting CSR, Washington DC: World Bank, Private Sector Development Department - source for 3 regional examples. Mayers, J. and S. Vermeulen (2002), Company-community forestry partnerships: From raw deals to mutual gains? International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED), London.

about the writer Khadeeja Balkhi, Sustainability Consultant, is Vice Chairman of the recently-founded CSR Standing Committee at the FPCCI.

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entrepreneurship

developing entrepreneurs in your organization: the trade off

by ali salman for tbl

E

ntrepreneurship is a concept that has gained widespread currency today. Governments, NGOs, corporations; everybody is talking about entrepreneurship. Governments encourage civil servants to act independently and creatively and become entrepreneurs. NGOs and their donors, want their managements to adopt innovative and sustainable models to solve social problems, in other words paving way for social entrepreneurship.

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The business corporations encourage their employees to generate business independently and take initiatives and have coined the term 'intrapreneures' for such employees. These are employees who exhibit entrepreneurial characteristics within the organizational domain and for the organization, not for self-interest. I will take on this last category in this article and will discuss the possible ways of encouraging entrepreneurship within corporate corridors. For this, I will largely dwell upon my formal knowledge about, and practice of, entrepreneurship and my over six year's experience as an employer.

Entrepreneurship: Characteristics I associate entrepreneurship with four basic characteristics: a resolve to remain independent (be your own boss), defining some unique space/opportunity in the market (innovator), assuming a personified risk-return relationship (calculated risk- takers), and marshalling available resources (being resourceful). Let me also be clear on what expectations I have from my employees. I want my employees to be self-interested rational economic agents (as if some people are not!). These people would devote their best energies to the organization with certain expectations, accept market-based rewards only and believe that their growth is conditional to organizational growth.

Real World Lessons in Entrepreneurship The corporate leaders and employers looking to make their employees 'rain-makers' or business generators, should give them real world lessons in

entrepreneurship. First lesson to be learnt, for both employers and employees, is of independence. Independence requires involvement of employees not just in the execution stage, but in the planning stage as well. We usually give targets to our staff but little space to act independently. We want them to follow a laid-out road map and achieve results accordingly. In the process, we make them slaves of communication. However, as our staff goes out and meets clients, several new dimensions are discovered. The marketing plan might have been built on rosy assumptions. The competitive forces might have been under-estimated. In such circumstances which require outof-the box thinking on part of the staff, 'slaves of communication' type employees will usually choke.

Lack of trust leads to corporate loss During a recent human resource assessment assignment with a client, I discovered that a very innovative sales strategy was suggested by an existing staff member. However, the staff member was so reluctant that he credited that idea to some one else, trusted for his market knowledge. The strategy worked. The employee, after taking oath from me not to disclose his name, told me that his superiors do not have confidence in his analysis and they would always reject his ideas. This, I thought, had generated a permanent lack of confidence in that otherwise ambitious young fellow. Who will suffer from this…obviously, the management!

The second key real world lesson is identification of an opportunity. Corporate leaders should not just give assignments; rather they

should pose problems in a way to encourage and exert the analytical skills of employees. By posing real world problems, for instance, slowing up of receivables process, you will take your staff into confidence from the outset. Once you instill confidence in them, you can expect them to identify opportunities creatively. Third key lesson is personification of risk-reward structure. Your employees would become entrepreneurs only if you allow them to take measured risks and assure them of reasonable rewards for taking initiatives. Taking initiatives is always a risky business, and it can go in either direction. If you want your employees to be entrepreneurs, then you should also accept the bad side: a good chance of a failure.

Why government employees do not behave like entrepreneurs? All good-hearted civil servants know this by heart: act of omission can be ignored; act of commission (if it proves a failure) will not be left unpunished. Therefore, government employees do not engage in acts of commission i.e., they do not take initiatives. Actually entrepreneurs are designed to commit this act of commission throughout their life cycle - it is the same as taking some initiative.

The fourth, though not the last, lesson is being resourceful. As a leader or a manager, you will have certain resources at your disposal, which will define the constraints also. However, the same resources available to different persons can yield different results. That difference is largely a function of entrepreneurial characteristics: marshalling available resources to

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get the best. Employees who always wear complaints on their sleeves due to a lack of resources will never become good entrepreneurs. As a manager, your job is to distinguish entrepreneurs from non-entrepreneurs and plan your incentive structure accordingly.

Instilling Entrepreneurship and Loyalty The six million dollar question is: how to instill entrepreneurship in your employees while keeping them loyal to the organization. The answer: ownership. The ownership form would largely vary across the corporate spectrum. For small-tomedium-sized companies, the ownership may well only mean behavioural ownership, which is, taking employees in confidence while making key decisions, and selling them ideas and products before they sell it to the outside world. In the Japanese model of Corporate Management, the employer is a father-like figure. For large-sized companies, the ownership should translate into stocks and shares. This is what the U.S. model has taught us.

3M is a multinational company with diversified product lines. 3M has reaped the rewards of intrapreneurism. 3M has a standard policy that allows all employees to work on developing their own business ideas at least 15 percent of the time they are at work. One of the big breakthroughs that came from this programme was the concept of Post-ItNotes which was pioneered by an employee who wanted something that wouldn't fall out to mark pages in his hymn book at church.

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There is always a degree of distrust between the employee and the employer. The latter believes that he/she is being exploited and the former believes that the employer is not doing enough. The degree would vary across the organization as well as across organizational hierarchies. However, a key point to consider when taking your employees on board is to offer them ownership-a real stake in the game. Naturally, this cannot be done while signing the employment contract, but this can surely be built into the career track of each employee. If employees are not offered ownership, whether in a formal sense (shares/stocks) or an informal sense (process of decision making), there is a high likelihood that after all the years of training them as entrepreneurs, you will lose them. They will become true entrepreneurs and will take their own course - often taking some slice from your cake in terms of market share- and at least all the knowledge with them.

10 Commandments for Intrapreneurs Gifford Pinchot's book 'Intrapreneuring, Why You Don't Have to Leave the Corporation to Become an Entrepreneur' provides ten commandments for intrapreneurs: Do any job needed to make your project work regardless of your job description. Share credit wisely. Remember, it is easier to ask for forgiveness than permission. Come to work each day willing to be fired. Ask for advice before asking for resources. Follow your intuition about people; build a team of the best.

Build a quiet coalition for your idea; early publicity triggers the corporate immune system. Never bet on a race unless you are running in it. Be true to your goals, but realistic about ways to achieve them. Honour your sponsors.

about the writer Ali Salman currently works as a senior partner at Development Pool and teaches Economics. Ali specializes in economic analysis, entrepreneurship, policy formulation and business models. Ali did his Masters in Economics from Boston University as a Fulbright Scholar; his MA in Development Studies as Royal Netherlands Fellow; and an MBA from Quaid-i-Azam University, Islamabad.

children’s rights

child labour: a tragedy by miriam katz for tbl

Child labour is a reality in Pakistan. Many organizations have estimated that there could be anywhere from 8 to 19 million child labourers in the country. The age of a child is defined from age five to age fourteen, of which there are 40 million in Pakistan, according to a survey last year by the Federal Bureau of Statistics, funded by International Labour Organization's IPEC (International Programme on the Elimination of Child Labour). This means that nearly half of all children are working. This is unacceptable given that a principle of policy in Pakistan is to provide free education and rid the country of illiteracy. In many cases, the parents of child labourers cannot afford an education for their children or they believe that education does not lead to marketable skills. However, statistics show that most child labourers go on to have children that do not attend school and the cycle of poverty continues. This article will be divided into three sections: the first will discuss the laws regarding child labour and why child labour continues to be a reality; the second will look at different industries where children work and how they affect the wellbeing of those children; and the third will examine possible solutions.

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Laws Governing Child Labour First, a definition of child labour is in order. The definition given by the International Labour Organization (ILO) is fourfold: working during early age; overwork or giving too much time to work; lots of pressure to work; and lastly, a readiness to work for low pay. Article 11 of the Pakistani Constitution prohibits slavery, trafficking and the participation of children under 14 in hazardous employment. Hazardous employment includes many different occupations such as transport, factories, mines, work involving agricultural machinery and pesticides, and carpets. In 1995, the government passed the Employment of Children Rules, which mandates, among other things, that work places have to be clean and that proper ventilation has to be provided, according to The State of Pakistan's Children 2006 report by the Society for the Protection of the Rights of the Child (SPARC). Pakistan has also ratified several conventions on child labour including the 1957 ILO Forced Labour Convention and in 1990, the UN Rights of the Child Convention, the SPARC report states. In spite of all the positive laws that Pakistan has enacted, there were two laws passed by the government that ensure the continuation of child labour. In 1991, the Employment of Children Act was passed, which allows families to employ children under 14. This regulation means that government inspectors will not investigate homes. In 1992, the government passed the Bonded Labour Abolition Act, which cancelled all the debts of people in bonded labour, according to the SPARC report.. Bonded labour effectively means that families have acquired debts, which are repaid through work. The debts pass to the next generation, ensuring a continuation of poverty. Although the passing of that act may seem

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like a positive step, the children who are bonded or their parents are often illiterate and would not know about the existence of this law. Thus, bonded labour continues.

The Reasons Why Child Labour Exists Child labour continues to be a reality for various reasons. In Northwest Frontier Province (NWFP), for instance, at least 1.1 million children are engaged in hazardous labour according to SPARC, although this is most likely underestimated because home businesses are not registered. In NWFP, 50 percent of children in primary school drop out and many parents are also addicted to heroin, which forces the children to work, NWFP also has a very low literacy rate compared to the rest of Pakistan: just 37.3 percent, according to a report by IRIN Asia (UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs), Statistics show that 50 percent of children that are trafficked for work live with parents who cannot read, according to SPARC report, thus education plays a big role in child labour. As mentioned above, the Pakistani government passed a law forgiving debts for all bonded labourers; however, the practice still continues. The SPARC report reveals that 52 percent of households with child labourers have debt. In the carpet industry alone, half a million children must work due to family debt, according to a U.S. Department of Labor report on Pakistan (July 2008). In addition, most of the families that are bonded have no land, which means that bonded labour, much like child labour in general, is mainly a rural problem. In Sindh province, the bonded labourers are treated basically as slaves. Most of them are men and their wives and children "are also captives of the feudal lords".

Industries using Child Labour Child labour occurs in many different industries. One of the most prominent is the carpet industry, despite the fact that the government designates it as hazardous labour. UNICEF has estimated that approximately one million children work in the carpet industry and that many of these children started working there when they were under 10 years old. However, these statistics may be meaningless because, as stated by the Pakistan Carpet Manufacturers and Exporters Association, 90 percent of carpet weaving is done in the home and therefore, they do not know whether parents or children are working. Approximately one quarter of the children in the carpet industry are girls, and due to a prevailing view that girls have less worth than boys, many are sexually abused, states the SPARC report. The most common ailments in the carpet industry are back pain, poor eyesight and respiratory disorders. If school was free and was timed to suit the children and parents, 90 percent of parents say they would send their children to school, this report further reveals. However, many parents also say that children should be working because unemployment has recently been rising and children should be learning skills that will aid them in getting a job. One of the worst kinds of child labour is domestic labour, mainly because it is hidden away and not regulated by the government. In addition, because child labour is mainly a rural problem, domestic labour is often unrecognized because it takes place mostly in cities such as Lahore, Islamabad and Karachi. One-quarter of all homes in Pakistan use children in their homes for many types of domestic chores and 62 percent of them are girls, according to SPARC. Many of these children are

physically or sexually abused and they are forced to work long hours. Children working in the domestic sector rarely go to school and they do not have the chance to interact with other children. Lastly, the work is often unpaid. This is a very tragic situation because the government does not include domestic work as a hazardous occupation. Another industry in which many children are involved is the surgical tool industry. In Sialkot city, at least 5800 children are working 8 to 10 hours day and 6 days each week. The main reason why children are used in this industry is because the work requires very quick hands. The children experience many terrible things in this industry including burns, respiratory illness and carpal tunnel syndrome. 95 percent of the children report bad sleep and 40 percent experience physical punishment at work. This is a horrible state of affairs, especially given the fact that children represent 30 percent of the workers in the surgical tools industry, according to SPARC report.

Solutions to End Child Labour Attitudes will have to change if child labour is to be eradicated. One of the main reasons why child labour continues to exist is that girls are seen as worth less than boys. In most families where children work, there is an average of 8 children and if girls are employed, the families have at least 9 children. If women were involved in the formal sector, it is more likely that they would have fewer children and also delay the age at which they have children. Thus, the government should find a way to empower women and children. In addition to this, the Pakistani as well as Western governments must invest more money into the education system. It is clear that many parents do not want to send their children to school either

because they must pay or they view the school system as inadequate. If parents want their children to succeed in the future, they must have faith that school will help them and primary school must be free. According to a survey, 24 percent of children believed that school did not teach them any useful skills, as stated in an article on YesPakistan, a website service of the Human Development Foundation of North America. The government could open schools that teach lifelong skills to children who must work. Although the government passed a law that forgave all debts, this law has not been enforced. As mentioned above, children that work are usually illiterate and are not familiar with laws passed by the government. Many of their parents would be unaware of this law as well. The government should employ counsellors that work with illiterate people and make them aware of such developments. In addition, with regard to enforcement, the government should pass a law declaring domestic employment hazardous. Most children work at home and parents are often not mindful about regulations regarding child labour - these must be enforced.

this practice that dooms many families to a lifetime of debt and poverty.

References Society for the Protection of the Rights of the Child "The State of Pakistan's Children 2006" http://www.sparcpk.org/publications/sopc_200 6.pdf IRIN Asia "Child labour still widespread in NWFP" http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?reportid=26413\ U.S Department of Labor "Pakistan" http://www.dol.gov/ILAB/media/reports/iclp/sw eat/pakistan.htm YesPakistan.com staff writer "Policy considerations for ending child labor in Pakistan" http://www.yespakistan.com/people/child_labor.asp

about the writer Miriam Katz is a freelance writer based in London. She currently writes for the Environmental Peace Review. Her areas of interest include environmental issues, renewable energy, biofuels and climate change. She holds a Bachelors in Arts degree in Political Science and Environmental Studies from the University of Toronto. She can be reached at [email protected]

Conclusion In conclusion, the continuation of child labour is a tragic situation. There have been many positive laws passed that regulate child labour and Pakistan is a party to many conventions that prohibit child abuse in labour, but these practices are still a reality. In many industries, children suffer injuries that should not happen in childhood and they lose a very important thing: the opportunity to play and be with other children their own age. Most of them do not go to school and miss the chance to learn skills that will last their whole lives. If the government can do only one thing, it should work to end

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alternative measures

happiness-spirituality as the fourth bottom line by asim malik for tbl

'Serving society' seems to be one of the newfound mantras of the corporate sector. Being a part of people at the grassroots levels, uplifting the destitute, shouldering the elderly, educating the illiterate or improving conditions in the rural areas; these form a slew of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) ventures and are becoming a necessary part of the branding exercise. The focus here is not restricted to people alone; it extends to creating awareness about the growing environmental hazards, or even protecting wildlife. CSR makes sound business sense. IBM, for instance, believes that there is a bigger reason organizations invest in CSR: the reality that businesses cannot succeed in a society which fails. It is, therefore, imperative for organizations to understand the social milieu in which they function. In an age of rising recognition and the imperative need to increase employee engagement, CSR initiatives follow suit. A company may chart out a policy, draw up a plan, and invest funds, but it needs complete endorsement and active participation by its employees to carry the policies forward and implement them. In companies like Cisco, employees also work on several technologies that help humanity at large such as power management, reduced power usage, productivityenhancing applications and so on. Senior employees there also have the option of working with NGOs to improve the NGO's strategy, finances, business, or execution. 20

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TBL Movement Drivers The triple bottom-line movement has taken off. Indeed, 45 percent of the world's top companies publish sustainability reports, according to the Department of Environment, Water, Heritage and the Arts, Australia. This change has not come about because of the graciousness of organizations. Changing values among stakeholders (and, indeed, the notion that multiple stakeholders define the organization, not just stockholders, but employees, managers, the community at large, and the environment itself!) is a key driver of this movement. Employees desire an organization that they can be proud of. Along with profit, organizations are

expected to consider human rights, evaluate their impact on the environment, and on future generations. "Work is such a large part of life that employees increasingly want to work for organizations which reflect their values, and for us, it's also an issue of attracting and retaining talent," says Jennifer Johnston of Bristol-Myers Squibb.

Gross Happiness Index: Alternative to GDP National-level initiatives are following suite. Bhutan has developed a gross happiness index. While all OECD nations have not

gone this far, the UK is taking happiness seriously. In the UK, the Cabinet Office has held a string of seminars on life satisfaction and published a paper last year recommending policies that will lead to an increase in the nation's happiness. The policies include quality of life indicators when making decisions about health and education, and finding an alternative to gross domestic product (GDP) as a measure of how well the country is doing - one that reflects happiness as well as welfare, education and human rights. There are even journals and professors specializing in happiness. Happiness is increasingly equated with quality of life, and not the quantity of material possessions. As nations move to postmodern economies, other issues are gaining more importance, such as spirituality; the meaning of life and the ultimate nature and purpose of humankind.

Spirituality: The Fourth Bottom-Line? But where there may be a subtle shift toward the spiritual, can it become the fourth bottom-line? We certainly don't see stakeholders holding long meditation sessions outside of corporate offices and government buildings. Corporations already face the challenge of incorporating social indicators. Certainly, the purpose of a fourth bottom-line is not to be an additional burden for organizations. Spirituality includes four interrelated factors: nurturing a relationship with the transcendent; regular practice of meditation or prayer; physical practices to harmonize or transform the body; and fostering social relationships. There are two external factors - the transcendental and the social (although of course, the transcendent and social are both within) and two internal factors - mind and body (of course, external as well and interdependent).

Indicators of Spirituality as The Fourth Bottom-Line Are there any indicators that spirituality can become a bottomline? Can the historically immeasurable be measured? There are clear risks. Along with the potential perception of patriarchy, come the problems of caste/class: with elite groups claiming they can best interpret the spiritual. The transcendent becomes a weapon: linguistic, political, and economic. Yet, this is the nature of our world. Taking a layered approach may be an appropriate way to consider. Using the metaphor of the 'iceberg of spirituality', the tip of the iceberg can be measured, as that is the often visible. Beyond that exist the social dimensions of spirituality manifested in such acts as community care, group meditations, shared experiences and so on; thus bolstering a 'system of spirituality'. This system too can be evidenced. If we delve deeper, we see the worldview of spirituality ethics, ecology, devotion, multiple paths, and transcendence. As we move to deeper levels of spirituality, measurement becomes more difficult. Is there any evidence that spirituality as an issue is gaining interest? With workshops happening in Croatia, Pakistan, Malaysia, Australia, Thailand, Germany, Taiwan, New Zealand, USA, among many other countries, we see increasing awareness about and interest in spiritual issues worldwide.

Indeed, Kasser believes that advertising, which is central to the desire machine, should be considered a form of pollution, and be taxed or advertisers should be forced to include warning messages that materialism can damage one's health. Spirituality, while it does enhance economic productivity, social connectivity, inner and outer health, should not be confused with economic materialism or indeed any type of materialism (even the spiritual variety, that is, collecting gurus, mantras, or using the spiritual to accumulate ego).

The Spiritual Template of Our Life Part of the challenge we face is to transform our template of life itself. Currently it is: birth, student, work, retirement and death. In a spiritual model, spirituality would travel through all these stages. Also, 'student-hood' would never terminate but rather continue throughout one's life. In addition, the worker phase would exist throughout our lives, transformed to mission - doing what is most important - and that is translated into life-long earning and meaningful rewards. Service to society would be a part of our daily lives - finding some way, every day, to contribute to the community. Thus, seeing spirituality as the fourth bottomline means transforming the foundational template of our lifecycle. This is especially crucial as the global ageing of society changes our historically stable age pyramid.

Materialism Data confirms that materialism does not lead to happiness. A study by Tim Kasser of Knox College, Illinois, found that young adults who focus on money, image and fame tend to be more depressed, have less enthusiasm for life and suffer more physical symptoms such as headaches and sore throats than others (The High Price of Materialism, MIT Press, 2002).

about the writer Asim Malik works in the microfinance industry and has also been involved in providing consultation and bringing innovations in the field of retail distribution for the FMCG sector.

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csr talk

kerstin dietrich Advisor Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) and Climate Change

by khadeeja balkhi for tbl

German Development cooperation is committed to sustainable development. In 2003, I started to work on climate protection. At that time, the CDM was still under development and there were very few projects underway. I found it quite fascinating that a market instrument should contribute to sustainable development in developing countries. This is what still motivates me: that the CDM is still developing. In the past three years, we have seen that a number of new project types and new modalities for bundling small projects with high development benefits have been approved.

KB: Can you give examples where other developing countries have benefited from implementing the CDM? Ms. Dietrich is a global specialist on the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM). During her recent, fourth, visit to Pakistan she graciously shared with TBL, her thoughts about the development and potential of the CDM in developing countries like Pakistan.

Khadeeja Balkhi: If you were to capture the essence of the CDM as you see it, how would you phrase it? Kerstin Dietrich: The Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) is a climate protection instrument that facilitates the use of renewable energies and energy efficiency measures in developing countries.

KB: What sparked your interest in the CDM initially? What keeps you motivated now that you are a global expert? KD: I have been involved with the German Development Cooperation for more than twelve years now.

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KD: Well, I think that the most prominent examples are China and India, which are major players in the CDM. Along with CDM projects, innovative technologies are also being introduced. The CDM is a market instrument and it has really helped build renewable energy industries in these countries.

KB: As you've so aptly put it, the CDM is a process. What are the current caveats of this process? KD: There is still a lot of struggle with the methodologies to calculate emission reductions and to demonstrate additionality. This applies in particular to energy efficiency projects.

For some project types the requirements for baseline calculation are very strict and thus hamper project development. I think in particular the high upfront costs for project development are a major obstacle. Note: The concept of 'additionality' is a crucial feature of an approvable CDM project: the project must establish that the planned emission reductions would not occur without the additional financial incentive provided by emission reductions credits. That means, as Ms. Dietrich put it, that a CDM activity is additional only "if greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions are reduced below those that would have occurred in the absence of the registered CDM project activity".

KB: What are the challenges that host countries trying to develop CDM projects should watch out for, in your opinion? Which do you think Pakistan could particularly prepare for? KD: I think that for the host countries (developing countries that host CDM projects), the CDM is ideal to promote renewable energies and energy efficiency. In particular in rural electrification with renewable energies (not grid connected), there should be a huge potential to develop CDM projects. In the textile sector there is potential for fuel switching measures, improvement of boilers and steam optimisation systems.

energy efficiency projects only. Offgrid rural electrification with renewable energy is a typical example. Note: A little bit more about the Gold Standard from Ms. Dietrich's work: Project developers can also try to get into the premium CER market for small projects with high development benefits. The Gold Standard (GS) Foundation offers a quality label to CDM and voluntary offset projects, fetching premium prices. Renewable energy and energy efficiency projects with sustainable development benefits are eligible. The Gold Standard is endorsed by over 38 non-governmental organizations worldwide. How the GS emerged: Besides the Kyoto market, other actions taken to reduce greenhouse gas emissions are being verified and traded. Voluntary markets for emissions reductions that are exempt from the provisions of the Kyoto Protocol are developing rapidly. Companies are more and more concerned about their environmental impact and tend to neutralise activities they cannot avoid, for example flying. They see voluntary offsetting as part of their corporate responsibility and/or as part of their image strategy. Emission offsets in this category are usually verified by independent agents and are commonly referred to as Verified Emission Reductions (VERs). Demand for both types of credits exists. The mid-2008 market price for the various risk levels of CERs ranges from 8-12 Euros for medium-risk forwards, 12-15 Euros for low-risk forwards, 1318 Euros for registered projects and 1622 Euro for issued CERs. The price for VERs is considerable lower and is 3-4 Euros.

KB: In your opinion, how has CDM already proven itself as a mechanism to contribute to sustainable development? Can you think of specific examples?

However, the premium price offered for issued Gold Standard VERs is between 5 - 6 Euros while for GS CER, prices range between 12-14 Euros. In addition, the cost of developing a GS CDM project tends to be lower than the cost of developing a CDM project for the Kyoto market.

KD: There are many examples and in particular the so-called Gold Standard CDM projects fulfil the sustainable development objective of the CDM. The Gold Standard is a premium label for CDM projects with high development benefits; projects that have been established by NGOs. It can be applied to renewable energy and end-user

KB: Are there any universal thoughts or advice you might want to share with companies in Pakistan who are interested in pursuing CDM projects?

lot from others' experiences. I think that Pakistani companies should consider, carefully, with whom they are going to develop their CDM project; or even consider developing it alone provided that they have the funds.

KB: Given current trends, where do you think Pakistan will be in the global CDM marketplace ten years from now? Alternatively, how long will it take us to reach the potential you've seen here again, assuming existing trends? KD: To date, Pakistan has one registered CDM project and I think about another eight are in the validation stage. A number of stakeholders are currently actively building capacities for CDM project development. I am sure we will see a lot more in the coming year and I am happy to contribute to that development.

about the writer Khadeeja Balkhi is a Sustainability Consultant who finds great joy in her work, whether it's strategizing, hands-on implementation, field-based stakeholder engagement or documentation and monitoring. She can be reached at [email protected]

KD: Pakistan is a late entrant into the CDM arena and it can benefit a july-august 2008

23

carbon disclosure survey

confronting climate change: supply chain leadership collaboration The Carbon Disclosure Project's (CDP) Supply Chain Leadership by clearcarbon consulting for tbl

Collaboration (SCLC) is an effort to help companies better understand the climate impacts within their supply chains.

In October 2007, the CDP created the SCLC with the aim of creating a standardized process for supply chain reporting of carbon emissions, risks, opportunities and strategies. The SCLC seeks to address the increasing focus on carbon impacts of corporate supply chains, where, for many sectors, the majority of GHG emissions are generated. Corporations require better information to develop and deliver robust and effective carbon management strategies into supply chain decisions. Using the CDP process, which is the established global system for disclosing carbon emissions and related climate change issues, purchasers are now able to better understand the emissions embedded within their individual and shared supply chains. Twelve companies (members) participated in a pilot collaboration launched in October 2007 and completed in February 2008. The SCLC Pilot Members include Cadbury Schweppes, Proctor & Gamble, Dell, PepsiCo, Hewlett-Packard, Prudential, Imperial Tobacco, Reckitt Benckiser, L'Oréal, Tesco, Nestlé, and Unilever.

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Survey Approach A survey, designed by CDP in partnership with the 12 SCLC member companies, was distributed to 383 selected suppliers requesting their participation in the pilot. A striking result of the survey is that 95 out of the 144 responders submitted information to CDP for the first time demonstrating the potential of the SCLC to increase disclosure of carbon information along corporate supply chains. Jay Celorie, Global Program Manager of Supply Chain Energy, Hewlett Packard states "The CDP Supply Chain Leadership Collaboration Pilot helped create momentum and awareness of the need for suppliers to disclose carbon within the supply chain." The SCLC questionnaire addressed three sections: Section A asks suppliers for information about their overall knowledge of climate change and how it affects their company operations. Section B asks for a detailed breakdown of emissions by country, participation in carbon emission trading schemes, a description of their reduction programme and the responsibility for climate change within the company. Section C questions target information on companies' supply chains and product-level detail. To review and analyze results, CDP retained Clear Carbon Consulting, USA. The SCLC survey is proclaimed to be a successful first step in creating a consistent approach for suppliers to report their climate change efforts to their customers and other stakeholders. The number of companies becoming a part of SCLC demonstrates that there is a growing interest from businesses to gain a better understanding of the climate impacts of their supply chain. The survey responses are

useful as a baseline for members to understand the preparedness of suppliers to address climate change issues and to increase their knowledge of supply chain greenhouse gas emissions. The SCLC is therefore an opportunity to educate a large number of additional companies on the potential risks from climate change and encourage them to measure the emissions from their operations and products and implement climate mitigation strategies. Survey responses reveal participating companies generally have an understanding of the potential risks from climate change. Although many survey responders are still in the early stages of addressing the climate issue, they are willing to share information regarding their climate change activities and appear committed to increasing their efforts in the future. Responding suppliers represent a variety of industries and range from small businesses (less than 100 employees) to large corporations with thousands of employees. Overall, there is a higher response rate, 60 percent, for Section A questions (Climate Change Risk, Opportunities, and Strategy), than Section B (Additional GHG Emissions Accounting) and C (GHG Emissions Analysis), at 48 and 28 percent respectively. The response rates reflect the typical carbon management continuum of companies. Companies generally assess risks first, perform (Greenhouse gas) emission accounting to get a detailed picture of their impacts, set targets to measure progress, and then evaluate reduction opportunities and implement projects. Once companies have a handle on the management of their internal GHG footprint, they begin to evaluate impacts and implement reduction activities along their supply chain.

Greenhouse Gas Emissions Analysis Many suppliers indicate they are working on breaking down emissions calculations into various business segments and provide many reasons why they currently are not able get to that level of detail. Some companies stated they produce multiple products within one facility and it would be difficult and expensive to sub-meter the entire facility to get individual product line emissions. Others indicate resources do not exist to collect or analyze the data needed to get to that level. A majority of the respondents (68 percent) are able to breakdown emissions to the factory or facility level. A few companies indicate the ISO 14064 - Greenhouse Gas Accounting standard only requires facility level data. And they have not gone beyond what is required in that standard.

GHG Protocol: Popular Methodology The GHG Protocol, developed by the World Resources Institute and the World Business Council for Sustainable Development, is the international standard for how companies measure their GHG emissions. Over half of the suppliers responding to the survey (56 percent) use the GHG Protocol as their methodology to calculate corporate emissions. Other suppliers use a wide range of accounting methods including. 58 percent of the suppliers report their Scope 1 and 2 emissions. All but one of these companies is a large or medium sized supplier. A majority of responders (65 percent) report electricity use information, something Pakistani companies are now seriously evaluating. Only 27 suppliers report renewable energy investments. There was no july-august 2008

25

appreciable pattern of renewable energy investments among specific industry sectors, but large companies were responsible for 65 percent of renewable energy investments reported through the survey. What commercial opportunities does climate change present to your company for both existing and new products and services? Suppliers report various opportunities presented by climate change mitigation strategies. The companies list savings from energy reduction as the biggest opportunity, as is being realized by pockets of Pakistani companies as well. Suppliers also see production of energy efficient and/or new environmental products as opportunities for the future. For example, there are opportunities to produce more energy efficient computer components. Other suppliers indicated they are looking at reducing the weight of products and/or packaging to be more efficient and reduce the waste and fuel-use that impacts shipping costs. What are your emissions reduction targets? 32 percent of the responders have set some type of reduction target and 26 percent of suppliers have emissions reduction targets in development. 29 of the 37 suppliers with targets in development are new CDP responders. This may indicate that the request to participate in the CDP encourages these companies to develop reduction targets. Responders understand that stakeholders expect them to develop a GHG reduction target as part of a credible climate strategy. The most common type of target is an absolute or intensity metric GHG emissions reductions goal. Other targets reported include carbon neutral, diesel fuel reduction and reductions from renewable energy use.

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Section A - Climate Change Risks, Opportunities and Strategy

Analysis Many companies (77 percent of respondents) see some type of GHG regulation(s) as a future risk for their company. The next most commonly reported risk is price increases in energy and raw materials (12 percent of respondents). Responses to the two questions above show that companies have a more immediate concern about regulatory risks than physical risks (96 percent and 87 percent of respondents reported these risks). This speaks to the concern of businesses to address short-term impacts, versus less predictable and long-term impacts even though these may be on a larger scale.

The majority of suppliers have projects in place to reduce GHG emissions. Based on responses from suppliers, 58 percent of the respondent companies are engaging in energy consumption reduction programs. A table showing the strategies suppliers have in place to reduce risks and take advantage of oppor- tunities is below. Additionally, forty six companies are only pursuing strategies to reduce energy consumption, which is typically a first step in addressing GHG emissions.

Section B - Greenhouse Gas Emissions

Section C - Disclosure in Your Supply Chain Scope 3 Emissions Do you track Scope 3 emissions? Scope 3 covers all indirect emissions (other than from purchased electricity) that occur from sources that are not owned or controlled by the company. Only 33 percent of companies surveyed report they track any Scope 3 emissions. The most commonly tracked Scope 3 emissions are business travel and distribution/logistics.

Fifty-eight percent (58 percent) of responding suppliers have an established baseline for their GHG reduction programme. 42 percent of suppliers have no inventory to date, indicating that GHG management within the members' supply chains is still at an early stage.

What is your company's strategy for trading in the EU Emissions Trading Scheme? Less than 20 percent of the suppliers participate in emissions trading schemes. They participate across a variety of programs as shown in table 11. Which measurement best describes your company's emissions intensity performance? Only 26 percent of the suppliers provide emissions intensity measurements. These respondents indicate emissions per unit of production or volume of production as the two most commonly used emissions intensity metrics.

What is the mechanism by which the company reviews climate change progress? 49 percent of the suppliers report their companies review the status of their climate change initiatives through various mechanisms. Many companies integrate climate change initiatives review with their ISO 14001 management review meetings or other environmental committee meetings. Other companies indicate it as an agenda item for Board meetings. 32 companies (22 percent) have performance reviews or appraisals for their managers tied to goals set in their climate change programmes.

Are you able to breakdown Scope 3 emissions by any of the following categories (business division, business unit, factory, product group, product line, SKU)? Only 10 percent of the responders can breakdown their Scope 3 emissions to some level within their company. No companies surveyed can breakdown emissions to the SKU level. About a dozen suppliers report that lack of access to data and the resources to collect and analyze data limit supplier's ability to calculate these emission sources. What methodology do you use to track or calculate Scope 3 emissions? All but one of 18 respondents indicated they use internal databases - the other supplier reported using employee surveys.

Climate Change Governance Which Board Committee or other executive body has overall responsibility for climate change? More than a third of the responding companies have a member of the Board of Directors responsible for climate change. Another third of the respondents report an Environment, Health, and Safety (EH&S) or Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) committee as being responsible for climate change.

While only three companies report that they have strategies in place to engage their suppliers on their GHG emissions, a surprising 41 responders indicate they have a strategy to engage suppliers in development.

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innovative csr toolkit

the sustainable value approach by figge, hahn, liesen for tbl

Historically, companies existed to produce goods and services in a profitable way. Nowadays, companies additionally need to answer the requests to contribute to sustainable development and reduce the burdens they impose on their stakeholders. Both of these views are merged in a recently developed management approach. Professor Frank Figge of Queen's University Belfast (UK) and Dr Tobias Hahn of IZT - Institute for Futures Studies and Technology Assessment (GER) developed a value-oriented methodology to assess the sustainability performance of companies, called Sustainable Value. Instead of focussing on how much burden a company (or other organisational entity) creates with its actions, the Sustainable Value Approach assesses whether a company is using its financial, environmental and social resources in a valuecreating way.

Background In financial markets value is created whenever an investment creates more return than the benchmark. If an investment, for example, yields a return of 7 percent and the market only yields a return of 4 percent then the investment has earned its opportunity costs and outperforms the benchmark by 3 percent. In this case, an investment of 28

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€1,000 would have generated a value of € 30. Following this logic, the Sustainable Value Approach assesses the use of environmental and social resources in the same way in which financial resources have been assessed for decades - according to their opportunity costs. From an opportunity cost perspective the price of an environmental or social resource is identical to the foregone benefit of an alternative use of that resource (benchmark). For the first time now, capital use and the use of environmental and social resources can be assessed in an analogous way. This assessment has another advantage: the various resources are not only assessed in an identical way, but their performance is also measured in the same unit, for example € or $. In other words, the Sustainable Value approach allows for an integrated monetary triple-bottomline assessment of corporate sustainability performance that is inline with managerial thinking. To calculate the Sustainable Value of a company (or other organisational entity), we have to calculate who creates more return with a given set of financial, environmental and social resources of a company: the company or the benchmark. As a result Sustainable Value shows how much more or less return a company has created with its set of economic, environmental and social resources compared to a benchmark. In the following example, the assessment logic of Sustainable Value will be explained by using the example of the German consumer goods company Henkel in the year 2004. Henkel emitted 806,173 tons of CO2 in 2004. At the same time, it generated a gross value added of € 3.2 billion. Thus, Henkel created a return of 3,993 € per ton of CO2. The German economy, however, generated € 2,471 gross domestic product per ton of CO2. Consequently, Henkel created € 1,522 more gross value added per ton of CO2 than the German economy on average. Multiplying these 1,522 €/t with the total amount of CO2 emitted by Henkel, we now know that with its use of CO2 emissions, Henkel created € 1.2 billion more of gross value added in 2004 than the Germany economy on average would have created with those emissions. In other words, in 2004 Henkel used its CO2 emissions in a value creating way.

To find out whether a company creates Sustainable Value the methodology described above is applied to all relevant economic, environmental and social resources. It is consequently possible to determine which companies are most successful in managing the conflicting goals of successful economic activity on the one hand and the sustainable use of financial, environmental and social resources on the other hand.

New Tool Online On www.sustainablevaluecalculator.com, it is now possible to calculate Sustainable Value online, using different benchmarks. The website is part of a research project financed by the German Ministry for Education and Research and guides its users through all steps of a Sustainable Value assessment. Visitors will also find online tutorials that give detailed information on the background of Sustainable Value and the use of the Sustainable Value Calculator.

Recent Applications of a New Approach The Sustainable Value approach has been further developed and tested in various research projects commissioned by both, public bodies and companies. Beyond the external assessment of corporate sustainability performance, the approach is used to implement sustainability strategy within companies through internal benchmarking and investment appraisal. The main advantage of the approach is that it is now possible to analyse, monitor and manage the sustainability performance of companies similar to the way capital is managed in companies today.

about the writer Professor Frank Figge holds the Chair of Management and Sustainability at Queen's University Management School of Queen's University Belfast (Northern Ireland/UK). He is one of the early developers of the Sustainable Value approach. Before joining academia full time, Figge worked for asset managers and as a consultant in the field of corporate sustainability. He can be reached at [email protected].

breather

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july-august 2008

31

enabling empowerment

the care and growth leadership model and empowerment by etsko schuitema for tbl

My prior research indicates that employees give or withheld their commitment to an organisation on the basis of universally held criteria. These criteria are based on the degree to which management is seen to have a genuine interest in employee wellbeing and are willing to empower or grow their subordinates. I refer to this model as the "Care and Growth" model of leadership. In this article I would like to explore the idea of empowerment or growth a little deeper. There is a very commonly held metaphor for empowerment, namely the fishing metaphor. This metaphor holds that if you give a person a fish you feed them for a day, but if you teach them to fish then you will feed them for the rest of their lives. This is more or less true, of course, but like all useful metaphors it also runs the danger of obscuring the full implications of the notion of 'empowerment'. This confusion arises out of the fact that empowerment is then seen to be purely a question of knowledge or skill, something which may be taught. This implication does not stand up to the most basic and

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common sense examination of what empowerment must mean. Sticking to our fishing metaphor, I have found that people generally offer two categories of things to the question of "how would you enable or empower someone to fish?" The first category raises a list of things which one could call means. These are things that are not associated with either skill or knowledge. In the case of fishing these would include things such as a rod, reel, line, hooks, bait, authority to fish, a dam or fish resource and so on. The second category one could call ability. Under ability, one would understand both the knowledge and skill of how to fish, as well as an understanding of why one should fish. The problem with these two categories, though, is that they are not sufficient to account for someone really being committed to feeding themselves with fish that they themselves have caught. For example, assume you wish to enable someone to fish and you give them all the means as well as the ability to do what is required of them. However, at the same time make them aware that you have a big freezer full of fish and will quite happily give them some should they not catch any for themselves. The question here is, how willingly will this person fish. If there were no consequences that followed on them for not catching their own fish, but indeed they were rewarded for not catching then it seems pretty obvious to me that such a person would not fish with great enthusiasm or willingness. This suggests that if I were serious about empowering this person then I would deliberately withhold the fish in the freezer. I would, in other words, hold them accountable for what they have been entrusted with. This indicates that any proper and useful definition of empowerment would have three categories in it, namely those of means, ability and accountability. By accountability I

would understand that there are consisted rewards and punishments that are exercised with regard to what a person has been entrusted with. If they had done what was required of them they would be rewarded, if not, then they would be censured. In an organisational context the category of means would include things such as tools, resources, standards, time and authority. By tools one would generally understand those things which people add value with. This could include anything from a production operator's machine to an artisan's tools to a secretary's computer. By resources one would understand those things which people add value on. A few examples could be the sculptor's stone, the chef's vegetables and the thatcher's grass. By standards I would understand what needs to be done, which would include a specification of both quality and quantity. Time has two significances here, namely that the person doing the task should be given sufficient time to do it, and that their leader should spend whatever time is required in order to provide the subordinate with the means, the ability and the accountability to do what is required of them. Finally, authority would imply that people are allowed to do what is required of them. As far as ability is concerned, the simplest category really relates to how the task should be done. A less straightforward concern relates to the problem of why the task should be done. I have come to refer to this 'why' as the benevolent intent of the task. The reason for this is that people are really only motivated to do a task if they see it to be meaningful. Meaningfulness is essentially about a sense of contribution. My brother Jerry frequently argues that if you took an average person, paid them three times the salary that they were getting currently but required them to sit in an empty room staring at the wall for 8 hours a day they

probably would not accept the job. The reason for this is that the task was inherently meaningless. A task is only meaningful if there is a real sense of making a contribution to others in doing it. The issue of accountability suggests that any person's behaviour could be above or below the standard required of them. Should they be careful, in other words, do what is required of them, then they should be recognised. Should they be deliberately benevolent, in other words, do more than what is required of them they should be rewarded. On the other hand, should they be careless then they should be censured, and should they be deliberately malevolent they should be punished. I am therefore suggesting that the process of empowerment requires the deliberate use of three instruments, namely that of means, ability and accountability. Not to use all three of these instruments is to disable people. Further, the instrument of accountability has four strings, namely reward, recognition, censure and punishment. Not to be able to play all four strings where appropriate is equally disabling.

about the writer Etsko Schuitema is a transformation consultant and a managing member of Schuitema - a consultancy about business transformation through business growth, based in South Africa and Pakistan.

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case study

behavioural safety at workplace by dr. ilyas fazil, zia uddin kirmani, dr. mohammed hanif, anwar saeed and amir khurshid for tbl

A safety culture is directly dependent on the attitude of employees towards safety - proposes Attock Refinery Limited (ARL). Below it presents an initiative to encourage, promote and instill safe behaviour among its employees, in this case, through the introduction of behavior-based safety concepts and customized process control solutions. The most commonly used definition of safety culture was coined by the U.K. Health and Safety Commission: "The product of individual and group values, attitudes, perceptions, competencies, and patterns of behaviour that determine the commitment to, and the style and proficiency of, an organization's health and safety management" Some researchers are increasingly focusing on attitudes when defining safety, states Glendon et al, while others emphasise that safety culture is expressed through employees' behaviour and work activities. Human behavior is a complex subject as it is linked not only to the workplace environment but is influenced by a number of external factors. On the premise that a safety culture is largely dependent on employees' attitudes towards safety, ARL initiated a study to measure, analyze and control unsafe behaviour in the workplace. In spite of safety management systems, policies and procedures, incident data shows that majority of misfortunes and accidents in the workplace are triggered by employees' attitude, perceptions and patterns of behaviour such as proclivity to take shortcuts and intuitive-based decisions, bypassing Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs). 34

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Health Safety Environment Quality System ARL is a Refinery that began its operations in 1922, and its 85 year existence has seen it transformed into a state-of-the-art facility incorporating a mix of the old and the new in its hardware. Following the establishment of its HSE department in 2005, now called the HSEQ Department, ARL had an independent third-party safety audit done by DuPont in 2006 in order to gauge where it stands vis-à-vis international best practices, and subsequently use international benchmarks as a basis for making improvements in the organization's HSEQ systems. The DuPont Audit yielded an excellent evaluation of ARL's systems, as well as a road map for attaining higher conformance with international benchmarks. The first recommendation, which was immediately implemented, was to form a Central HSE Committee chaired by the CEO. The Behavior

and System Audit (BSA) Subcommittee was formed to manage the behaviour audit process, track timelines and ensure quality and follow-ups.

ARL Behaviour and System Audit Subcommittee The BSA, in 2007 carried out a thorough analysis of two years incidents and investigation data and identified that most workplace incidents occur due to unsafe and uninformed behaviour, persistence of inherited traditional beliefs and overconfidence of workers. A need was also felt to develop a tool to put all the data into a systematic format suitable for analysis, and for subsequent development of correctional plans. The BSA first reviewed the behaviour audit systems of different industrial organizations and analyzed the feasibility of their adoption and implementation at ARL. Eventually, however, BSA developed an in-house questionnaire on "Behavioral Safety at

Workplace", which was used as a basis for ARL's behaviour-based study. The questionnaire was based on the Cornell Selectee Index, a questionnaire designed to indicate the presence of emotional maladjustment, which can be answered by a 'yes' or 'no'. Each question is aimed at revealing the presence of some emotional difficulty, maladjustment tendency, or psychosomatic reaction. In addition to this the Thurstone equal-appearing interval scale was adopted to collect opinions, ranging from very positive to very negative about a certain object, person and activity.

A Ground-based Approach to Safety Management Traditionally, safety management has been top-down driven, with a tendency to make line managers responsible. This means that floor level workers are most likely to engage in unsafe behavior or to be hurt as they are detached from the safety improvement process. A behavioural-based safety approach is 'bottom-up' so that those who are most likely to be hurt are actively engaged in eliminating the occurrence of unsafe behaviours. Without the entire workforce's involvement, ownership of, and commitment to the process, such initiatives are most likely to fail. In the petroleum refining business, even a minor lapse/unsafe behavior by employees or contractors has the potential to lead to total disaster. Organizational efficiency is also hampered by the fact that we have inherited a number of beliefs and behaviour patterns from bygone and simpler days. The results of a well-planned and implemented behavioural safety system can lead to inculcating workforce stewardship of safety systems, lesser accidents or incidents, near misses and property damage, acceptance of the safety systems and increased reporting of defects, near misses, and accidents.

ARL Behavioural Study ARL developed a customized behavioural assessment tool to gauge employees' behaviour. A psychoanalysis of about 188 employees working in plants, crude and product-handling departments specifically. Operations, Maintenance and HSEQ departments were initially targeted through the customized workplace questionnaire and one-on-one interviews. 19 cross-departmental interviewers were selected from different disciplines to allow the interviewee to answer candidly. Standardized questioning style and recording techniques in a warm and accepting environment were followed to eliminate biases. The questionnaire comprised of 32 questions divided into the following 8 categories: attitude towards safety within the department; personal attitude towards safety; working conditions at workplace; supervisor attitude to worker safety; job loyalty shown by the employee; mployees attitude and commitment towards safety; training provided /needed; and employees' view of HSEQ department

Data Analysis The answers to the 32 questions were given a score ranging from 1 to 4, keeping in view the criticality and nature of the category and ARL's safety culture. The employees' scores were calculated as a whole, as well as for each of the eight areas. A benchmark was obtained by alloting numbers to the highest scores in each of the eight areas with the highest number attached to the desired safety behaviour. A final benchmark of '76' was fixed for the most desirable safety behavior. After getting quantitative data for 188 employees, the scores were categorized into four grades.

Therapy and Counselling Needed The results of this study revealed that 23 percent of the employees had a score equal to or less than 60 and require ARL's immediate attention and therapy and counseling to avoid any misfortune. Majority of the employees - 73 percent - had a score between 60 and 76 (grade B) and required group therapy.

Summarized Results of Behavioural Safety Study Grades

Number of Percent- Type of employees age therapy (total 1988) required

Grade "A" (>75)

9

5

No

Grade "B" (>60 & <76)

137

73

Group

Grade "C" (>50 & <61)

37

20

Individual

Grade "D" (<51)

5

3

Individual

Ensuing Actions Taken The findings of the study were used by ARL to prioritize training needs for groups of workers, based on their behavioural patterns. The study identified and revealed employees' attitudes, behavioural patterns and potential to engage in unsafe behavior. Based on these results, ARL carried out subsequent planning and developed customized training programmes and individual/group therapies, which are continually used in ARL, to rectify negative behavioural aspects of personality. editorial note: This case study is a self-presented case study by the organization profiled herein. The TBL team has accepted and published it for reader informational purposes, but does not take responsibility for the verifiability of the presumptions or facts included herein.

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futuristic angle

future scape: an organization of one by ramla akhtar for tbl

The Shift: From Dis-integrity to Integrity Traditional organizations were built on a model that separates ownership and management from employees. It was a good idea for its time, when it was possible for organizations that had more knowledge and access to resources to, essentially exploit the public. Traditional organizations have built-in impediments to healthy communication such as the fact that communications flow primarily top down and the organizations follow a controloriented approach based on division of labour which can ultimately reduce productivity. Now, times have changed. Knowledge is dispersed and has become so accessible that one is just a Google search away from the leading theories, formulas, how-to's and news. There has been an 'acceleration' in our learning curve - which means that each subsequent generation of humans takes much less time to become more efficient. The world is flatter. Secrets are open. Payments can be made online from peopleto-people. A mobile phone gives a Pakistani villager access to his commodity's buyers, and Buddhist monks are urged by their spiritual leaders to practice "engaged Buddhism". Employees are engaging directly with markets via blogs and social networking websites such as Facebook. Despite the traditional mindset that still exists to some degree in organizations, convergence in a social, political, technical, and moral sense is taking place. As a result of this universal shift, organizations are changing too.

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The Contemporary Organization

Self-Organizing Ends Forced Structures

The emerging organization is breaking down the divides between owner, manager, and employee: all roles are assumed by one person or group. Generally it all starts with an idea around which a group of free agents or entrepreneurs gather. They are highly-skilled individuals who have a common interest and divide the task among themselves according to their individual skills. The work is project-based, and legal relationships are 'open'. Contracts are not enslaving and group members may have other project engagements.

Free will and the strength of the group's relationship and integrity determine their sticking power. Because they are accountable to themselves, internal regulations and self-scrutiny allows them to stay competitive. Corrections are made as performance or capability gaps arise. An organization based on such a model is vulnerable to shift because "managers" cannot exploit "employees" or fib about their performance to "shareholders." Therefore, it constantly scrutinizes the external scenario to study opportunities or threats. Because such an organization is

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A Disintegrated Organization

Core Idea

An Integrated Organization

basically an idea "hub" around which skills have gathered as 'spokes' to get things rolling, it is knowledgeable on its own design and area of expertise. Change, to the members of an intelligent organization, is a matter of perceiving things accurately and swiftly. As well as they perceive change, they can modify their own selves; they are not required to convince a separate entity (an owner, manager, employee). Hence, they evolve to suit the new circumstances. This is called "selforganization." (Not very different from how the very intelligent "virus" works!)

Why Traditional Disintegrity No Longer Works Most of the troubles harrowing today's organizations are rooted in their disintegrated structure, which pits one part against another. It is a bit like the heart of a body taking a disliking to the stomach. The results are not nice! Employee care and growth is seen as a cost. Because the home is not the office manager's problem, there is a divide between work and life, with one competitive to another. This has led to high emotional and healthcare costs globally, followed by turnover. Curiously, this set-up perceives the world as hostile. It is geared to exploit more than just the competitors. With the increased awareness of the downsides of this approach has come around a doubt about the workability of this model. The truth is that this structure will not cut it any longer in a world where people are joining hands to save the planet and themselves and walls are being torn down.

How Integrated Organizations are Better These organizations cut through layers of expensive hierarchy and the ensuing resentment. Collaboration is not just a new tool. It is a characteristic of such organizations. Decisionmaking is transparent, speedy, and agile. This subtle shift translates into a dramatic reduction in litigation. Diversity emerges as the group automatically senses its "gaps" and fills them. There is no third-policy to bow to even when it's flying in the face of common sense. People set rules, not vice versa. Work is based on passion - a requirement as today's work requires high levels of knowledge, agility, and personal insight. Being passionate about your work is important as this fosters inspiration, creativity and innovation. The possibilities to a satisfied and creative person's contributions are limitless!

Through their very design, such organizations are both geared to and restricted to contribute, else they will disintegrate as no policy nor external funding nor can lies protect them from external scrutiny. The final measure of the goodness of these organizations is their contribution to the larger community. Three special cases of contribution possibilities are presented below: Case 1: Innate Corporate Social Responsibility Whose responsibility is the community anyway, when the elements of an organization itself don't get together? The issue of an irresponsible organization could be closely related to its elements being competitive to each other. They are designed not to collaborate. Is it not surprising that as children we sincerely want to make the world a better place, and as adults, we derive our earnings from exploiting it? This personal-professional ethical dissonance is based in a lack of ownership. The essence of Al Gore's environmental campaign is that: "You cannot teach a man something if his salary depends on not understanding it." If salary is tied to performance, which is measured as reduced (internal) cost at any (external) cost, it is easy to see that this math puts the business interest as inverse to the community's. When a person owns a small business, it is likely to be close to his/her home, or in his/her home. That is also true for an entrepreneurs' group. Their children, family, friends, and lungs are breathing in that environment. Peace and security affect them. Social bonds exist within that area. This exerts not just an invisible social pressure, but more importantly, it creates an internal urge for responsibility. The entrepreneurs are directly answerable to themselves and to their families. They can now manage their work and life, and are aware that others in the group have similar priorities.

but genuine human beings with whom they have a personal relationship. This creates an entirely new ethic. Case 2: A Faster Company Built on Trust I recently lunched with a group of bloggers headed by a team that proposed a code of ethics - which turned out to be a result of their own past 'worst practices'. Everyone laughed and the larger group decided this code is not in the spirit of blogging; but can be turned into guidelines on how to have a more interactive or professional blog. Business opportunities were swapped and deals were closed; all at the speed of a launch. Such fast organization was made possible by the trust that a blogger is ethically responsible to other bloggers not just by a sense of community, but also by a fear of earning a nasty blog entry in case of defection! Case 3: Entrepreneurship Without Cubicle Borders 'The Hub' is an idea for a collaborative space for change agents. It started in London and has spread to other cities. Shared space is rented by hours, and free agents sit in an open space designed for communication and collaboration. Typically the projects are social or civic in nature. Multi-disciplinary teams form and gather in the physical space, and the culture is selfevolving. Projects include women's art businesses to technology camps and films. Start-ups are born here. This is the new shape of the collaborative enterprise.

about the writer Ramla is a social designer, futurist, and writer. Her futurist consultancy, "NEXT> by Ramla," is geared to design fresh solutions for contemporary opportunities and challenges. She can be reached at [email protected]

The group members do not see each other as 'bits' of contract or policy, july-august 2008

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indus basin irrigation system report

indus basin irrigation system of pakistan Pakistan, a country of enchanting landscapes offers a combination of beaches, mountains, beautiful deserts and valleys. Its vast farm lands are sustained by the Indus Basin Irrigation System (IBIS), the largest contiguous irrigation system in the world. The IBIS irrigates 45 million acres of farm land which produces wheat, rice, fruits, vegetables, sugarcane, maize and cotton in abundance for local use as well as for export. This report provides the historical context in which the IBIS was developed. It discusses the economic impact of the IBIS on Pakistan, and provides recommendations for some current problems related to insufficient drainage and inefficient farming practices.

Historical Background The Indus Valley has been the host to one of the most ancient civilization of human history, the Indus Valley Civilization. After the extinction of the Indus Civilization, new settlements especially in doabs grew slowly. New irrigation systems started to evolve. Inundation canals and small dams were constructed and population grew all around this area. In order to reduce the occurrence of low irrigation water supply the British authorities, towards the middle of the last century, started modernizing and expanding the irrigation system of the Indus Basin.

Treaty Between Pakistan and India In 1947, the Indian sub continent was partitioned by the British into two independent states Pakistan and India. After the partition a commission was set up to resolve any issue that may emerge as a consequence of the 38

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by fazlur rahman siddiqi for tbl

partition. The matter of utilization of water resources of Indus Basin was raised by Pakistan. The boundary commission, chaired by Sir Cyril Radcliff, awarded control barrages (situated very close to the border) to India, while 90 percent of irrigated land lay in Pakistan. After a protracted negotiation of ten years through facilitation of the World Bank, the Indus Basin Treaty was signed by India and Pakistan in 1960 for distribution of water resources in the Indus Basin. According to the terms of the treaty India was given the exclusive use of the waters of the eastern rivers namely Ravi, Sutlej and Beas. Pakistan was not given its full historic share and was allocated only 75 percent of its legitimate share of the waters in Indus Basin. Consequently, Pakistan agreed to embark upon a gigantic project nicknamed as "Indus Basin Replacement Works". The extensive undertaking involved the construction of two major dams, five barrages and eight link canals.

Pakistan's IBIS Pakistan's economy is largely based on its agricultural produce. Water is therefore a critical resource for its sustained economic development. In order to fully utilize the river water resources, the IBIS has emerged as the largest contiguous irrigation system in the world. The IBIS comprises of three large dams, eighty five small dams, nineteen barrages, twelve inter-river link canals, forty-five canal commands and 0.7 million tube wells In monetary terms, this network is the biggest infrastructure enterprise of Pakistan accounting for approximately US$ 300 billion of investment.

Water Ability of the IBIS There are three main sources of water availability in the Indus Basin: A. The average annual flow of Western Rivers of Indus Basin is approximately 142 million acre feet (MAF). About 104 MAF of this water is diverted for irrigation purposes and about 35 million acre feet outflows to the Arabian Sea.

logging and salinity. The problem is currently being addressed through construction of a network of disposal drains, many of which have been completed while more are under execution.

The Economic Impact of Indus Basin Irrigation System The agricultural produce, in addition to providing food security constitutes: A. 23 percent of GDP B. 70 percent of total export earnings C. 54 percent employment of labour force The overwhelming majority of its produce comes from the areas irrigated in the Indus Basin. The IBIS is therefore essential in sustaining the agriculture and consequently economic well-being of Pakistan. The Indus Basin now serves as the bread basket of Pakistan. Its land use is furnished below.

B. Rain Water: Another source of water is the rain fall. Irrigated areas of Indus Basin receive on average 40 million acres feet of water annually. C. Ground Water: The third source of water is the ground water. It provides approximately 40 percent of crop water requirements of the country.

Challenges in Indus Basin Irrigation System For any sustainable irrigation system that is dependent on river water supplies, it is necessary to have a system of affluent disposal. However, when the British engineers designed and constructed the barrages and canals in Punjab and Sindh, they did not install an affluent disposal system. This lack of an affluent disposal system gave rise to the twin problems of water

potentially serve to address this issue: 1. Increase plantation of fruit trees. 2. Expand forested areas. 3. All existing dams small and large should be used for fish breeding and harvesting. 4. Develop agricultural based industries and timber factories in the rural areas to provide employment to small farmers and increase the percentage of value added goods for export. 5. Group small farms into larger units for cooperative farming using the latest irrigation and farming techniques and modern agricultural practices. 6. Increase the production of beans, lentils and edible oil seeds to reduce their imports. 7. Develop pastures for cattle farming and increase milk and meat production. 8. Big land holdings more than five thousand acres of area should be made available for co operative farming. 9. The level and standard of research should be enhanced in the existing agricultural universities of Pakistan.

LAND USE IN PAKISTAN CATEGORY 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

AREA (MH) (MA)

Geographical Area (total area) Area suitable for agriculture Irrigated + Barani Irrigated area by all sources Additional area that can be brought under irrigated agriculture

Current Problems and Recommendations Farmers in Pakistan receive their share of irrigation waters on a rotational basis. To protect the right of share of their water, the farmers are using more than the optimum quantity of water required for healthy crops. Lack of modern irrigation techniques and agricultural practices further add to the wastage of irrigation water. Some solutions outlined below can

79.3 31.2 22.1 18.0

196.0 77.1 54.5 44.5

9.2

22.6

about the writer Fazlur Rahman Siddiqi is Member Federal (Retd.) of Indus River System Authority, Government of Pakistan, Islamabad.

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opinion: consumer protection

consumer: king or slave? by hamid maker for tbl

T

he consumer: the king, the epitome of the downstream value chain; the recipient of massive corporate efforts. Or corporate scams? Misleading advertisements? Victim of hoarding practices?

Consumer Ethics and CSR CSR is beyond the letter of the law. It embodies the spirit of trust, respect for the rules of trade, environment and society's, including consumers' interest. It is about how corporations meet the true needs of society and how it avoids unethical business practices or misinformation. CSR is foremostly about how a company makes its money. We must ask if the company's core business itself is adding real value to its consumers, for instance by selling a harmful, addictive substance, or by selling nutritionally fortified food at affordable prices. A progressive and socially responsible corporation sets its own code of ethics and respects and acknowledges its responsibilities, which are practiced by its employees at all levels. Thus protecting employees and consumers. From the consumers' point of view, a socially responsible corporation should also be concerned about the needs of its consumers. It should ensure that it provides good quality products at a fair price to them and does not exploit consumers, especially children, with misleading and unethical

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advertisements. It should ensure that their products and production processes do not cause any damage to human or environmental environment.

supporters' who depend on them and have trust in them to maintain quality and standards and observe and respect local and international laws.

Some basic consumer rights include: the right to safety, the right to be informed, the right to choose, the right to be heard, and the right to consumer education.

CSR: A Growing Need

A socially responsible corporation offers superior values to its customers by acknowledging social responsibilities. It is the moral and ethical obligation of corporations, who believe in Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP), to observe a code of conduct in manufacturing, marketing and advertising. Corporations have a moral responsibility to their 'brand

CSR is a growing need in today's complex business environment and prudent corporations have realized that their role is not only to make profits, but also to be recognized as socially responsible enterprises. As such, the concept of CSR is assuming new dimensions. Leading corporations must set a positive example which others can follow. At present the general perception of a corporate organization is that it is out just to make money. This perception has to be changed and a relationship between corporate

citizens and consumers citizens has to be established.

Why CSR? A big question is why would companies accept CSR? The answer is, because the public expects the businesses to help the community in different ways and to invest back into the customers to whom they sell their products. Companies must have a sense of responsibility towards the society from which they earn their profits. Their executives must be men of ethics, with strong social commitments and who can transform their ideas and vision of corporate ethics into corporate responsibility. This will in turn create greater customer loyalty towards businesses resulting in increased sales. Social groups and public opinion would support plant expansions, innovation, and introduction of new brands and products and so on.

CSR = Corporate Philanthropy? CSR in Pakistan, to a large extent, seems to focus on how much corporations contribute and donate to health, environment and education programmes, and overlooks its moral obligations and commitment to consumers. If corporations do not serve society and their consumers in letter and in spirit, then there will be a gradual breakdown of trust and respect for corporations and we will witness a growing 'anti-corporate' movement. In order to protect consumers from unscrupulous manufacturers, good manufacturing practices and CSR must be encouraged. Corporations must step forward and and set an example and voluntarily observe principles of business ethics by providing quality products at a fair price to consumers. This involves the efforts business organizations undertake to meet their responsibilities both at economic and social levels. Consumers,

for example, expect manufacturers to supply reliable, quality and safe products at a fair price. Stockholders demand that corporate operations be managed efficiently and that their investments be rewarded by dividends or improved market value. As such, a balance has to be found and a relationship between top management's commitment to ethics and its commitment to financial concerns has to be established. CSR is a long-term investment, but one that is very lucrative as it pays very high dividends. It differentiates a corporation from the others and creates customer satisfaction and brand loyalty.

Stakeholder Relationships and Sustainability Good corporate citizenship cannot be easily imitated because it is based on sustainable relationships that the organization creates with all of its stakeholders. This means that corporations effectively manage stakeholder relationships and engage with their stakeholders in a proactive manner. They contribute to the wellbeing of all stakeholders and the community at large to promote sustainable growth and development. For instance, consumers enjoy the benefits of this commitment directly, because a good corporation treats them fairly and continuously strives to satisfy their changing needs. Such actions help forge tight bonds with consumers, employees, suppliers, and community leaders. Recently, a leading corporation introduced strict environmental standards for the packaging of the products it stocks. This sent a very positive message to its customers, that is, that the corporation 'cares' and is socially responsible.

CSR Challenges in Pakistan

regulations for their operations. These rules are legal bindings, regulating the institutions to behave in a particular manner. However, for CSR, there are no specific legal or binding rules. Due to the absence of consumer protection laws and poor and/or lack of enforcement of existing laws, sub-standard and counterfeit products have flooded third-world markets and consumers are blatantly cheated and misled by glossy and misleading advertisements. A sad example is our markets, where over 50 percent of the products Pakistani consumers buy, are either sub-standard, adulterated or counterfeit. Unscrupulous manufacturers refill empty bottles and tins of branded products and spurious and counterfeit products are being produced and marketed under brand names, cheating the consumers, who think they are paying for branded products. In order to combat this menace, an aggressive campaign must be launched against these unscrupulous manufacturers, who are deliberately cheating the consumers with sub-standard and counterfeit products and gaining ill-gotten profits. Just establishing consumer laws and standards is not sufficient in developing countries, where laws are flouted with impunity. As such, a procedure by which governments are obligated to enforce consumer laws and standards, must be given due and urgent priority and attention.

about the writer Hamid Maker is the mastermind behind Helpline Trust, which advocates good governance, accountability and a code of conduct in government and society and encompasses the enforcement of the rule of law - to improve the quality of life of the populace. After acquiring his education from UK, Hamid Maker joined his family business and following his retirement, the Helpline Trust was inaugurated.

Businesses and social bodies across the globe are regulated by rules and july-august 2008

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5 minutes with the ceo

csr: 5 minutes with the ceo by michael hopkins for tbl

Evidence is accumulating that Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is good for business in the medium to long term. CSR is, simply, about treating your stakeholders in an ethically responsible way. It takes time to put into practice and is not without cost. But there are commercial benefits which justify the time and effort.

contractors and secondary stakeholders - environment, government, community, etc. Ethics is a bit like beauty, you know it when you see it but find it difficult to define!

Understand available CSR measures.

Second, what are the key advantages of being socially responsible? The main ones are: Reputation is improved among staff and customers .

Decide on whether to produce a social report.

CEOs - with a few exceptions don't have much time, a problem made worse by the fact that they tend to last in their positions, on average, about 4 years. At a recent CSR conference, sponsored by MHC International Ltd (MHCi), a former CEO said with some humour "the first year is getting to know the job, the fourth year is spent working out how to save your job year and so there are only two years in which a CEO can take on a cynical Board and fight for CSR". More seriously, he advised CSR professionals to be more commercial - if they are lucky, they will initially have at most 5 minutes to convince a CEO of the merits of a CSR policy. So what should an advocate of CSR say?

Productivity is improved through increased innovation and efficiency.

There are Four Main Points: First, what is CSR all about? The definition above, 'treating stakeholders in an ethically responsible' way begs, of course, the questions of who are the stakeholders and how to treat them ethically. It is becoming accepted that there are primary stakeholders - management, shareholders, owners, employees, consumers,

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Shareholder value is increased as social investment funds target the company. The customer base is widened with no risk of losing existing ones. Motivation and commitment of staff is improved. Recruitment of young bright people is enhanced. Personal satisfaction of management is increased. Third, what are the main steps that need to be taken? These steps will, of course, build upon many activities already underway but probably in different departments, divisions and countries. Thus what does business need, at minimum, to do? This is likely to proceed in stages but immediate actions would include: Win Board support for the introduction of a CSR policy. Lead from the front. Appoint a CSR manager, but keep responsibility shared.

Decide upon the key stakeholders. Take stock of measures already underway.

Report adherence to standards, be open. Contribute to CSR dialogue. Fourth, what are the costs likely to be? These are: Increased costs of focus group sessions with stakeholders. CSR manager and budget. Training of staff on CSR. Production, publication and distribution of social report. Website section devoted to CSR. At the recent ESCP-EAP European Management Conference in Paris for business students, the role of the CEO in driving the CSR process was highlighted as crucial: as the captain of his/her ship of commerce, what is needed is not an engine to power the ship, nor a rudder to steer but a compass to point the way. CSR is that compass.

about the writer Dr. Michael Hopkins is Managing Director of MHC International Ltd (MHCi) and is an economist specialising in socio-economic issues. He has broad international experience and almost two decades of action in CSR.

book in focus

mad, sad and bad management by fariha rashed for tbl

"I believe skepticism & doubt are the first steps to knowledge" says Adrian Furnham, author of the book Mad, Sad & Bad Management. This rather amusing and enlightening book includes an abundance of analyses on aspects of contemporary business and management. Its central theme is focused on incompetence rather than competence, stupidity rather than wisdom and insanity rather than sanity. Instead of painting a rosy picture about Business Management, this book takes a keen, rather than a pessimistic look at management practices, managers and management science. The book commences with a bang! An aperitif stating that the essays within the book all focus on people problems. The aperitif further describes the kind of people running businesses, as well as those working beneath these more often than not "difficult, demanding, deranged" senior managers. The author explains that people of a certain nature are attracted to particular sorts of jobs "obsessives are attracted to 'checkjobs' like quality control, health and safety and so on". The section 'Under New Management' is quite an informative read as Adrian analyses the dramatic effect of a change of board in any business. The change usually always takes place at the top level, when quite suddenly the company sees an altered management team. Here the author draws comparison with what is imperative to ensure the smooth sailing of an oil tanker - "If a good manager puts in place procedures and processes that work, after a time, one has a smooth operation; a happy ship, a nicely tuned engine." Adrian goes on to suggest that new management usually overturns all policies, proceedings, processes and products of the previous boss in attempt to come across as unique and 'in charge from now on'. The rest of the book is broken down like a dictionary with each chapter soto-speak, beginning with a letter of the alphabet [A to Z]. Some fifty short essays of 800-2000 words on some characteristic of modern business or

companies rely on while selecting who they hire. He lists the seven secrets of a highly successful company.

management can be found within these pages. The author explains that the source of inspiration for these essays are: [1] 'serious' academic literature on management [2] popular how-to-do-it books written by selfappointed experts [3] newspaper reports / magazine articles on managers and management by 'lazy journalists'. The book covers aspects of management such as appraisal schemes, the ugly reality of business travel made to "look stylish, romantic, even exotic", creativity and how to measure it, culture change and how to manage it, fitting the right person to the job [or vice versa?], growth, development and getting wiser, guru babble [i.e. management science], how to manage holiday stress, whether integrity can be measured or not, job analysis, managerial courage or as Adrian describes it "people walking over hot coals", managing the underperformer, and managing the customer-facing employee who often deals and behaves with clients as his manager deals and behaves with him [a trickledown effect]. Adrian goes on to talk about the natural history of management fads, stating that stressed managers follow the age old trend of finding "cheap, quick and effective solutions to their intractable problems" never realizing that they don't exist. The author draws a parallel with food diets that never work. Adrian also writes about and criticizes references as a source of data

The book similar to the Aperitif in the beginning, ends with a substantial digestif where the author describes four sub-civilizations which according to him dominate the business world the Saxon, Teutonic, Gallic and Nipponic. He also dwells here upon corporate and national culture and how it may or may not affect competence within an organization. Adrian goes on to talk about the approaches used to describe culture and its impact - these he labels as the Categorical and Dimensional Approaches. In his section on Corruption and Incompetence Adrian ponders over and discusses whether it is possible to be competent in a corrupt organization or country. Of particular importance in this section is The 2001 Corruption Perceptions Table which is a corruption index published every year by various organizations. It reflects the degree to which corruption is perceived to exist among public officials and politicians - Pakistan is ranked as one of the most corrupt in this table, with a score of 2.3. Finland is listed as the least corrupt of all. This is a book to be immersed into as a reader. The author, being a professor in psychology at the University of London, has delved more on the psychological effects of business management aspects. The reader must be warned that Adrian has challenged set business / management practices and forced one to think logically about what makes companies and the individuals working in them, competent. The language used is witty, and at times sarcastic [maybe a tad too much in places!]. The book is an easy read, owing to the way it has been broken down. Overall the book is informative and may end up changing ones opinion on quite a few important aspects of business management. It may infuriate the reader at times, but it is guaranteed to educate also!

july-august 2008

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musings

do more by praetor for tbl

"Government of the people, for the people, by the people," so spoke Abraham Lincoln, the sixteenth President of the United States in 1863. All very well and it works for many. But the reference to Lincoln here is not to launch into a political discourse on the merits and shortcomings of popular democracy. It is just to highlight that the proverbial 'people' came into the spotlight of good governance a long time ago, even if at a governmental level if not at a corporate or the commercial world level. For until very recent years - past 3 decades at best - the 'people' did not really figure in the governance style of the corporate sector. At least not beyond in a handful of countries. Even at the political level, not all were equal. Remember that discrimination against Afro-Americans in the USA did not taper off until the late 1950's. When Lincoln espoused people power in 1863, the world population was about 1.3 billion. Today it is over 6.8 billion. An over 420 percent increase in less than 150 years. The planet is bursting at its seams with humanity and dying from the pressures this humanity is imposing on it. Today it is clear that addressing people issues, be it the global food crisis or high energy

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costs or any other, cannot remain solely the responsibility of governments. Everyone has to play a part, and for stakeholder mapping we can look at civil society in terms of layers. So we start at the individual and go on to the family, neighbourhood, city, state and country. Then we add in layers on functionality basis in between, where each fits in - local government, associations, professionals, academia, media and of course the corporate sector. All are important stakeholders. Perhaps the corporate sector needs to 'do more', relative to the other stakeholders. Why? For the simple reason that if society does not progress and prosper there will increasingly be fewer takers for the goods and services that the corporate sector is churning out. So strengthening civil society becomes a self-serving goal if nothing else. Logically speaking, the contribution to a cause from any source must be a balance of how important that cause is to the source and the capability of the source to address the issue. In the case of an individual (lowest layer of civil society) an issue like the world food crisis may be directly relevant or quite important because for the

individual it means rapidly rising prices and even non-availability of foodstuffs. But the capability of an individual to do something about the crisis is quite limited. By comparison the global food crisis may not be that important directly for the corporate sector as a whole, but certainly its ability to help alleviate the crisis will be substantially larger than that of the individual's. Larger not only in terms of financial outlay that can be spent, but larger also in terms of structural direction and logistics support that the corporate sector can extend with its huge and multidisciplinary human resource expertise, its trans-national and multinational presence and its invaluable inroads into the opinionforming and decision-making process at all levels, from the legislature and the executive at the individual governmental level to the policy formulators at the level of international developmental and financial institutions. And so the “CSR of the company, by the company and for the people” must assume an increasingly larger role as world population continues to grow unchecked and available resources of all kinds continue to be used up at an alarming rate, some if not most, being irreplaceable.