Strategic Philanthropy: The new mantra

Arun Sharma

Investment Banking and Wealth Management

GMBA - April 09

On one side where strategy is usually understood as a plan of action to achieve specific goals, philanthropy essentially is a symbol of giving, possibly to charity. But these days, there is a buzz in the corporate world, besides Copenhagen. And the new buzzword is Strategic Philanthropy. While Milton Friedman insisted decades ago that the only purpose of existence of the companies is to generate profits for its shareholders, the socially conscious global citizens of 21st century are ready to turn that statement up on its head. In the present times, the shareholders are considered nothing but gamblers in the market whose expectations, if turned into corporate strategy, will translate into Only Profit, Full Stop. But it is good to see that the social awareness is increasingly becoming popular in the corporate sector.

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Innovation-Productivity-Change: A measured approach

With the ever changing global business landscape, carved by technological advances and the ongoing challenging times of recession companies are struggling to keep their heads above the water to breathe and survive. There has been a shift in the philosophy of productivity, a shift which has the potential to render the big ones helpless and the small ones with all the power. The shift is that of Innovation.

Innovation has become a buzz word with every new kid on the block, challenging the big and established ones on the grounds of innovation. Responding to the change and threat associated with innovation, firms today have become more experimental than ever with huge involvements in terms of resource and capital commitment.

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Fighting The HR War

Sameera Yargop

Global Human Resources Management

December 08

I still remember vividly the day that I decided to select HRM as my specialization in SPJCM. There’s a huge difference in how I felt about HRM then and now. Am I still starry eyed about ‘motivation’ and ‘employee relations’? No. Does the reality of it scare me? Yes. Beyond measure.

Looking past the standard ‘People are an organization’s greatest asset’ hogwash that my friends and I have so often used in B-school interviews, as I sit in class day after day it dawns on me with greater and greater enormity how HR strategy is the enforcer of that thin line between organizational balance and chaos. What would an organization’s effectiveness be without a sound compensation strategy, or a good succession plan or a fair rewards system in place? Are these systems that anyone can implement? I think not. It’s perhaps easier to sell toothpaste. J

That’s why we go to business school. To learn. To learn how one chink in the chain can lead to you losing your best resource, or how a misalignment of organizational and individual goals can lead to enormous losses or how a simple employee legislation can be used to bring down a million dollar conglomerate.

And yet, here in B-school, every day I find myself countering archaic skepticism about the very need for existence of HR. Ignorance perhaps? Maybe. Or maybe a lack of foresight to look beyond the back office functions that are also such an integral part of Human resource management.

Personally, someday as an HR head, I’d like to be in the board room making just as touch decisions as any business development or marketing head. To ensure that HR strategy contributes equally to the top line. I believe that’s only a matter of time. It’s inevitable. I also believe that this largely depends on how willing top management is to embrace this. The day the reserve dissolves, is the day that HR will turn from a ‘support function’ to a strategic contributor.