[PEN-L:30372] Re: Re: India

["Anthony D'Costa" <dcosta@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Here are some Indian corporate "admissions":

CII NEWS
Press Releases : 2002 : September

ATTACK POVERTY TO DEFEND PROSPERITY: BANGA

Poverty is the biggest enemy of peace and democracy and the only way to
defend prosperity is to find ways to attack it. This was stated by Mr M S
Banga, Chairman, Hindustan Lever Ltd while addressing the Leadership
Summit, organized by the Confederation of Indian Industry.

According to Mr Banga, a true partnership between the government and
industry, by involving all the stakeholders of the society and identifying
the mutuality of interests was required to fight the biggest threat to the
country.

Stating that fruits of globalisation have not filtered down to the common
masses of the country, Mr Banga urged the corporate leaders of the country
to contribute to the nations development by keeping the economic growth
going and by driving the GDP growth to 8%. According to him, business
leaders can play a major role by building a relationship across all
stakeholders of the society. He further said that the government needs to
improve its framework constantly and the reform process should not get
derailed.

Stating that profitability should not be the sole criterion of judging a
corporates performance and that corporates should look beyond at
shareholders value, Mr Banga said that a sum total of interests of all
stakeholders of the society should be taken into consideration as it has a
profound impact on the business of any organization. Business of any
organisation can only succeed on a long term basis when interests of all
the stakeholders of the society are safeguarded.

Its is all about cultural responsibility which should be built by leaders
and driven by the people of an organization," Mr Banga said. According to
him, truth, courage, action and caring were the four cultural values which
were required for the success of any organisation on a long term basis.

Stating that HLL is an institution with a culture of values, Mr Banga
cited the various social programmes that the company has undertaken as a
course to nation building. Mr Banga explained the massive health education
programme undertaken by HLL in Kerala to create awareness about diarrhea.
According to him, it is both a marketing and communication strategy
undertaken by HLL and the government both of whom would tend to gain if
health hygiene awareness goes up. In Andhra Pradesh, HLL is helping out
rural women by employing them to act as ambassadors to distribute HLLs
products in remote areas. While this act has added to the self respect of
these women by helping them monetarily, HLL penetration in the rural areas
has increased over the years.

Mr Banga further said that safeguarding the interests of both shareholders
and employees of an organization also are crucial to success. Providing
opportunity for personal self development, assuring them of protection and
retaining them on a long term basis would benefit any organization, he
added. At the same time, a strict code of ethics should also be followed
in an organization.

Mr Narayana Murthy, Chairman and Chief Mentor, Infosys Technologies Ltd,
in his address said that the greatest challenge for the corporate leaders
today is to build trust among the stakeholders of the society on business
and improve the credibility of the CEOs. According to him, building trust
requires an environment of transparency and disclosure standards, he
added.

Citing the examples of recent failures of corporate governance in the US
and Europe, Mr Murthy said that every aspect of corporate behaviour is
under scrutiny and skepticism. Get rich quick syndrome created in the 90s
with advent of IT and the dotcom revolution, has further widened the gap
between the highest paid and lowest paid corporate employees. As a result,
respectability has gone out of fashion and getting rich is the trend
today.

According to Mr Murthy, ethical behaviour and good leadership have become
crucial for good corporate governance and good relationship is all about
character. He thus was of the opinion that a code of conduct should be
evolved with the help of organizations like CII to promote the value of
ethics in organizations. This would help in bringing about transparency
and openness in the organization and would lead to common good for all as
well as benefit the organization.

Mr Murthy was also of the opinion that simple rules -- easy to follow,
understand and communicate -- should be adopted by the corporate leaders
and complex rules should be translated into simple ones by the CEOs. At
the same time, a harsh and strict penalty code should be adopted to keep
the ethical value alive, he added.

Thus maximizing shareholders value on a sustainable basis while ensuring
transparency and fairness to all the stakeholders of the society should be
the guiding principle for corporates, according to Mr Murthy.

Mr Sam Pitroda, CEO, World Tel, in his address said that leadership was
all about leading an organization. A leader must have vision and his role
is critical in all walks of life, he maintained.

He said that Mahatma Gandhi was the greatest ever leader in the last
century. Just by picking up salt, he could mobilize millions and that was
his greatest quality. Gandhi had a clear vision, communication methods,
character and tools to lead the nation, he added.

Mr Pitroda said that a leader must have eight qualities which included a
proper vision, values, character, love for people, discipline truth,
simplicity, sacrifice, real understanding of the organization and a
missionary zeal to be effective. He also said that conflict resolution and
evolving consensus were the other two big challenges facing a leader.

Mr Arun Maira, Chairman, The Leadership Summit and Chairman Boston
Consulting Group, in his introductory remarks said that effective
leadership was a key to rapid development and it was the leaders who
brought in changes in institutions. Leaders were different from managers
as it was leaders who create new institutions.

Mr Tarun Das, Director General, CII said that the need for corporates was
to identify mutuality of interests of different stakeholders of the
society and for this, the contribution of the CEOs should go beyond their
immediate interests. In his view, a true leader was one who believed in
giving and not taking, sharing and caring.

New Delhi
18 September 2002


xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Anthony P. D'Costa, Associate Professor
Comparative International Development
University of Washington			Campus Box 358436
1900 Commerce Street
Tacoma, WA 98402, USA

Phone: (253) 692-4462
Fax :  (253) 692-5718
xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx