Shruti Kasat 34, Al Sabbat Street

+971 522 657 795

Skasat2016@student.hult.edu

1/9/2016

To,

Editor in Chief,

Financial Times

Please find below my opinion editorial on “Purpose of Business in Society”.

Making profit is crux of any business. A lot of buzz is happening around purpose of

business being well-being of society. I beg to differ. While environmental

sustenance and uplifting of people have become organizational hot potatoes,

they still do not qualify to be a purpose of running any business. In my opinion, a

business is run for creating value for its owners. If there were no rules and regulations

enforced by government or the judicial system, concept of corporate social

responsibility would be most likely kept on the back burner.

Profitability of business is such a core that a multi-million campaign of Mark

Zuckerberg “Free Basics” - giving free access to basic internet connectivity, is being

given a cold shoulder by millions in India. They cannot digest the fact that Free

Basics is trying to connect the world without making money out of it.

Having said that, I also agree that in the world we are living in, it is impossible to

sustain a business if you do not include environment and society in your business

model. Volkswagen’s emission scandal is a pertinent example of how awareness

and technology is a lethal combination. In this age of media network, excluding

environment is reprimanded and comes at a cost of brand degradation. This leads

to a domino effect of employee dissatisfaction and higher attrition rates. And all

this boils down to hurt the purpose of business – profitability. From my personal

experience, Accenture’s rise in Great Place to Work with (GPTW) ranking affected

the profitability of the organization. It proves that societal inclusiveness is a means

to achieve the purpose of business.

The converse is also true i.e. achieving the purpose of business results in societal

inclusiveness. Let me elaborate this with some timeline events of my family. I have

grown up in a family of businessmen. From my forefathers being a grain merchant,

my dad has come a long way to become the first exporter of coriander seeds to

Southeast Asia in his region. This prosperity brought reforms to lives of people

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employed by the business. While the purpose remained to sustain and reach

unprecedented profitability, it brought along with it changes in standard of living.

When a new corporate spin-off was created in Mumbai, it gave an opportunity to

lot of employees to settle there - a far off dream for them otherwise.

To conclude, society is defined to a great extent by the business it fosters. While the

purpose of existence of any business is making profits, the symbiotic relationship

between business, and welfare of people and environment cannot be

underestimated. Factors such as cruelty to animals have emerged as causes for

deteriorated brand value and time is not far when the customers will make choices

based on a company’s carbon footprints as well. Moving forward, it will be an

interesting time to accommodate these factors in business strategies and attain

the purpose of business – profitability.

Warm regards,

Shruti Kasat