A company needs a clearly defined purpose for corporate social responsibility initiatives, said Wipro Chairman, Azim Premji, at the 40th National Management Convention here on Thursday.
“By defining a purpose, things fall in place and it gives a good opportunity to attract the right people for CSR initiatives. It also helps in clearly defining their roles and what output is expected of them,” he said.
Second, the size of the project must be proportionate to the company’s affordability. Third, focus is very essential. You can’t be doing 15 different things. You must identify one area and focus on it, Premji said.
Wipro works towards improving education especially primary school and “works very actively with 32 partners across the country and another 20 partners little less actively”.
It also works towards upgrading the quality of engineering colleges. He added that the company has about 12 full time professors across teaching institutes and has trained more than 25,000 teachers. It has also worked closely with schools in rural areas.
Fourth, one must understand that while you can bring principles of business to CSR, both initiatives are fundamentally different. CSR requires more patience and sensitivity towards environment. And lastly, it is not a substitute for personal philanthropy. While, both are equally important, there is a difference between the company’s CSR activities and personal philanthropy, he said.