10-06-27 No 3 CSR in the community - NBI - The Himalayan Times
10-07-11 No 5 CSR - only for big business houses - NBI - The Himalayan Times
1. responsiblebusiness
Catrin Froehlich
Kathmandu
C
orporate Social Responsi-
bility (CSR) has become a
buzz-word among the big-
ger business houses in
Nepal, like it has all over the
world. The term ‘corporate’
however, can be misleading
since the concept, in fact, ap-
plies to all business entities
and entrepreneurs indepen-
dent of their size. A more
comprehensive term to de-
scribe the same concept
would be ‘Responsible Busi-
ness Practices’.
Even though the bigger en-
tities, particularly multina-
tionals usually develop more
formal strategies and in-
clude them well in their PR
strategies it is equally impor-
tant for SMEs and even mi-
cro-businesses to be respon-
sive to their stakeholders’
needs.
For a small teashop owner
in a village, the dissatisfac-
tion of only one customer
might have catastrophic con-
sequences if this customer
has a considerable influence
within the limited market.
Due to this innate trans-
parency and the direct im-
pact of stakeholders, micro-
businesses naturally have to
take their responsibility to-
wards their business part-
ners very seriously.
When a business grows
into a small or medium size,
it needs to adapt its strate-
gies as its impact and respon-
sibility grows. As non-family
members are employed,
there will be new expecta-
tions towards the owner. As
he or she will not directly
oversee all activities any
more he or she will have to
define standards of opera-
tions to ensure the quality of
services, products and mar-
keting. As the environmental
impact increases, he or she
will have to take measures to
assure that it does not affect
stakeholders negatively.
The responsibilities in-
crease as the numbers of
stakeholders and the scope of
organisational impact in-
creases. However, whether
we call the concept CSR or
‘Responsible Business Prac-
tices’ it applies to businesses
of all types and scales as all
of them depend on the good-
will of their environment.
The author is a CSR Expert
at National Business
Initiative (NBI) and can be
contacted at catrin.froehlich
@cimonline.de
CSR – only for big
business houses?
