The vision
PiC believes that all human endeavours must be aimed at improving the quality of lives of all human beings and their relationship with nature in a sustainable way.

There are many people and communities who are so placed that they lack access and control over social, economic and political resources required to lead a life with dignity. This is an assault on human dignity and the right to life.

All people and institutions, including business, have a role to play in ensuring a more equitable and sustainable world.

PiC’s vision is of a world where improving the quality of life of disadvantaged people, communities and the environment is recognised and practised as an essential part of doing business.

The mission
The role of businesses in development will be most effective if it is based on an understanding of the causes of poverty and underdevelopment on the one hand and their own core competencies and comparative advantages on the other. This will enable them understand their potential to do both good and harm to society. PiC will help businesses understand this (through experiences, workshops, examples and so on) and the roles and competencies of other players in development, so as to maximise the good and minimise the harm that they can do to disadvantaged people and communities, as a part of being a responsible business.

At the same time, PiC will increase awareness amongst the traditional development players (like NGOs and the Government) of the competencies of businesses and their potential to play a positive role in development.

While businesses can and do undertake development activities on their own, there are clearly advantages of working in partnership with other businesses, NGOs, the state and, of course, disadvantaged communities themselves. PiC would promote the creation of an enabling environment for partnerships between these sectors.

The roles that businesses play must utilise their potential to make a positive difference to the lives of the poor and not just limited to minimising the adverse impacts of their actions. PiC will advise and demonstrate the various ways in which businesses can contribute to the development process.

PiC's mission is to increase the understanding and active participation of business in equitable social development as an integral part of good business practice by promoting partnerships between business, disadvantaged communities, development initiatives and government.

It may be useful to highlight some of the key elements in this mission statement for better understanding and emphasis :

  • The mission statement (and indeed the vision) uses the term “businesses” instead of “companies”. This has been done deliberately to reflect the fact that PiC would engage the larger for-profit sector and not just with those constituted under the Companies Act.
  • Equitable social development is the purpose for which PiC will engage with businesses. Though businesses may have various legitimate agendas, PiC would engage only if the involvement would better the lives of disadvantaged people.
  • The primary “customer” of PiC is the business organisation.
  • In this context, “partnerships” refers to a relationship wherein disadvantaged communities are at the centre, there is mutual learning and benefit for all partners and where they share the gains and risks in a transparent manner. Thus, business benefits and sustainable community benefits must go together.
  • Building partnerships are only one of the means (and a crucial one at that) to this end (of involving business in equitable social development) and not the end itself.
  • While PiC believes that partnerships are an effective way to involve businesses in development, it is not wedded to necessarily having an NGO as one of the partners. However, disadvantaged communities must be central to all partnerships that PiC gets involved in.