The first strategy(1995-97)
When it was set up, PiC was perhaps the only NGO in India and in the ActionAid international family that was looking to companies not as a source of funds but to engage and involve them as partners in the process of social development. Thus, it had no real experiences to model itself on, though a visit to the Philippine Business for Social Progress (PBSP) provided invaluable insights.

ActionAid as an organisation was not really well known amongst the corporate sector and hence there was no “brand equity” that PiC could hang on to. Thus, PiC’s basic objective in its initial years was to become known amongst companies as a reliable and professional intermediary that understood their needs, while remaining true to principles of sustainable and equitable development. Thus, its focus was more on building partnerships and creating a track record of being able to do so. Its mission and strategies, which were informed by a brief survey of corporate giving in India, a visit to the Philippine Business for Social Progress and the limited interaction and experience that it had from discussions with companies and industry associations, reflected this focus. This is quite evident from extracts from its first strategy paper given below.

PiC’s first strategy paper

PiC described its mission as working “towards building sustainable partnerships between the corporate sector and social development initiatives in India”.

In the long run, the goal of PARTNERS IN CHANGE, was to become an organisation that is recognised both by the corporate and development sectors as a reliable facilitator for building partnerships for social development. This and the mission of PiC translated into the following roles:

At the macro level
To promote the concept of Corporate Social Responsibility by raising awareness among the corporate sector of the work being done to achieve sustainable development amongst the poorest sections of society and by helping create conditions for corporate involvement in social development

At the micro level
To build long term and sustainable partnerships between specific companies and NGOs/ communities involved in social development.

The Second Strategy

The strategic framework
To achieve its mission, PiC has set out four goals for itself. These are given the box below and elaborated in the paragraphs that follow :

Mission goals

  • More businesses will be aware of their impact on communities and understand the need for supporting and contributing to sustainable development initiatives.
  • Socially responsible behaviour, based on an understanding of the impact of business on disadvantaged communities, will be mainstreamed in businesses.
  • An enabling environment will be created for building partnerships that benefit communities and involve business, civil society and the state.
  • More and more businesses will become partners in sustainable development programmes and will measure the changes that these programmes are making to the lives of the disadvantaged, while deriving business benefits.

Mission Goal 1
More businesses will be aware of the impact of business on communities and understand the need for supporting and contributing to sustainable development initiatives.

In spite of the fact that corporate social responsibility is very much a part of the corporate lexicon, there are still many companies in India that are either non-believers or fence sitters. The reasons are many. Some companies have not internalised the concept, others do not believe that it is their business while still others do not understand what they can gain from this or how they can contribute to the process.

At the same time, the impact that businesses have on communities and the sustainable development process is not fully understood by people in business sector. That this impact can be both good and bad and how businesses can actually make positive impacts needs greater emphasis and demonstration.

Therefore, there is an urgent need to address these issues. PiC believes that there are broadly 2 ways to do this. One is to work closely with influential people and institutions that are convinced about this issue and are willing to engage businesses in this debate. The second is to provide opportunities for direct involvement or present actual evidence of these impacts to people working in businesses and students who are the future owners and managers of businesses so that they ca see for themselves.

PiC proposes to use all these methodologies. This translates into the strategic objectives and strategies outlined below:

Strategic objective 1.1: Build, promote, participate in and strengthen alliances with networks, organisations and influential individuals who share the belief and are willing to engage businesses to play an active role in development. This will be done by:

  • Working closely with the industry associations at the national and regional levels and public relations and consulting companies.
  • Active participation in national and international networks and forums.
  • Building alliances with other organisations internationally and in India, that engage businesses in development.
  • Increasing the involvement of influential individuals (like the members of PiC’s advisory councils) who are familiar with it and support its work.

Strategic objective 1.2 : Demonstrate to CEOs and managers of businesses, the impact (both positive and negative) that businesses can make on the lives of the disadvantaged and the benefits they can derive by being socially responsible. This will be done by research, documentation and dissemination (through newsletters, seminars, field visits, mainstream media) of:

  • Positive experiences and good practices of corporate involvement in development in India and internationally, which businesses in India can adapt and replicate.
  • Experiences where disadvantaged communities have been adversely affected (through environmental damage, displacement etc.) due to activities of businesses, to enable businesses to explore ways by which these can be overcome in future.

Strategic objective 1.3: Increase the understanding of development issues amongst managers, present and potential, so that their business decisions also take into account their impact on the poor. This will be done by:

  • Designing social responsibility programmes for businesses that maximise opportunities for employee volunteering while involving other staff indirectly.
  • Organising training/sensitisation programmes for company staff on development issues.
  • Research and documentation of the positive and negative impacts of businesses on disadvantaged communities and the dissemination of these directly and through mainstream media.
  • Working with professional academic institutions to include corporate social responsibility as a part of their curriculum so as to sensitise potential managers.

Mission Goal 2
Socially responsible behaviour, based on an understanding of the impact of business on disadvantaged communities, will be mainstreamed in businesses.

For PiC, a socially responsible business is not merely one that undertakes or supports projects that benefit the poor. Crucially, it is also to do with the way the business sees itself and acts in the community and is sensitive about how its actions impact the poor. A socially responsible business is, therefore, one that is convinced of and internalises its responsibilities to all its stakeholders – internal and external – and translates this into every action that it takes. Such a business is concerned both about maximising both shareholder value and societal value. In other words, social responsibility must be mainstreamed.

There are many drivers that will make businesses behave responsibly towards society. Apart from the ownership, management and the staff, PiC recognises the role that governments, NGOs, customers and the general public can play and the need to engage all these stakeholders in this process.

In order to ensure that this mainstreaming takes place, PiC has set out the following strategic goals for itself.

Strategic objective 2.1: Promote the development and adoption of written policies and commitments by businesses so that their socially responsible activities, aimed both at internal and external stakeholders, are systematic and strategic. This will be done by:

  • Research, documentation and dissemination of good practices in India and internationally, directly and through mainstream media.
  • Working with industry associations to actively promote this.

Strategic objective 2.2: Work with governments at the central and state level to create conditions that promote socially responsible behaviour amongst businesses. In order to do this, PiC will support initiatives such as:

  • Setting up of structures and forums within government that further responsible behaviour amongst businesses.
  • Changes in the regulatory and legal framework that encourages greater transparency and involvement of businesses in sustainable development.
  • Changes in the government policies and processes (such as privatisation and procurement) that favour socially responsible businesses.

Strategic objective 2.3: : Increase awareness amongst customers, shareholders and the general public of businesses that are socially responsible by:

  • Encouraging, and supporting programmes and movements that encourage, shareholders, customers and the general public to positively discriminate in favour of businesses that are socially responsible.
  • Developing and adapting methodologies (including social audits and social ratings) that involve local communities and other stakeholders to objectively measure the extent to which individual businesses and sectors are socially responsible.
  • Supporting organisations and processes that employ such methodologies to measure social responsiveness and make the results widely known.
  • Working collaboratively with other organisations and actors (like consumer rights, environment and fair-trade) that are addressing business behaviour towards its stakeholders.

Strategic objective 2.4: : Build capacities of NGOs (and through them, disadvantaged local communities) to critically engage with business beyond resource mobilisation to deepening socially responsible behaviour. This would be achieved by :

  • Training programmes and seminars
  • Dissemination of good practice
  • Developing partnerships with businesses that involve communities, which they themselves manage over time.

Mission Goal 3
An enabling environment will be created for building partnerships that benefit communities and involve business, civil society and the state.

Evidence from around the world points to a growing realisation that business, the state and civil society working in partnership has the potential to make a significant difference to the lives of the poor. This is particularly so in India where both resources and deprivation exist side by side and partnerships provide the space for the whole range of resources to be brought to bear. PiC’s experience in the past 5 years strongly supports this view.

Can these partnerships happen by themselves? PiC’s experience suggests not, and there are a number of reasons for this. Relationships between these 3 sectors have often been problematic in the past in India, characterised by lack of trust and respect, ideological differences and even ignorance of each other’s strengths and weaknesses. Thus, for such partnerships to happen, some proactive steps need to be taken.

Promoting such an enabling environment for partnerships will be one of PiC’s key goals. It proposes the following set of strategic objectives to achieve this :

Strategic objective 3.1: Demonstrate the benefits of partnerships to businesses, NGOs and agencies of the state. This will be done through :

  • Research and documentation of experiences in India and internationally, both directly and through mainstream media.
  • Dissemination of these experiences through workshops/seminars, writings etc.

Strategic objective 3.2: Develop the capacities of businesses, NGOs and state institutions to build partnerships with each other. This will be done essentially through:

  • Organising/conducting training programmes, workshops and seminars on partnership building.
  • Developing or making available manuals, publications and other tool kits to help practitioners.

Strategic objective 3.3: Inspire businesses and NGOs to be more transparent and accountable to their stakeholders in matters that affect them, directly or indirectly. Strategies would include:

  • Researching existing codes of conduct for accountability and transparency and investing in improving and disseminating them.
  • Ensuring that these are rigorously applied in all partnerships that PiC helps build.

Mission Goal 4
More and more businesses will become partners in sustainable development programmes and will measure the changes that these programmes are making to the lives of the disadvantaged while deriving business benefits.

PiC believes that the gap between the understanding and practice of what is socially responsible behaviour amongst businesses is because there is a shortage of organisations that can play the partnership building role. PiC proposes to continue playing this role, by helping individual businesses as well as scaling up for increased impact. PiC’s strategic objectives in this regard will be as follows :

Strategic objective 4.1: Assist individual businesses to assess and benchmark their activities that impact their internal and external stakeholders in order to identify areas for increasing their effectiveness and ensuring consistency. Specifically, this would focus on the following stakeholders:

  • Employees and their families.
  • Contract workers
  • Small suppliers
  • Marginal and small consumers
  • Disadvantaged communities (especially around their workplace).
  • The environment.

Strategic objective 4.2: Assist individual businesses in the development and implementation of programmes aimed at disadvantaged people and communities, either by themselves or in partnership with NGOs and government agencies. PiC would play the following roles:

  • Development and adoption of written policies on social responsibility.
  • Identification of the activities that can be undertaken or supported and the business benefits that they can derive.
  • Identification of partners and initiating the partnership.
  • Monitoring and reporting on progress.
  • Managing development funds on behalf of businesses.

Strategic objective 4.3: Scaling up of partnership projects to enhance their impact and increase their demonstrative effect. This will be done in 2 ways:

  • Creating opportunities for groups of businesses to jointly implement programmes, by themselves or in partnership with NGOs and government agencies so that businesses of all sizes can participate. These programmes could be :-
    • Projects aimed at addressing common issues in a specific geographic area (industrial townships, cities etc.), which is of concern to several local businesses big and small.
    • Projects those businesses in the same industry can jointly support.
    • Thematic campaigns (like education of the girl child) which businesses interested in those themes can support in various ways, independent of their size, industry and location.
  • Working intensively with a few large companies/groups with a national presence:-
    • with communities at their various locations.
    • - on programmes that will deepen their involvement in development (like payroll giving, cause-related, marketing, ancillarisation etc.)

Strategic objective 4.4: Assess the impact of the programmes initiated in partnership by businesses to ensure they are developmentally sound and sustainable. PiC would:

  • Compile and, where necessary, support and help develop methodologies that measure change as a result of programme interventions and disseminate them through writings, training programmes, workshops and seminars.
  • Assist partners in applying these methodologies to the projects that they support.
  • Manage and undertake studies aimed at measuring such changes, using these methodologies.