“Make CSR part of your overall brand strategy” …Lara Balsara

Speaking at the National Quality Summit at Bangalore, Lara Balsara called upon making CSR as an integral part of a companies overall brand strategy and added that CSR can be used to not only promote a cause but it also helps create unique brand equity for the company. Ms. Balsara said that a seriously pursued CSR project could not only help bring the desired results through active campaign on a particular aspect, but in the process it could improve the image and brand loyalty for the company. She cited the hugely popular campaigns run by Tata Tea on corruption and voting rights which she said had made a deep impact on the minds of the young people on these two critical issues. “The CSR initiative has brought down corruption rate from 45 to 35 percent, which by any standards, was a significant achievement.” Over the years CSR which was just a fancy word used by corporates, was now becoming a powerful and strategy brand building tool to reach out to the masses. Almost all top corporate houses effectively tap the CSR route for improving their brand equity and also a way to give it back to the society. Speaking at the same forum Mr. Ganesh Narayan, Joint Managing Director, C. Krishniah Chetty & Sons spoke on the aspect of trust which plays a crucial role in building brand equity for any company. “Today, the underlying Social Responsibility for the business is to continuously build new customers though Trust which in turn will ensure business on a long term basis. Recruiting, renewing and retaining customers not only create opportunities to expand the business and new markets but also help sustain over a period of time.” He further added, “We must understand that Social responsibility is not just an idea, it is a product, a product that needs to be created, packaged, branded and most importantly delivered to the end users.” Mr. Udai Pawar, Entrepreneur felt that Social responsibility was a way of life for the Next Gen youth who felt that they owe something to the society. He said that they don’t waste an opportunity to honour social responsibility commitments.  “Quality and social responsibility are synonymous to each other and the next gen youth are passionate about these aspects”.

Mr Harish Bijoor, Brand-Specialist & CEO, Harish Bijoor Consults Inc spoke at length on Quality being a notion in the mind and an attitude of the older generation trying to impose on the younger generation. While defining the various types of customer reactions, he opined that it was the dominant section of youth who would be dictating the future levels of quality. Citing examples from his personal life, he related how the younger generation was impatient for results and was not ready for any delays. Chairing the panel discussion on Quality in All Walks of Life, Mr Bijoor drove home the point that Q.Next must align to the aspirations of Gen.Next. other panelists included Mr Dinesh Gundu Rao, Member of Legislative Assembly, Karnataka, Ms Bindu Hari, Principal TISB, Rev Fr Thomas Mathew, Vice Chancellor, Christ University, Mr Ananda Rao, ITC Royal Gardenia and Mr Praveen Sood, IPS, Additional Commissioner of Police (Traffic), Bangalore who also narrated innovative improvements that each had brought about in their respect areas of work.

Addressing the Valedictory session of the Quality Summit, Swami Nikhileswarananda, Head, Vadodara Centre of Ramakrishna Mission urged  the delegates to harmonise materialistic and spiritual outlooks for world prosperity. Citing examples from recent past, he said that  “Money is necessary to survive, but running after it is not a good idea.” Initiating the debate in this session, Mr. K N Shenoy, Chairman, CII Institute of Quality said that people were unable to clearly distinguish between Materialism and Spiritual pursuits. “Need has a limitation but greed has no limitations. This is where spiritualism comes into the picture and helps to harmonize between the two worlds.” As a parting suggestion to the CEOs, Mr. Shenoy advised that though countries were measured through GDP growth, they should actually be measured in how well it has progressed on GNH (Gross National Happiness) which he felt  could easily achievable.
                       
The 18th edition of CII’s Annual flagship event on Quality,National Quality Summit saw about 50 national and international speakers and over 600 CEO’s and professionals discuss and debate various aspects of Quality, to address not only issues of competitiveness but also Quality of Life especially in the context of the next generation belonging to the youth.