Many private sector organizations are found to be allocating huge amounts for meeting the needs of their corporate social responsibility. Some people look at it like it is just a brand building exercise whereas there are people who believe that it is a sign of their commitment to the society they work in.

Essay 078

·          How do you find these two views?

Corporate social responsibility basically is a brand building exercise. But such an attitude to this noble gesture remains confined to smaller and developing organizations. The highly established firms keep on spending money for this as a token of their commitment to society.

To begin with, today all private sector organizations face acute competition. In order to ensure visibility to their brand, companies adopt several ways. Spending on corporate social responsibility is one among them. For example, budding organizations are found to be spending money from their pocket to make people feel that the former is doing well, and what they spend on corporate responsibility is but a share of their profit. However, once they have achieved their brand image, many organizations back off, and go on with their business of making money. So in a sense it is a brand building exercise.

On the other hand, there are organizations that set aside huge amounts for this social responsibility even after long since they have made their brand images. Corporate giants like Microsoft, IBM, TATA, ITC, Apple, Coca cola and so on still allocate millions of dollars for development exercises. For example; the CEO of Microsoft has recently declared a funding programme for rehabilitating AIDS victims in India. This is a sign of Microsoft’s social responsibility. Obviously, Microsoft can do without it. But it won’t. That is commitment.

To conclude it, it is right to say that today development is a shared exercise, and corporate houses play a big role in it. So, either for boosting their brand images or for meeting their commitments, they do spend. That is more important than what is it spent for. 270 Words. Ajaypeesdoc