Responsible Leadership

Report
Ramya Thatavarthi
Queens MBA 2015
Date: 28th March 2015

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The Responsible Leadership Certificate Program has been an
excellent course for me, which has given me a broader
perspective of the Corporate Social Responsibility. Through
this program, I have come to know of various organizations,
which are going beyond their reach to bring a change to the
society. As a young and future leader, I believe that it is our
responsibility to be aware of the problems we are creating as
part of our growth, take ownership and take steps to resolve
them. Through the webinar courses, I became aware that
there are various different ways to work towards CSR and
there is not just a narrow scope of pre-defined objectives. It
is not only an obligation to comply with CSR, but it has
become the top most contributing factor to affect the
reputation of the company. And, if aligned carefully with the
companys corporate strategy, it can generate high profits to
the company both by increasing revenue and containing
costs.
As a responsible human being and as a future leader, I am
thankful that I took this course. I will take this knowledge to
my company and I will have the awareness to make my
companys strategy aligned with the CSR strategy.

CONFERENCE REPORTS
10th Annual Responsible Leadership Summit:
Date: 24th October 2014
Duration: 1.5 days
The summit was a great platform, which brought together
leading practitioners to talk about various issues and topics
on Responsible Leadership. There were more than 25
speakers from various social organizations who shared their
wonderful experience and their motivations at the summit.
The theme concentrated around sustainability and social
impact.
The various sessions by Johann Koss, Founder of Right To
Play and Olympian, Geoff Cape, Founder of Evergreen, where
they talked about how they made an impact on society, were
extremely inspirational.
The panel discussion brought together three different
people, Susie Pan, Entrepreneur; Anil Patel, GrantBook, and

Dave Wilkin, Ten Thousand Coffees, contributing in three

different ways towards social causes.
The session on an artic expedition with Geoff Green, Founder
of Students on Ice, which is a platform for polar education for
students, showed how you could relate social benefit with
your own passion.
The knowledge building sessions with live cases on social
finance, social innovation, community leadership and the
future of sustainability were my favorite, which added to the
practical experience of the delegates.
And the conclusion could not have been better than Mikael
Meir, founder of Mikael Meir Inc., sharing his personal story
of greed and personal transformation which left me with a
thought How much did he lose to gain so little? I realized
that it is important that you not only are ethical but you
should also be fully aware of each step you take and its
ramifications before you agree to do anything.

Webinars:
World-changing customers: Winning the
Sustainability Game with Customer Engagement
Duration: 1 hour
This webinar talked about ways to achieve sustainability in
business. It highlighted the fact that customer engagement
is the most efficient way to do so. The webinar further
discussed ways and tactics to mobilize customers to adapt
sustainability, strategies to build customer loyalty and
strengthen business and contribute to more sustainable
business at the same time
It is important that companies not only reduce their own

footprint but also engage their customers to do so. This can

be done by building an understanding of customer patterns
and by developing & tailoring instruments & strategy to
influence customer demand which should further be tied to
the companys brand strategy & value propositions.
There are two main categories of driving forces, which have
made companies to think about such problems. The first
category of mega forces is the kind of issues that are going
to affect the companies such as population and middle class
growth, and water, resource, food and energy scarcity. The
other category is of customer behaviour. The millennial think
that companies must lead the change and thats why this is
untapped market through which companies can appeal to
such customers.
There are two frameworks for influencing behaviour:
behaviour change model or social change framework and
unilever model. Both emphasize that the behaviour to be
adapted should be easy, desirable and rewarding.
In the next section the presenter talks about how to make
sustainable development so desirable, that it becomes
normal. The idea behind is that not everyone needs to
understand or care. The consumers only need to take action.
The basic principle to understand here is that people are
both rational and emotional. There are basically three
categories of people.
Green will be interested in climate issues, world problems
etc., brick will know everything about local community,
tradition and gold who will be externally motivated. Since
gold are the major category, so most companies target them
and convey their message in such a way so that this
category is influenced. E.g. Jeans is more yours, if you wash
it less is how Levis campaigned its product.
Lastly, training the employees and customers will be highly
beneficial as well. Improving sustainability will soon become
a part of business strategy and not just marketing add-on.

Corporate Social Responsibility: Choosing the right

strategy
This webinar talks about what is Corporate Social
Responsibility and how does it affect reputation of the
company. The statistics show willingness to invest in a
company is driven 60% by the reputation of the company
and 40% by its products. 73% of global consumers are
willing to recommend companies that are perceived to be
delivering on their CSR programs.
The companies participate in CSR due to various reasons:
o Economic responsibility
o Legal responsibility
o Ethical responsibility
o Philanthropic responsibility
There are various ways to contribute towards CSR.
Companies should be aware of all these ways. The strategy
should make sure that down through the supply chain it does
not contribute in human rights violation in anyway and
comply with UN global compact. Apart from reputation CSR
also helps companies in operational improvements and
compliance benefits. Best practices should be followed and
key performance indicators should be measured. And lastly
the impact should be communicated and the results audited.

VOLUNTEER PROJECT REPORT

AWIC Community and Social Services is a not for profit, community
based settlement agency, offering a broad range of programs and
services for newcomers to Canada and to the South Asian community
at large. It has provided its services to the community for 39 years. The
major services provided by the community are: settlement services,

senior support programs, health and wellness programs and womens

support services.
There has been a leadership change recently at the organization
reflecting greater diversity in terms of skills, perspectives, culture and
community; because of which the organization is re-assessing its
strategic plan. After discussing with their staff, volunteers and board I
have proposed the following suggestions:
o The vision statement is not clearly stating their 20-year goal. It
merely replicates the mission. Keeping the vision clear will help
the staff to keep working in that direction and measure progress.
o Establish committees/ facilitator teams to effectively oversee the
policies, programs, and organizational operations including
review of achievement of strategic goals, financial status, and
executive director performance. The facilitators were majorly
volunteers. There was only one permanent facilitator in the staff.
This will make it difficult for the organization to make any
progress, since volunteers will not stay permanently, which
makes it difficult to compare the results.
o Replenish the facilitator teams and create quarterly training
programs for them. This will make sure that they stay updated
with the latest developments and at the same time stay
motivated towards their work.
o Design and develop new programs in collaboration with the new
immigrants and partner organizations and community groups to
make sure that the issues addressed contribute in the
development of the neighbouring community.
o Create joint programs with partner organizations and
communities to motivate the staff and to share learning within
the organizations.
o Reach out to universities and other institutions to market the
organization.
o Design metrics to measure the performance and outcome of the
programs quarterly or half-yearly and to measure the progress
towards the goals.
o Promote program innovation and cross team collaboration to
better support newcomers in overcoming barriers and
participating fully in all aspects of Canadian life.
o Establish a quarterly newsletter talking about the programs,
initiatives and achievements. Reach out to university students,
willing to volunteer for the newsletter.
All these recommendations can be put into practice within this year
and this will help the organization in its growth and bringing the quality
level to its best.