Corporate Governance, the India Way

Recent blogden we hier Leren van de Aziatische Manager, hij komt er aan n.a.v. het boek The India Way dat Peter Cappelli later deze maand laat publiceren. Vooruitlopend daarop komt Capelli nu, weer als teaser, met zijn bevindingen over het Corporate Governance Beleid van Indiaase ondernemingen. Uit zijn onderzoek blijkt dat Strategic Corporate Governance deze organisaties zeker geen windeieren legt! Zij profiteren er volledig van.

Cappelli: "There is every reason to believe that these companies have done well precisely because they are doing good. Helping poor people pays off when those people get money and become consumers, as millions of Indians have done every year. It also helps in a still regulated economy to get government permissions and approvals."

Wellicht krijg je nu de indruk dat Corporate Governance niet geheel belangeloos is. Dat klopt: "Een goed corporate governance-beleid draagt zorg voor de rechten van alle belanghebbenden." Dus ook voor die van de organisatie zelf. 

Cappelli: "Every executive we interviewed described the main objective of their company in terms of a social mission.

 They expected to make money, but they expected to do so while doing good. In the case of Bharti Airtel, the mission was to get cell phones into the hands of people who have no means to communicate; for ICICI Bank, it was to provide financial help to those with no access to banking; for Dr. Reddy's, the pharmaceutical company, it was to address the health care needs of the poor the world over; for Infosys, it is to show that Indian business can lead in technology.

Business strategy rests on the social mission. And the corporations put charitable money behind social missions at a level that dwarfs anything we'd see in the US: Sixty-five percent of the profits of the Tata Group companies, for example, go to charities.

Infosys has built and staffed entire hospitals in different regions of the country, rolling out a national curriculum to develop IT skills at the same time. Dr. Reddy's provides for the health care needs for 40,000 children. The list goes on and on."

Cappelli, & zeker niet alleen Cappelli, constateert dat dit handelen van deze Indiaase organisaties (nb; als een onderdeel van hun cultuur en hun geloof) in schril contrast staat met het handelen van veruit de meeste Westerse organisaties, tot nu toe.....

De laatste jaren is in het Westen de bedrijfsfocus komen te liggen op Fast Money, Fast Money voor de aandeelhouders maar toch & zeker ook voor de Top zelf!

"A generation ago, most US business leaders saw their job as serving the needs of all stakeholders, not just shareholders. The more recent efforts to focus only on shareholders doesn't appear to have worked well, even for shareholders The Indian experience suggests that maybe those earlier US leaders were onto something."

Peter Cappelli doet nog een belangrijke waarneming: het positieve effect dat Corporate Governance heeft op de motivatie van je medewerkers!!

"But the biggest reason, and the one that translates most directly to the US, is that social mission creates a powerful means for motivating employees.

We have long known that employees do much better when they see how their tasks contribute to the overall goal of the organization, and new research shows that the results are especially powerful when those goals relate to helping people.

Other evidence suggests that a strong social mission makes it easier to attract and retain employees. Mission drives employee performance, which drives strategy, and in turn drives organizational performance."

Inderdaad: betrek je mensen bij de Missie van je organisatie, betrek hen bij Hun organisatie (nb; lees ook 'de 7 van Zwolle') & laat die Missie dan bij voorkeur een Sociale Missie zijn!!

Dat wordt een interessant boek:  The India Way: How India's Top Business Leaders Are Revolutionizing Management.