Start-ups integrate CSR into how they think of biz itself: HBS Dean Srikant Datar

The approach of new-age entrepreneurs and start-up founders towards corporate social responsibility is much more integrated into how they think about the business itself, than earlier. That was the message from Professor Srikant Datar, the 11th Dean of the Harvard Business School, during a select interaction hosted by Business Today.

“So the way it was done was - I am going to make money this way, and then I am going to spend it in a different way. Today, when I see these start-ups and these individuals - what they think of their social responsibility is much more integrated into how they think about the business itself”, he said.

Datar added, “The desire to help the unbanked is as important to them as what they might do the way in which they might spend money after it is made. I think it is a very positive change - the fact that you cannot think about corporate social responsibility as post-profit, but as part of how you make a profit is very different than what it used to be”.

The eminent Indian-origin academic added that corporate social responsibility will need to be thought of in a different way.

Responding to a question on whether corporate governance and work culture in Indian business was getting better, Datar said the phenomenon was happening all over the world and was not restricted only to India.

“This new breed of entrepreneurs that you're talking about and as I was describing earlier - the kind of purpose and passion that they bring, the ability to move quickly, the ability to almost dare to do things that you wouldn't imagine - I think it is a world where they are less bound by however business used to be done”, he said.

“When you're less bound by how business used to be done, you always dare to do things in very different ways. I think they are different, and it is happening in the way in which you're describing. It comes from the same mind-set that they just think differently, they don't think about you know a physical thing, but they think that technology can make it work”.

Responding to another question on the Indian fintech revolution, Datar said the change it was bringing was extremely significant, as it was bringing banking services to the unbanked, in more convenient forms with greater trust in executing.

In response to a question on the trend of fintech development in India, Prof Datar said that while there is a lot of fin-tech development happening in other parts of the world, the kind of applications and the scale in India is what is unusual. He added that fin-tech companies are able to move faster, as they are nimbler, they are technology-focused and are born digital.