Shruti Kasat

34, Al Sabbat Street

+971 522 657 795
Skasat2016@student.hult.edu

1/9/2016
To,
Editor in Chief,
Financial Times
Please find below my opinion editorial on Purpose of Business in Society.
Making profit is crux of any business. A lot of buzz is happening around purpose of
business being well-being of society. I beg to differ. While environmental
sustenance and uplifting of people have become organizational hot potatoes,
they still do not qualify to be a purpose of running any business. In my opinion, a
business is run for creating value for its owners. If there were no rules and regulations
enforced by government or the judicial system, concept of corporate social
responsibility would be most likely kept on the back burner.
Profitability of business is such a core that a multi-million campaign of Mark
Zuckerberg Free Basics - giving free access to basic internet connectivity, is being
given a cold shoulder by millions in India. They cannot digest the fact that Free
Basics is trying to connect the world without making money out of it.
Having said that, I also agree that in the world we are living in, it is impossible to
sustain a business if you do not include environment and society in your business
model. Volkswagens emission scandal is a pertinent example of how awareness
and technology is a lethal combination. In this age of media network, excluding
environment is reprimanded and comes at a cost of brand degradation. This leads
to a domino effect of employee dissatisfaction and higher attrition rates. And all
this boils down to hurt the purpose of business profitability. From my personal
experience, Accentures rise in Great Place to Work with (GPTW) ranking affected
the profitability of the organization. It proves that societal inclusiveness is a means
to achieve the purpose of business.
The converse is also true i.e. achieving the purpose of business results in societal
inclusiveness. Let me elaborate this with some timeline events of my family. I have
grown up in a family of businessmen. From my forefathers being a grain merchant,
my dad has come a long way to become the first exporter of coriander seeds to
Southeast Asia in his region. This prosperity brought reforms to lives of people

employed by the business. While the purpose remained to sustain and reach
unprecedented profitability, it brought along with it changes in standard of living.
When a new corporate spin-off was created in Mumbai, it gave an opportunity to
lot of employees to settle there - a far off dream for them otherwise.
To conclude, society is defined to a great extent by the business it fosters. While the
purpose of existence of any business is making profits, the symbiotic relationship
between business, and welfare of people and environment cannot be
underestimated. Factors such as cruelty to animals have emerged as causes for
deteriorated brand value and time is not far when the customers will make choices
based on a companys carbon footprints as well. Moving forward, it will be an
interesting time to accommodate these factors in business strategies and attain
the purpose of business profitability.
Warm regards,
Shruti Kasat

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