[go: up one dir, main page]

0% found this document useful (0 votes)
481 views40 pages

Chapter 1

chpt 1
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
0% found this document useful (0 votes)
481 views40 pages

Chapter 1

chpt 1
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 40

Corporate Citizenship and

Sustainability: Measuring
Intangible, Fiscal, and
Ethical Assets
Corporate Citizenship and
Sustainability: Measuring
Intangible, Fiscal, and
Ethical Assets

Jayaraman Rajah Iyer


Corporate Citizenship and Sustainability: Measuring Intangible, Fiscal, and
Ethical Assets
Copyright © Business Expert Press, LLC, 2020.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored


in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—
electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or any other except for
brief quotations, not to exceed 250 words, without the prior permission
of the publisher.

First published in 2020 by


Business Expert Press, LLC
222 East 46th Street, New York, NY 10017
www.businessexpertpress.com

ISBN-13: 978-1-95253-816-2 (paperback)


ISBN-13: 978-1-95253-817-9 (e-book)

Business Expert Press Business Ethics and Corporate Citizenship


Collection

Collection ISSN: 2333-8806 (print)


Collection ISSN: 2333-8814 (electronic)

Cover and interior design by S4Carlisle Publishing Services Private Ltd.,


Chennai, India

First edition: 2020

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

Printed in the United States of America.


Dedication
To my grandkids: Anoushka, Dhruv, and Mihika
The emerging Reverse Mentors
Abstract
Intangible is defined, like zero being found as a number. Intangible is
proved as a constant, an energy force, with a fixed value in a specified
mathematical context, enabling the accomplishment of an infinite suc-
cession of finite purposes by controlling each goal. Return on intangible
inverts the corporate structure to create an equitable new stable element
for corporate management, like that of the well-established mathematical
and natural sciences. It enables preparing a CREAM—corporate gover-
nance, risk management, earnings, accounting quality, and management
quality—Report measuring fiscal and ethical assets.
Furthermore, a blueprint for Gujarat state domestic product (GSDP)
2024 of $1.5 trillion, as illustrated in this book, establishes efforts per
person (EPP) as the core denominator for development and plays a sig-
nificant role in the construction of a macroeconomic model. Gross do-
mestic product (GDP) figures are always delayed. The collateral damage,
the delayed GDP data has inflicted on the UN Sustainable Development
on Gross National Happiness (GNH) Index is obvious as the GNH index
could not be linked to development. This has been rectified by bringing
out a GDP–GNH combined index, covering the five criteria set by the
CREAM Report. The bottom-to-top approach of preparing a CREAM
Report and then providing a slot in the Creamchain for each individual
enables participation and tracking the well-being and development for
each person, individually and collectively at the same time.
Corporate citizenship is discussed. Since the days of Ashoka1 in 300
BC, there is not a single century that could be termed as a civilizational
era, anywhere in the world. It is so because social values have not been
addressed at all. Corporate citizenship, therefore, is at the cusp of the
modern-cum-corporate civilization, where a GDP–GNH connect can
get an entry, the book argues.

1
Ashoka the Great was an Indian emperor who ruled almost all of the Indian sub-
continent from c. 268 to 232 BCE. Ashoka’s edicts, in pillars and boulders and cave
walls, distributed throughout the subcontinent brought out what might be called
state, private, and individual morality. Author and historian H.G. Wells said, “Amidst
the tens of thousands of names of monarchs that crowd the columns of history ... the
name of Ashoka shines, and shines almost alone, a star.” The Edicts of Ashoka, Ven. S.
Dhammika: https://www.cs.colostate.edu/~malaiya/ashoka.html.
Keywords
action process; Action Value Capital; corporate citizenship; CREAM
Report - corporate governance, risk management, earnings, accounting
quality, management quality; CREAM Report framework: corporate
social responsibility, corporate fiscal responsibility, corporate ethical re-
sponsibility, subject - object distinction of qualitative and quantitative el-
ements of management; creative process; EPP: efforts per person; ethical
assets; GNH Index: gross national happiness index; GRACE: governance,
responsibility, authority, credibility, enablement; IBCM - Inactivity Based
Cost Management; Intangible Value Capital; Intellectual Value Capital;
RoI - Return on Intangible; Reverse Mentoring; Self-governance; Sus-
tainability: sustainability of efficiency, sustainability of profits, sustain-
ability of value system.
Table of Content
Preface...................................................................................................xi
Acknowledgments.................................................................................xvii
Chapter 1 Causality............................................................................1
Chapter 2 Who Are YOU?...............................................................19
Chapter 3 Intangible Assets..............................................................41
Chapter 4 Intangible Defined...........................................................55
Chapter 5 Measuring the Intangible.................................................67
Chapter 6 Inactivity Based Cost Management..................................81
Chapter 7 The Board of Directors the Corporate Proton..................99
Chapter 8 The CEO Practices and CREAM Report for
Corporate Electron........................................................109
Chapter 9 Society for Corporate Neutron.......................................121

About the Author.................................................................................139


Index..................................................................................................141
Preface
Many observations and perspectives accumulated through my profes-
sional accounting experience have served as the inspiration for this book.
The first came from an internship I worked at in 1966 when I joined
Hindustan Lever Ltd. (HLL) under R. Subrahmanyan, then commercial
services manager. A brilliant man, a chartered and cost accountant, he was
working on product cost accounting. That was the year when the Govern-
ment of India (GoI) had introduced cost audit for essential commodities,
including one of HLL’s major productions, vanaspati, a hydrogenated
vegetable oil called Dalda. Every fortnightly Thursday, HLL would an-
nounce the price increase on the current cost of Dalda. The company fac-
tory at Sewri, Mumbai, would suspend dispatch until the price increase
was cleared by the GoI, New Delhi. Dalda was so popular that millions
of tin boxes of it were sold. Subh, as we called our boss, would continu-
ously work on the product cost, adding every known allocated cost. At
the time, there was a forward exchange market prevalent for vegetable
oil. Subh would conscientiously work out the stock profit or stock loss
for the commodity and make necessary adjustments for his cost submis-
sion to GoI. For a tin priced at Rs.25 (about $0.35 at today’s $ rate),
the price increase could have been a figure of 25 paise (1 percent). Cost
audit from GoI was introduced later to several commodities, particularly
pharma drugs. As I write this today, in 2019, the Indian prime minister
Narendra Modi has introduced a scheme of providing quality medicines
at affordable prices to the masses, called Jan-Aushadi Yojana, which sup-
plies medicines at hardly 25 percent of the cost of branded drugs. A cost
audit from the GoI put a stop to the exorbitant pricing policies of pharma
companies. However, in 1983, when Dr Kaplan came up with activity
based costing (ABC) it was a satisfying moment for Subh, who had taken
note of several more cost drivers as early as 1966.
In 1992 when Dr Kaplan came up with the balanced scorecard (BSC),
it influenced many minds and I was no exception. Linking the best of both
ABC and BSC, I coined the term “inactivity based cost management.”
xii PREFACE

In 1995, when the Internet was introduced in India via Videsh Sanchar
Nigam Limited (VSNL), then the country’s only telecommunication net-
work, I got a telephone call from VSNL congratulating me for being the
first registered user of India and was allocated the number BOMAAA001.
I took the offer of the free webpage VSNL offered me and posted a one-
page article on inactivity based cost management (IBCM). I recall seeing
a book on ABC in the cabin of Mani Bharadwaj of PricewaterhouseCoo-
pers (PwC) and discussed with him how IBCM could be of better use in
management.
Later, in 2005, when called upon to do an RoI (return on invest-
ment) analysis for a huge investment in an ERP (enterprise resource
planning) package by Mahindra British Telecom (MBT), I found it
would be an exercise in futility, as there would be no cost savings as
such for the investment. However, I said to the consulting firm that
I could do a return on intangible for the same investment as to how
the ERP package could be better utilized looking at its potential usage.
Combining BSC, control objectives for information and related tech-
nology (COBIT) IT processes published by the Information Systems
Audit and Control Association (ISACA)—an international professional
association that focuses on IT governance—and IBCM, I gave detailed
pre- and post-analytics for four issue areas: finance, project, human re-
sources, and senior management. John Hugh, the CEO of MBT at that
time, was quite impressed. The basis of IBCM is “Activity has a cost
incidence whereas inactivity a cost consequence.” As a policy, corporates
should measure the cost consequence every day, tracking decisions al-
ready taken. Measuring inactivity for a machinery is easy whereas inac-
tive elements in a person are difficult to measure. Return on intangible
came to the rescue. I saw the potential of IBCM and promptly copy-
righted the process with the Copyrights Office, GoI. IBCM with return
on intangible gave a good foundation for corporate analytics for several
issue areas as brought out by COBIT.
Working on wood accounting while I was a forestry operations
accountant of WIMCO (a subsidiary of Swedish Match Company) in
Mysore, in the south of India, also served up an interesting perspective.
The Mysore branch supplied wood to two WIMCO factories—one in
Ambernath (near Mumbai) and another at Chennai (in Tamil Nadu).
PREFACE
xiii

The accounting year for WIMCO was January to December whereas for-
estry operations took place between September and April, on the basis
of the monsoon. So, at the beginning of an accounting year in January,
factory costing would have to take note of wood felling from one season
of the current season (September previous year to April current year) and
4 months from the next season (September to December current year, as
part of next season September current year to April next year), which is
unpredictable. It is unpredictable, as the foresters mark the trees for fell-
ing for the next season and start their work in the following September.
I introduced a cost accounting method called the likely ultimate cost
(LUC) for the factories to get a uniform cost throughout the year so that
their monthly profitability statements would not fluctuate from month
to month. LUC is the cost figure related to the end of the accounting year
charges for the wood supplied but a standard cost from the beginning of
the year. This LUC helped me in projecting a figure for the future and
bringing it to today’s level in the form of compound annual growth rate
(CAGR) and compound annual reduction rate (CARR) converted into
CDGR and CDRR (D-Daily), which you will see in this book.
I subsequently took up a consulting assignment for the Shipping
Credit and Investment Company of India (SCICI) on cost accounting of
shipping construction. SCICI was providing funds to shipowners at a low
interest rate (a third of the prevailing bank rates). There were three parties
to it: the shipowner, the shipbuilder, and SCICI. Shipowners taking the
funds from SCICI would divert them to other than shipbuilding in their
group companies. SCICI asked me to bring out shipping construction
stages so that it could release funds according to the stages completed.
This called for a detailed shipping construction manual, literally. While
working on this, I found Japan’s influence on the scenario in shipbuilding
most interesting. After World War II, an air force veteran in Japan was
entrusted with the charge of shipbuilding. He went around the globe vis-
iting various shipyards and found they were building in the same pattern
as before, from laying the keel upward. Being an air force man, he could
not accept this practice and introduced the block development process of
shipping construction. Different blocks constructed at the same time at
different places and assembled at the shipyard reduced the time of con-
struction substantially, from 16 years to 4 years. Placing an order 3 years
xiv PREFACE

in advance for items like the main engine, which would arrive in time for
the requisite blocks, is an example of the kind of changes he effected. This
book adopts the shipping process block technology for the preparation of
a CREAM— corporate governance, risk management, earnings, account-
ing quality, and management quality—Report.
Martin Rees simplified physics to boost the understanding of
how the universe works. When applied to corporates, not only does
physics provide benchmarks and metrics but a simple two-process
management. The application of these principles of physics leads to
creating a basic management structure, which I call Corporate Atomic
Structure in this book. I also include society in the structure. Corpo-
rate becomes a vibrant pulsating energy, making subatomic particles
dance. Nobel laureate Murray Gellman described emergent property
as that to which “you don’t have to add anything more to get some-
thing more,”1 something like a robust corporate yoga, fit as a fiddle.
The holistic organizational structure, the Corporate Atomic Structure,
created and quantified out of the practices listed in this book, will be
complete in itself.
The last chapter is about society. I had the opportunity of working
on a blueprint for Gujarat state domestic product (GSDP) 2024 of $1.5
trillion. It came in handy before the book went into the production line.
GDP figures are brought out by departments of economics and statis-
tics of governments in a leisurely manner. Then come the same delayed
figures applied to the World Bank or the Organisation for Economic
Co-operation and Development (OECD) and other international in-
stitutions. This must change. Furthermore, a blueprint for GSDP 2024
of $1.5 trillion, as illustrated in the book, establishes efforts per person
(EPP) as the core denominator for development and plays a significant
role in constructing a macroeconomic model. GDP figures are always
delayed. The collateral damage, the delayed GDP data has inflicted on
the UN Sustainable Development on Gross National Happiness (GNH)

1
Quote from TED talk by M. Gell-Mann. 2007. “Beauty, Truth…. and
Physics?” https://www.ted.com/talks/murray_gell_mann_beauty_truth_
and_physics#t-872257.
PREFACE
xv

Index, as suggested by the King of Bhutan, is obvious as the GNH index


could not be linked to development. So much work on the field is done
by many good NGOs, such as the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation,
that never gets measured. This is rectified by bringing out a GDP–GNH
combined index, covering the five criteria set by the CREAM Report. The
bottom-to-top approach of preparing a CREAM Report and then provid-
ing a slot in the Creamchain for each individual enables participation and
tracking the well-being and development for each person, individually
and collectively at the same time. EPP is significant because of the co-
responsibility undertaken between governments and the people.
Then corporate citizenship is discussed. It is said Mahatma Gandhi
made an observation when asked about what he thought of the Modern
Civilization. He seems to have replied, that would be a good idea, giv-
ing the impression that modern civilization is yet to blossom.2 His was a
moral response to what he perceived as the evils of modern civilization.
But it is a factual statement with or without a Gandhi in between. Since
the days of Ashoka in 300 BC, there is not a single century that could
be termed as a civilizational era, anywhere in the world. It is so because
social values have not been addressed at all. For the first time, corporate
social responsibility (CSR) has made an attempt and this book highlights
the same into fiscal and ethical responsibility. By and large, corporate is in
the same position as the East India Company was. Corporate citizenship,
therefore, as part of the cusp of corporate civilization, with a GDP–GNH
connect can get an entry, the book argues.

Jayaraman Rajah Iyer

2
J.N. Sharma. “Hind Swaraj: A Fresh Look.” https://www.mkgandhi.org/
articles/hind_swaraj3.html.
Acknowledgments
It all started with Nigel Wyatt from London taking the trouble of recom-
mending my name to the Publisher, Business Expert Press (BEP). Then
thanks to Rob Zwettler and his team from BEP who have taken immense
interest to get my work on for publishing. Great team to work with. I am
indeed grateful to David Wasieleski, as incorporating his suggestions for
improvement has given me a sense of satisfaction and a valid exposition of
the concepts this book brings out. The teamwork was quite pronounced
from Charlene Kronstedt and Sheri Dean, with Shyam Ramasubramony
of S4Carlile Publishing Services perfecting the art of production line
intricacies.
I want to thank my wife and children for their keen interest while I
was writing this book. In particular, my daughter, Gayatri Jayaraman,
who volunteered to check the book in all respects, editing, pinpointing
errors, commenting “Not clear, unclear fragment, within two lines you
have given three different names for the same organization, standardize
subheads, qualifier? both what? check meaning—use better word etc.
etc.” I loved being the student.
The book Eastern Religions and Western Thought (1939) by Dr
Radhakrishnan is truly an inspirational one with ethics, social values,
and civilizations so beautifully expounded. I have been referring to it
for several years, and the words of wisdom on ethics found in the book
are so aptly applicable to the domain of modern-day corporate ethical
responsibility.
Thanks guys!
CHAPTER 1

Causality
In our obscurity—in all this vastness—there is no hint that help will
come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves. It is up to us.
—Carl Sagan*

Society’s demands, in principle, are expectations arising out of ethical


motives. When a joint-stock company is formed, by and large society
welcomes such a business endeavor and participates willingly. The stock
market is one of the points of investment for society and it is soci-
ety’s support for a corporate that churns out profits and ensures that
dividends remain robust. Society becomes apprehensive when compa-
nies falter, and investments in mutual funds and pension funds fail to
payback adequate returns, resulting in the loss of hard-earned income
earned over several decades of employment. Society’s expectation from
a corporate is simple: Entrusting my money with you for safe keep.
Period. Many companies do realize this factor and acknowledge that so-
ciety sits at the top of all stakeholders. Corporate undertakes a fiduciary
responsibility. A fiduciary is legally bound to act, within the confines
of the law, in the best interests of the beneficiary. The beneficiary is
society. Unfortunately, this responsibility is not always upheld. There
are several cases of corporate negligence that abandon the fiduciary re-
sponsibility. When trust earned is lost, society’s support is lost, and it is
corporate that suffers ultimately. The corporate goes from being a joint-
stock company to a deserted collection of individuals running from
banker to banker. When an ethical motive is absent, profits dive. The
key, which is what this book is about, is to highlight business enterprise
motives toward the betterment of profits and growth while optimizing
the trust factor.
*
A Pale Blue Dot. https://www.planetary.org/explore/space-topics/earth/pale-blue-dot.html
2 CORPORATE CITIZENSHIP AND SUSTAINABILITY

Some recent major events in the realm of fiduciary responsibility


are noteworthy. Volkswagen’s diesel cheat software shook the world.
It cost the company $33.6 billion,1 the price for having allowed the
cheat software through the front gate, duly authorized and signed by
the board and the CEO. But a greater cost has been the loss of cred-
ibility for what had been one of the most trusted automotive brands
in the world until the debacle. Hardly has the cost of dieselgate been
counted, when Bayer’s acquisition of Monsanto at $63 billion was fol-
lowed by class-action lawsuits against Bayer in many countries. Glypho-
sate is being banned by countries like France and Germany. Roundup
cancer lawsuits may cost Bayer tens of billions, says Top Class Actions.2
The merger and acquisition of Autonomy resulted in Hewlett-Packard
(HP) writing off $8.8 billion in Q4 of 2012. Toshiba’s president and
CEO, Hisao Tanaka, stepped down after an investigative panel found
that company executives were complicit in misreported earnings. The
incident highlighted “a systematic involvement including by top man-
agement.”3 Siemens’s code of conduct was described by Joseph Murphy.
as the “read, laughed and filed code.”4 To add to the agony is Carillion
(2018),5 which failed to “wake up and listen” to warnings. Two commit-
tees found that board minutes reveal a finance director was attempting
to blow the whistle on accounting irregularities.
Tech giant Infosys and global conglomerate the Tata Group are said
to have faltered on the corporate governance front, with respect to the
conduct of Vishal Sikka, CEO of Infosys, and Cyrus Mistry, chairman
of Tata Sons. The failure of infrastructure giant Infrastructure Leasing
& Financial Services (IL&FS) has not only brought the entire Indian
economy to a slowdown but has also highlighted the failure of individu-
als across the board. This collective pattern of failure represents a larger
image of dreadful consequences. We are, however, at the cusp of corpo-
rate civilization, of do or die, make history or accept defeat.6 Volkswagen,
Bayer–Monsanto, Toshiba, HP–Autonomy, Carillion, and IL&FS are
classic cases that define how a few at the helm can damage the entire
future of industrial growth.
When we are looking at the corporate civilization, we are looking at
the society we have formed. Society’s constituents, if they remain in dif-
ferent layers, then corporate, which is part of the bigger canvas, will find
Causality 3

somewhat irksome to be bracketed with all and sundry. Some may find it
distasteful, if not irksome, when society finds the arrogant assumptions of
inviolable authority, as displayed by Ferdinand Piëch, Volkswagen’s chair-
man, before the scandal erupted. Piëch chided a lawyer for mispronounc-
ing “Lamborghini.” “Those who can’t afford one, should say it properly,”
were his precise words.7 A few people assume the right to decide on mul-
tibillion dollar commitments that impact society at large. Marc Benioff
(2019), co-CEO of Salesforce and owner of Time, has pronounced that
“capitalism, as we know it, is dead.”8 If so, the way corporate is run, from
Lockheed to Enron to VW to Carillion to IL&FS, would ever be classi-
fied as capitalism. The society of different communities, which we do not
know of fully, demands the answers. Marc Benioff (2019) calls for a new
form of capitalism that focuses more on societal good. Societal good for
one should be the same for another. Within the society’s infrastructure,
the new capitalism, as one part, should survive and endeavor to create a
new corporate civilization.9
Corporate is missing the point. Their fault lines are visible, goal-
posts are missing, the future is bleak, and the present is shaky. Profits
are the mainstay of corporate, and this is entrusted to and ensured
by ethical motives. It is not a matter simply of a corporate giant bites
the dust. There are 30 million micro, small and medium enterprises
(MSME) in India. When a giant falls, the repercussions affect millions.
The behavior of such failed business magnates further delays our col-
lective commitments to the United Nations Millennium Declaration
of sustainability of economic, social, environmental protection and
development goals.
What has happened in India between 2004 and 2014 of the United
Progressive Alliance (UPA) government is the aggrandizement of pub-
lic wealth at the cost of extreme poverty. The consequences of the big
corporate tree falling are now being made apparent. The Industrial De-
velopment Bank of India (IDBI), Industrial Credit and Investment Cor-
poration of India (ICICI), and International Finance Corporation (IFC)
as development institutions have disappeared, after writing off millions.10
No one the wiser, but the agony is repeated. Lessons are not learned.
Corporate must change, banking must change. Non-performing assets
(NPAs) threaten the very basis of business survival. There’s no connection
4 CORPORATE CITIZENSHIP AND SUSTAINABILITY

between the declaration of sustainable goals and the tracking of such


goals. Society remains in the iron age. For society, it’s a signal to acknowl-
edge the difficulty of essential survival.
Change, Change, Change Corporate! You are squandering away the
riches of the earth. It is often said, “If you always do what you have always
done, you will always get what you have always got.” No longer can the
promoter of a corporate entity afford to recklessly abandon the entity for
society to bear the burden. This is what Benioff meant when he called
upon America’s top corporations to be responsible for improving society
by serving all stakeholders ethically, morally, and fairly and not merely by
boosting the stock price for shareholders.11 In this work, we will examine
what ethically, morally, and fairly means.
The late cosmologist Carl Sagan says we make our world significant
by the courage of our questions and the depth of our answers. If society
remains a passive observer, the degradation of industry is sure to follow.
Paul Polman of Unilever urges, “Don’t stay on the sidelines. It boils down
to small actions, big difference. Together we can do it.” He adds, “I don’t
like that word, responsibility. It is about co-responsibility.” Till the emer-
gence of corporate social responsibility (CSR), corporate could easily talk
of business ethics, corporate governance, and so on without being at-
tached to something called society. Corporate looks at itself as a giver of
benefits and favor to the society, never to take responsibility for societal
good. CSR has changed that. Paul Polman has done yeoman service to
the society by his Sustainable Living Plan project through Unilever in the
last decade. He would surely agree with the willingness of the society and
the enthusiasm with which it has taken to his call for co-responsibility,
however limited Unilever’s interaction with it. Small actions do make a
big difference, as he rightly observes. However, from the society, it is not
co-responsibility but a sense of consequent responsibility that corporate
must clearly understand. Bayer invests in Monsanto a $63 billion and
comes a cropper. Society looks at companies that invest wisely and ben-
efit society. Society has no means of advising the board as to what and
how they function. It is the corporate that needs to go to the society
regarding its intentions to execute a multibillion dollar investment. This
work expands CSR to corporate fiscal responsibility (CFR) and corpo-
rate ethical responsibility (CER). CER of the corporate defines its ethical
Causality 5

responsibility and then the consequent responsibility undertaken by the


society is truly a quid pro quo.
Former secretary-general of the UN Kofi Annan while releasing
the United Nations Convention Against Corruption (UNCAC) docu-
ment said,

Corruption is an insidious plague that has a wide range of corro-


sive effects on societies. It undermines democracy and the rule of
law, leads to violations of human rights, distorts markets, erodes
the quality of life and allows organized crime, terrorism and other
threats to human security to flourish.12

UNCAC is one of the finest, rather the finest, document ever writ-
ten, for two of its articles: (1) Article 13, Participation of Society, and
(2) Article 10, Public Reporting. These statutes best exemplify Abra-
ham Lincoln’s words: A government of the people, by the people, for
the people shall not perish from the earth. A corporate setup is cre-
ated by the people. Article 13, Participation of Society, of the UNCAC
ensures the dictum of the people, and Article 10, Public Reporting,
endows the rights for the people to get the reports back. As President
Barack Obama said during his inaugural address to Congress, “Here in
Washington, we’ve all seen how quickly good intentions can turn into
broken promises and wasteful spending.” Society needs to get qualita-
tive data, for sure. UNCAC Article 13 could have cautioned corporate
before it implanted a cheat software. UNCAC Article 10 could have
ensured the concept of co-responsibility was executed by the declara-
tion of ethical assets.
The participation of a society is a matured extension of people elect-
ing a government. What society wants from corporate is a confirmation
of an intrinsic value system. Article 10 of the UNCAC, Public Reporting,
ensures the people know what their own roles are and what the govern-
ment’s role is. Society, at the top of the pyramid of stakeholders, has been
demanding more and more transparency from corporate and is dissatisfied
with the less and less it is being given. Despite government-enacted laws
and active ingredients from regulatory bodies, corporate evades the core
demands and is indeed found wanting. It remains aloof from happenings
6 CORPORATE CITIZENSHIP AND SUSTAINABILITY

that demand corrections. It is stubborn in its isolation from society. There


is no need for such a disconnect. All corporate has to do is to quantify and
make known its ethical values. These two articles of the UNCAC would
go a long way to satisfy the demands of society.
As a first step toward corporate governance, align fiscal responsibility
with ethical responsibility. For example, before a drug can be prescribed
in the United States it must undergo the Food and Drug Administration
(FDA) approval process. Once approved, drug companies stand to ben-
efit. This process is aligning fiscal responsibility with ethical responsibil-
ity that the FDA inspects to ensure compliance with the laws and good
manufacturing practice (GMP). Similar management practices applied
to each area of management are termed as corporate governance. Align-
ing all issue areas in a company would be critical to an overall assessment
of corporate governance, without an exception. This includes a code of
conduct or code of business principles (CoBP) or Whistleblower Policy
or UNCAC or United Nations Global Compact (UNGC) covering 10
principles that are meant to benefit a company and typify the value sys-
tem practiced. These have to be adopted by a company in detail for gov-
ernance of each such issue area. That document so prepared is a tangible
substance of quality, as good as installed machinery. Such documents,
which are very many mandatory as well as nonmandatory policy docu-
ments, fall under the head management quality. This is a repository of
policy statements a company adheres to. When effectively practiced, the
result would be the measurement of corporate governance. Just as detailed
factory inspections and audits to check and certify GMP or total quality
management (TQM) practices are verified, corporate governance certifi-
cation is to be verified. When an issue area is present in management qual-
ity that becomes the Cause. When measured and certified for compliance
with such a policy, the Effect is assessed. The balance of these is corporate
governance. Just as a six sigma process is established for manufacturing,
a similar six sigma process improvement for corporate governance is es-
tablished. Management quality and corporate governance would go hand
in hand as effectively and surely as Newton’s Third Law of Motion: For
every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. Establish manage-
ment quality to precede corporate governance. The cheat software got in
because the company skipped the deference to management quality.
Causality 7

Volkswagen was awarded the Best Corporate Governance for the


Automotive Sector for 2014 in Europe by Ethical Boardroom. It was
reminiscent of the AAA ratings that Standard & Poor’s (S&P), Moody’s,
and Fitch granted companies like Bear Stearns, Fannie Mae, Freddie
Mac, and Lehman Brothers before they collapsed. IL&FS credit ratings
were equally misstated. In the case of Volkswagen, there was no policy
document to show that a cheat software would be against their CoBP
policies, although Volkswagen had prepared a detailed code of conduct
for the group. This document lists several international conventions fol-
lowed, such as the International Covenant on Economic, Social and
Cultural Rights (1966), in addition to the laws and regulations for the
countries.
After the deluge, society is not aware whether any adequate measures
have now been taken that were missing earlier in CoBP. When there’s no
such correction made, fiscal responsibility doesn’t align with ethical re-
sponsibility. There are also cases where clear written policies exist but are
cast aside under the “read, laughed and filed code.” This will be the case
in general for all companies where the effort is not made to align fiscal
and ethical responsibilities. One will see a long list of policy statements
under management quality with no corresponding compliance under cor-
porate governance. However, when such an event like the Volkswagen
case explodes, the general reaction is lack of corporate governance, which
is questioned immediately. In this context, a corresponding perspective
comes from Hermes EOS, the stewardship division of Hermes Invest-
ment Management, one of the major stakeholders in Volkswagen, which
called for an overhaul of the management and corporate governance
culture at Volkswagen. There was no such corporate governance culture,
Volkswagen displayed. Aligning fiscal responsibility with ethical respon-
sibility is going to be paramount for companies to be just and equitable.
What Paul Polman said in 2010 are the same value statements made
by Marc Benioff today but remain as relevant for companies that seek to
be just and equitable. Business ethics has indeed become just lip service.
Companies would not even file a balance sheet if it was not mandatory.
Corporates will remain required to communicate voluntarily just and eq-
uitable practices to society by Article 10 of the UNCAC, until it becomes
mandatory, which it will only when society insists.
8 CORPORATE CITIZENSHIP AND SUSTAINABILITY

Mandatory regulations are imposed by a government but at the in-


sistence of society. Society is not a nonentity; it is a powerful apparatus
when the government listens.
There are three distinct pronounced areas for corporate to note:

1. Management quality, which is a repository of policies.


2. Corporate governance, which involves the practices of the CEO
team.
3. Society or people, who usher in changes inside corporate through
the government and regulatory bodies.

These three Ps of management—policy, practices, and people—are


the crux of management of corporate affairs that we shall discuss in the
coming chapters. There are clear boundaries and functions for each, a
clear-cut set of duties to perform, a responsibility to participate, and ac-
countability to own.
Business enterprise is a profound thought of good intentions to-
ward society that sets apart corporate culture over individual choice.
A culture is a function of true knowledge of awareness, an identity
with ethical responsibility, that by which corporate infers and society
teaches. The ethical motive, incorporated at the time of registration
for a joint-stock company, remains untouched. “Just and equitable” is
not an expression of political statement for voters, but an invitation
for stakeholders to vote with their wallet. Money is business, to attract
money in business, state your stand. Measure it so that society under-
stands it as a testimony of your will and actions. Just and equitable
should have a reference to the context, and so should “societal good,”
instead of being merely a catchword, for catchwords face the issue of
being unexamined and unanalyzed over a while. They just disappear
for another new catchword. Society remains confused and disordered.
Practically, the society does not respond, and the catchwords remain
the monopoly of a few.
Bring data to society’s table. Writing to the board of Infosys during
the previous Vishal Sikka imbroglio, the Infoscions, an organization
of former employees, said, “In God we trust; everyone else brings data
to the table used to be our adage in everything we did and there were
Causality 9

no exceptions!” This is a good adage that can be extended to society


and shall be served a measured qualitative data at the table without ex-
ception. First of all, let corporate create a platform for qualitative data
within whereas this book recommends bringing the data to society’s
table. Here we are looking at qualitative data, such as the code of good
conduct. Disclosure of such data is going to improve upon a company’s
reputation. If you are doing well, do not withhold such data. If you
are practicing and measuring the code of conduct of every employee
in your company and your grade reveals that you are excelling, make
it known to the society. The dignity and responsibility of an individual
are recognized, a sense of honor. Contrarily, very many companies in
India are marching toward insolvency procedures, all at the same time,
because of the Modi government introducing the Insolvency and Bank-
ruptcy Code (IBC). This has ended crony capitalism. The slate is clean
for doing good business in India, for those who are ready to go for a
corruption-free business model.13 NPAs would surely be a thing of the
past. Corporate governance is the governance standard for the value
system within a company. Measuring quantitative data is already in ex-
istence, nothing more to be added to it. Value system is existing for a
few but not measured. By measuring the value system, corporate gover-
nance makes itself known.
Let us move forward in our endeavor to establish qualitative data that
is measurable, meaningful first of all within corporate, and then com-
municable to society. Note, society already recognizes how corporate uses
ethical assets, and ethical performance establishes how just and equitable
corporates are discharging their fiduciary duties, not merely fiscal assets,
which are the domain of market speculators. Toshiba, Enron, Worldcom,
and many more tampered with their balance sheets and failed miserably.
Fiscal assets have a limited period usage, of use and throw. Ethical assets
are the mainstay of your organization. Bring a list of ethical assets to
society’s table. They are intangible. In the sense ethical assets are everlast-
ing, they would remain the backbone of an organization. Intangible as
everlasting is one thing but remaining the backbone of the organization
is another. The former is a time factor but the latter warrants positioning.
Dr Radhakrishnan (Indian philosopher and former president of India)
mentions Pascal’s well-known classification of the ways to belief, custom,
10 CORPORATE CITIZENSHIP AND SUSTAINABILITY

reason, and inspiration suggests three stages of mental evolution—


sense, reason, and intuition—though they are not to be regarded as
chronologically successive and separate. In youth, we rise from the em-
pirical to the dialectical stage when we argue and derive conclusions from
observed data. At a more mature stage, we obtain a synthetic and intuitive
knowledge of reality by means of an experience that embraces the whole
soul. But intuition, though it includes the testimony of will and feeling,
is never fully attained without strenuous intellectual effort. It cannot dis-
pense with the discipline of reason and the technique of proof. He goes
on to warn that the intuitive consciousness is not to be confused with the
instinctive.14
Instinctive is a term we associate with reaction and intuitive with
knowledge, from gross to subtle. The dictionary meaning of it, however,
describes instinctive as one without conscious thought and intuitive as
one without conscious reasoning, and as the expression goes many a
slip between the cup and the lip. When we analyze the three stages of
mental evolution, senses are related to instinctive reaction, reason to
logical knowledge, which Dr Radhakrishnan says is comparable to a
finger that points to the object and disappears when the object is seen,
whereas intuitive knowledge is to a higher wavelength of the discipline
of reason with the technique of proof. All three have a common thread:
Instinctive reaction relates to a physical effort, reasoning to an intel-
lectual effort (to trigger the finger to go in search of an object or a
solution), and intuitive knowledge to an intellectual effort of egoistic
discrimination. It’s personal, the domain where a single dot produces
several patents by different people, each unique. The one that is com-
mon to all, as the gems strung together that may vary in color and
species, but the supporting string is the same all through, is intangible.
Intangible is an effort, an energy force to be reckoned with. Intangible
is all pervasive. Intangible influences actions and identifies inactions
simultaneously, when energy force is absent, that is, without conscious
thought or conscious reasoning. Intangible is a constant, enabling to
derive a fixed value in a specified mathematical context, for example,
return on intangible.
Illustratively, in an age-old country-music album, the song “Deck of
Cards” by Tex Ritter goes like this:
Causality 11

A boy soldier being caught with playing cards in church, was brought
before Provost Marshall. After warning of dire consequences, the soldier
did narrate an interesting story. Sir, after marching for six days neither
I had a Bible nor a Prayer Book that I spread the deck of cards I had,
in the church. You see sir, when I look at the Ace it reminds me that
there is but one God. Two, Old and the New Testament. Three, Father,
Son and the Holy Ghost. He goes on. The King, the Queen, the jack or
knave. Sir, I count the number of spots in a deck I find three-hundred-
sixty-five—the number of days in a year, Fifty-two cards—the number
of weeks in a year, Twelve picture cards—number of months, thirteen
tricks—the number of weeks in a Quarter. Four colors—the number of
seasons in a year. Sir, my pack of cards serves me as a Bible, an almanac
and a prayer book.
Provost Marshall who warned of the dire consequences was left won-
dering how the boy soldier could count the fiscal assets—the deck of
cards—solve a puzzle, and also retain the ethical assets. Connecting the
different perspectives, the human mind focuses on the behavior of highly
sensitive dynamical systems, given access to a constant.

Understanding the Intangible—A CERN Perspective


Let us peep into the minds of the scientists of the European Organization
for Nuclear Research, known as CERN, a little bit. On June 18, 2004, an
unusual new landmark was unveiled at CERN, a 2-meter high statue of
the Indian deity Shiva Nataraja, the Lord of Dance. The statue, symboliz-
ing Shiva’s cosmic dance of creation and destruction, was given to CERN
by the Indian government to celebrate the research center’s long associa-
tion with India. Shiva’s cosmic dance then became a central metaphor in
Austrian-born American physicist, systems theorist, and deep ecologist
Fritjof Capra’s international bestseller The Tao of Physics. A special plaque
next to the Shiva statue at CERN explains the significance of the meta-
phor. Capra finds a similarity between modern physics and Shiva, not
only in terms of the birth and death of living creatures, but also the very
essence of inorganic matter. Shiva’s dance is the dance of subatomic mat-
ter that, Capra says, “unifies ancient mythology, religious art, and modern
physics” (Figure 1.1)15
12 CORPORATE CITIZENSHIP AND SUSTAINABILITY

Figure 1.1  The Shiva’s cosmic dance statue at CERN


Photo Credit: Giovanni Chierico.

Plato’s Cave

Writing about Shiva’s statue, Aidan Randle-Conde, a postdoctoral stu-


dent at CERN, looks at it from two different angles. During the daytime,
Shiva reminds us that the universe is constantly shaking things up, is
remaking itself, and is never static, she says, and by night, when we have
more time to contemplate the deeper questions, Shiva literally casts a long
shadow over our work, a bit like the shadows on Plato’s cave.16 This is an
interesting observation that can be extended to the corporate model.
Causality 13

A comparative study of CERN and corporate throws some light on


the existence of matter and its creation of energy. It is critical to the
very existence of corporate, what it does, how it could use its capabil-
ity for a sustainable, trouble-free future of industry and commerce.
CERN states, (a) subatomic matter not only performs an energy dance,
but also is an energy dance and (b) subatomic matter does not remain
static. We shall restrict subatomic matter to protons, neutrons, and
electrons for this work, which primarily establishes the connect be-
tween corporate and nature. Then we shall look into whether corporate
is stuck in Plato’s cave.
Lessons derived from CERN would bring metaphysics and physics
into fusion. In other words, aligning fiscal responsibility with ethical
responsibility. Corporate is masquerading under the claim of secrecy,
unwilling to publish qualitative data that would be detrimental to their
own progress vis-à-vis the competition. Measuring management quality,
a repository of mandatory as well as nonmandatory rules and regula-
tions adopted by a company, is necessary. So would be other qualitative
data: accounting quality, risk management, and corporate governance.
The reality is not that corporate doesn’t want to release the data, but
rather that corporate doesn’t have any data to publish. In the aftermath
of the Toshiba expose, news of manipulation of accounting emerges.
In the aftermath of cheat software, Volkswagen is left defending mul-
tibillion dollar class-action lawsuits. Whistleblowers did their job, and
energy giant Enron went through bankruptcy and saw the dissolution
of Arthur Andersen, one of the Big 5 audit firms. In the aftermath of the
London Inter-bank Offered Rate (LIBOR) being used to tamper with
rates, the risk appetite in the top echelons of Barclays bank/group forces
their chairman to resign. The inability of corporate to measure meta-
physical concepts is more than clear. Even at the height of the BP Deep-
water oil spill disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, the total expenditure was
said to be about $2 billion. Not so long after HP entered into a merger
and acquisition with Autonomy, a write-off of $8.8 billion became in-
evitable, which shows how ridiculous it is to be unaware of a company’s
qualitative performance at the time of acquisition. Such a failure does
not reflect on HP alone but on the four major firms that negotiated the
deal. These Big 4 audit firms continue their legacy of ineffectiveness in
14 CORPORATE CITIZENSHIP AND SUSTAINABILITY

the Carillion fiasco too. That the next chief financial officer had to go
through whistleblowing procedures to get her concerns about account-
ing irregularities taken seriously by the Carillion board is extraordinary,
according to the report.17 Now, Big 4 firms are being investigated by
the Serious Fraud Investigation Office (SFIO), GoI, in the case of the
fraud in IL&FS.18 That’s the last straw that broke the camel’s back. One
can legitimately say corporate management is utterly depraved and in-
capable of establishing a value system, crucial to establish the tenets of
the righteousness of corporate civilization.

Corporate Is Living in Plato’s Cave

In Plato’s cave, the chained prisoners could only see the shadow on the
front wall, not the action of puppeteers behind them. They have no con-
cept of reality as they never look back but look only at what plays out
on the front wall. One of the prisoners breaks free and runs outside to
acquire knowledge. He returns to the cave to explain the reality to the re-
maining prisoners. They think he is stupid. They resist any attempt to free
them. Corporate is living in Plato’s cave. They are unwilling to see energy
in its pure form. Companies are injured but the remedy is being rejected.
The vision for ethical responsibility must evolve from within; it cannot
be administered through external consulting. As Carl Sagan reminds us,
there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere; corporate resides in
a do-it-yourself domain.

Chapter 1: Causality: Points to Ponder


We know the cause, corporate intransigence, and the effect, lack of values.

1. Society’s demands: Corporate lack of concern toward society


despite hundreds of regulations being brought in is indeed
quite telling. This will change when companies imbibe value
systems within that would attract society to invest more in
such companies.
Causality 15

2. Corporate is missing the point: The point is sustainability.


Without a value system, companies cannot sustain for long.
Benioff calling upon U.S. top corporations to be responsible
for improving society by serving all stakeholders—ethically,
morally, and fairly—is the point to be noted and change
effected.
3. Adopt the UNCAC Template: Article 13, Participation of
Society, and Article 10, Public Reporting, would go a long
way to stabilize corporate initiatives toward the betterment of
corporate profits and growth. These two articles are the links
between corporate and society, establishing co-responsibility.
4. Aligning Fiscal Responsibility with Ethical Responsibility: Soci-
etal good means corporate ethical motive is a well-written plan
of action. Currently, corporate is not looking at ethical motive
as a principal mover of profits and growth. They are completely
engrossed in attaining fiscal targets. Aligning the two would make
the difference.
5. Bring the Data to Society’s Table: This is Article 10, Public Re-
porting. A list of ethical assets of a company would reveal what
data is relevant and would interest society. Note, society is the
investor in your company.
6. Intangible—A CERN Perspective: –It opens up a perspective on
antimatter the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) tries to decipher.
This could also be an eye-opener for CERN to learn from, under-
standing and deriving intangible, to locate the missing antimatter.
7. A comparative study of CERN and Corporate: There are a lot of
similarities between what CERN does and what corporate does,
finding the meaning of matter and antimatter, physics and meta-
physics, tangible and intangible, non-pulsating energy and pul-
sating energy, growth and profits.

Action Point
1. Corporate is living in Plato’s cave. Opportunity to listen to the
prisoner who had gone out and seen the world of energy should
be taken.
16 CORPORATE CITIZENSHIP AND SUSTAINABILITY

Notes
1. G. Kable. 2019. “Volkswagen’s Dieselgate Costs Top $33.6 Billion.”
https://www.wardsauto.com/industry/volkswagen-s-dieselgate-costs-top-
336-billion.
2. S. Datko. 2019. “Roundup Cancer Lawsuits May Cost Bayer Tens of
Billions,” Top Class Action. https://topclassactions.com/lawsuit-settlements/
consumer-products/roundup-cancer-lawsuits-may-cost-bayer-tens-of-
billions.
3. R. Savage. 2015. “Toshiba’s $1.2bn Accounting Scandal and the Problem
with Japanese Corporate Governance.” https://www.managementtoday
.co.uk/toshibas-12bn-accounting-scandal-problem-japanese-corporate-
governance/article/1356743.
4. OECD. “Mr. Joseph E. Murphy (Corporate Compliance and Ethics Profes-
sional).” In: Review of the OECD Anti-Bribery Instruments: Compilation of
Responses to Consultation Paper, March 31, 2008. http://www.oecd.org/daf/
anti-bribery/anti-briberyconvention/40773471.pdf.
5. Sky News. 2018. “Carillion Failed to ‘Wake Up and Listen’ toWarnings.” https://
news.sky.com/story/carillion-failed-to-wake-up-and-listen-to-warnings-
11269033.
6. J. Iyer. 2015. “Who failed Infosys, Is It Corporate Governance or Man-
agement Quality?” https://www.linkedin.com/feed/update/urn:li:activity:
6309431719099490304.
7. J. Useem. 2016. “What Was Volkswagen Thinking? On the Origins of
Corporate Evil—and Idiocy.” https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/
archive/2016/01/what-was-volkswagen-thinking/419127/.
8. P.R. La Monica. 2019. “Marc Benioff Says Capitalism, As We Know It, Is
Dead.” https://edition.cnn.com/2019/10/04/business/marc-benioff-capitalism-
dead/index.html.
9. Ibid.
10. India Today. 2011. “Scandals during UPA Rule.” https://www.indiatoday
.in/india/photo/scandals-during-upa-rule-365055-2011-02-15/7.
11. P.R. La Monica. 2019. “Marc Benioff Says Capitalism, As We Know It, Is
Dead.” https://edition.cnn.com/2019/10/04/business/marc-benioff-capitalism-
dead/index.html.
12. UN_Convention_Against_Corruption.pdf—United Nations Office on
Drugs and Crime, Vienna.
Causality 17

13. Economic Times. 2019. “10,860 Cases under IBC Pending be-
fore NCLT at the End of September: Govt.” https://economictimes
.indiatimes.com/news/economy/policy/10860-cases-under-ibc-pending-
before-nclt-at-the-end-of-september-govt/articleshow/72348493
.cms?utm_source=contentofinterest&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=
cppst.
14. S. Radhakrishnan. 1939. Eastern Religions and Western Thoughts (London,
UK: Oxford University Press), p. 113.
15. Fritj of Capra. 2004. “Shiva’s Cosmic Dance at CERN.” https://www
.fritjofcapra.net/shivas-cosmic-dance-at-cern/.
16. A. Randle-Conde. 2011. “In the shadow of Shiva.” https://www.quantumdiaries
.org/2011/11/10/in-the-shadow-of-shiva/.
17. Sky News. “Carillion Failed.”
18. S. Dave, S. Shukla. 2019. “Serious Fraud Investigation Office Lens on
IL&FS Auditors.” https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/industry/banking
/finance/serious-fraud-investigation-office-lens-on-ilfs-auditors/articleshow
/69658026.cms.
Index
Aadhar Card, 102 Control Environment, definition
Action Process, 27–28, 59–62, 68–69, of, 23
76–77 Corporate atomic structure,
properties of, 77–78 84–89, 95
ratings for, 77 007 factor, 88–89
Action Value Capital, 78 benchmarking, aligning with
American Online (AOL), 45 atomic structure, 89
Apple, 70 similarity between atomic structure
Arthapatti, 112 and, 86
Artificial intelligence, 101–102 Corporate body
Ashland Oil Inc., 81 four auxiliary limbs of, 97
Ashoka’s edicts, 123–124, 131 six limbs of, 96
Atomic structure Corporate citizenship, 133–135
benchmarking corporate atomic Corporate Critical Density, 99–100
structure aligning with, 89 artificial intelligence, 101–102
similarity between corporate atomic board of directors, 102–105
structure and, 86 reverse mentoring, 105–106
Audit profession, 132–133 sustainability, 100
Authority, 44, 51 Corporate electron, CREAM Report
for, 109–119
Barings Bank, 82 Corporate ethical responsibility
Bayer, 2 (CER), 4–5
Big Bang, 27 Corporate Ethics, 93
Blockchain technology, 131 Corporate fiscal responsibility
Board of Banking Supervision, 82 (CFR), 4
Board of directors, 102–105 Corporate governance, 9, 112
Brahma Sutra, 32 Corporate neutron. See Society, for
corporate neutron
Capitalism, definition of, 20 Corporate proton, 99–106
Capital–Output Ratio, 113–114 Corporate social responsibility
Carillion, 2, 3 (CSR), 4
Causality, 1–15 Corporate structure, 62
Chartered accountant (CA), 132–133 Corporate Yoga, 94
Code of business principles (CoBP), COVID-19, 91, 106
6, 7, 75 CREAM analytics framework,
Code of Conduct (CoC). See Code of 91–92
business principles (CoBP) CREAM Report
Committee of Sponsoring for corporate electron, 109–119
Organizations of the deeper commitment with,
Treadway Commission 114–115
(COSO) Framework, 23, 24, Hindustan Unilever Limited,
55, 75 110–112
142 INDEX

CREAM Report (continued ) G-R-A-C-E, 44–51, 132


rating, 105 G-R-A-C-E Version 2, 51–52
spot your place, 115–116 General Motors, 70
Creamchain, 130–132 GenNext, 106
Creative Process, 27, 56, 59, 60–62, Global Happiness Index, 124
68, 91 “Goldilocks Effect,” 100
properties of, 77–78 Good manufacturing practice
ratings for, 74 (GMP), 6
Credibility, 44, 51–52 Governance, 44, 51, 83
Government Auditing Standards, 83
3-D Corporate Atomic Structure, 85–86 Gross domestic product (GDP),
Data explosion, 95 126–127
Gross National Happiness (GNH)
Economic disasters, 22–23 Index, 126–127
Effort transforms mass into energy, Gujarat state domestic product
59–60 (GSDP), 127–130
Efforts per person (EPP), 127–130
Emergent property phenomenon, Happiness Index, 124–125
94–97 Hedonism, 21–22
Enabled balance sheet, 44, 52 Hewlett-Packard (HP), 2
Enterprise resource planning (ERP), Hindustan Unilever Limited
101 CREAM Report, 110–112
Ethical assets, 9, 35, 88–89, 99, 130
Ethical Assets Premium Account, 116 IAS 9, 1977, 42–43
Ethical Responsibility (ER), 93, 105, IAS 38, 41, 46
121–123, 133, 134 Implication, 63–64
Ethical Strategy Plan, 75 Inactivity Based Cost Management
European Organization for Nuclear (IBCM), 81–97
Research (CERN), 11–13, 67 corporate atomic structure, 84–89
Shiva’s cosmic dance statue, 12 emergent property phenomenon,
Exchange rate crisis, 45 94–97
governance gets measured and
Farmer producer companies (FPCs), managed, 81–83
102, 114 measure qualitative elements, 84
Farmer producer organisations return on intangible, 90–94
(FPOs), 102, 114 Index of inactivity (IA)
Federation of Industries and by process area, 103, 110–112
Associations (FIA), 127 by resource area, 104, 110–112
Fiduciary responsibility, 1 Indian Brand Equity Foundation
Financial Crisis Advisory Group (IBEF) report, 102
(FCAG), 49 Indian Companies Act 2013, 23–26
Food and Drug Administration India’s GDP, 115–116
(FDA), 6 Industrial Credit and Investment
Food and Drug Administration Corporation of India
(FDA) Modernization Act (ICICI), 3
(1997), 25–26 Industrial Development Bank of India
Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (IDBI), 3
(FCPA), 22, 42 Infosys, 2
INDEX
143

Infrastructure Leasing & Financial Lamborghini, 3


Services (IL&FS), 2, 28, 37 Large Hadron Collider (LHC), 27
Innovation, 27, 56, 62, 91 Lehman Brothers, 83
Insolvency and Bankruptcy Code Linga, 112
(IBC), 9 Lockheed Aircraft Corp., 22
Instinctive, 10 London Inter-bank Offered Rate
Institute of Chartered Accountants of (LIBOR), 13
India (ICAI), 132
Intangible MAGA (Make America Great Again)
defined, 61–62 campaign, 19–20
implication, 63–64 Micro, small and medium enterprises
search for, 56 (MSME), 3, 61
opposite values, 56–58 Micron Technology, 45
Intangible assets, 41–53 Microsoft, 42, 45, 70
definition of, 41, 46 Monsanto, 2
G-R-A-C-E, 44–51 Morality, 21
G-R-A-C-E Version 2, 51–52 Motorola, 45
IAS 9, 1977, 42–43 Mutual funds, 48
Intangible, measuring, 67–80
Action Process, 68–69, 76–77 National Aeronautics and Space
Action Value Capital, 78 Administration (NASA), 30,
corporate transformation cause, 42, 67, 70–71
69–75 National Institute of Standards and
creation of substance, 67–68 Technology (NIST), 131
Creative Process, 68 Newton’s First Law of Motion,
Intangible Value Capital, 78–79 27–28, 89
Intellectual Value Capital, 75–76 Newton’s Second Law of Motion,
Intangible Value Capital, 78–79 90
Intellectual property (IP), 48, 49 Non-performing assets (NPAs),
Intellectual property right (IPR), 27, 49 3, 9, 72, 99
Intellectual Value Capital, 75–76
International Accounting Standards Opposite Value Analysis, 95
Board (IASB), 41 Opposite values, 56–57
International Accounting Standards study of, 57–58
Committee (IASC), 41, 43,
44, 46 Organisation for Economic Co-
International Covenant on Economic, operation and Development
Social and Cultural Rights (OECD), 22, 51, 62,
(1966), 7 95, 131
International Finance Corporation Organizational restructuring, 84
(IFC), 3
ISO 26000 Social Responsibility, Plato’s Cave, 12–14
134–135 corporate is living in, 14
Process Blocks, 92–93
Keynes’s Animal Spirits, 24–25, 73 Project FISCAL (farmer–industry–
“Know Thyself,” 32–33 society & consolidate agri
Knowledge is goal of ethics, 25–26 leadership), 102
KPMG–EIU survey, 84 Pulsating energy, 26–35
144 INDEX

Reliance Industries, 70 Tesla, 70


Reserve Bank of Australia, 82 Toshiba, 2
Responsibility, 44, 51 Total quality management (TQM), 6
Return on intangible, 90–94 Transparency, 122
Reverse mentoring, 105–106 Truth, 56

Sage of Kanchi, 58 UN World Economic Survey report


Sankalpa, 115–116 1977, 43
SAP Software Solutions, 35 UNCAC Article 10, Public
Sarbanes–Oxley Act (SOX), 22, 55 Reporting, 5, 26, 122
Self-governance, 33, 72–73, 93, 121 UNCAC Article 12, Private Sector,
Serious Fraud Investigation Office 134
(SFIO), 14 UNCAC Article 13, Participation of
Societal good, 3, 4, 8, 122 Society, 5, 25, 122
Society, for corporate neutron, UNCAC Article 46, Mutual Legal
121–137 Assistance, 76
audit profession, 131–133 Unilever, 4, 70
corporate citizenship, 133–135 United Nations Convention Against
creamchain, 130–132 Corruption (UNCAC), 5, 68,
Spreadsheet Organization Structure, 62 75–76, 134
State morality. See Ashoka’s edicts United Nations Global Compact
Strategy Plan, 69, 77 (UNGC), 6, 68
deeper commitment with CREAM United Nations Millennium
Report, 114–115 Declaration, 3
Subject - Object Distinction of U.S. Government Accountability
Qualitative and Quantitative Office, 83
Elements of Management, U.S. Securities and Exchange
135 Commission (SEC), 46
Substance
creation of, 67–68 Volkswagen, 2, 7, 23–24
transformation stages, 69–75
Substance of Quality, 68, 73–74 What you see is what you get
Sustainability, 30, 84, 100 (WYSIWYG), 32
of efficiency, 88, 97, 115 Whistleblower Policy, 6, 76, 111, 112
of profits, 35, 88, 97, 115 World Commission on Environment
of value system, 88, 97, 115 and Development, 100
Sustainable Living Plan project, 4 World Economic and Social Survey
1995, 47
Tamil Nadu State Marketing World Happiness Report, 125–126
Corporation (TASMAC), 134
Tata Group, 2 007 factor, 88–89
OTHER TITLES IN OUR BUSINESS ETHICS AND
CORPORATE CITIZENSHIP COLLECTION
David Wasieleski, Duquesne University, Editor
• Powerful Performance: How to Be Influential, Ethical, and Successful in Business
by Mark Eyre
• Applied Humanism: How to Create More Effective and Ethical Businesses
by Jennifer Hancock

BEP is also proud to have books in our Giving Voice to Values on Business Ethics and
Corporate Social Responsibility Collection, including these
• Educating Business Professionals: The Call Beyond Competence and Expertise
by Lana S. Nino
• Adapting to Change: The Business of Climate Resilience by Ann Goodman
• Social Media Ethics Made Easy: How to Comply with FTC Guidelines by Joseph W. Barnes
• Sales Ethics: How To Sell Effectively While Doing the Right Thing by Alberto Aleo
• Engaging Millennials for Ethical Leadership: What Works For Young Professionals and
Their Managers by Jessica McManus Warnell
• War Stories: Fighting, Competing, Imagining, Leading by Leigh Hafrey
• Working Ethically in Finance: Clarifying Our Vocation by Anthony Asher
• Shaping the Future of Work: What Future Worker, Business, Government, and Education
Leaders Need To by Thomas A. Kochan
• The ART of Responsible Communication: Leading with Values Every Day
by David L. Remund
• Ethical Leadership in Sport: What’s Your ENDgame by Pippa Grange

Announcing the Business Expert Press Digital Library


Concise e-books business students need for classroom and research

This book can also be purchased in an e-book collection by your library as

• a one-time purchase,
• that is owned forever,
• allows for simultaneous readers,
• has no restrictions on printing, and
• can be downloaded as PDFs from within the library community.

Our digital library collections are a great solution to beat the rising cost of textbooks. E-books
can be loaded into their course management systems or onto students’ e-book readers.

The Business Expert Press digital libraries are very affordable, with no obligation to buy in
future years. For more information, please visit www.businessexpertpress.com/librarians.
To set up a trial in the United States, please email sales@businessexpertpress.com.

You might also like