CSR initiative in Bangladesh is a welcome introduction, especially where issues of rights and ethical behavior is becoming integral to the lifeblood of an organization. With global complexity, equity, accountability and transparency are shaping the organizational dimensions, business paradigms and competitiveness. It has now become a rational position to introduce CSR frameworks within management practices and business decisions. All organizations in their own self-interest are moving from a self-centered profit-only motive to a wider and engaging environment that nurtures exposure beyond greed. It expands in other tangents extending responsibilities to civic, environmental, financial, employee specific, supply-chain participation focused areas.

Conceptualization, analysis and implementation of a CSR framework from a Bangladeshi perspective has the potential to improve the standing of local corporations/organizations vis-à-vis local stakeholders, while also improving the image of Bangladesh globally. At IITM, we intend to study various implementations of CSR and construct a meaningful and value enhancing transformative process, inducting global practices of CSR in Bangladesh. IITM’s strategic, consultative and research inputs can significantly improve the image, standing and output of organizations. It is a common understanding that when employers discharge their responsibilities in a fair and transparent manner while attempting to create harmonious working environments for their staff, productivity and efficiency automatically shoot up. The entire premise of CSR and its introduction in the business world stems from this common understanding and links profitability and growth with it.

In Bangladesh a common misperception had taken root that if you treat your employees fair and square they will begin to think of you as a weak administrator. Perhaps, these reasoning may have come from the ironfisted administrative eras of the colonial British India. However, global practices show that large corporations that have significant exposure in CSR are performing much better than others.

Building a brand is a life-long process that needs to start somewhere. Investing in a CSR initiative is a step forward in that direction. At IITM, we believe that synergy can be had by improving an organization’s market standing and performance by committing to CSR initiatives, not merely as a public relations and publicity stunt but as a built-in process within the organizational structure. We invite organizations for a dialog and let us work together for the common good of humanity, while improving the economics of the organizations.

Successful CSR is interlinked with corporate branding and implies a shared set of statements about the company’s values towards its external and internal stakeholders who are involved in various decision making process.  Policy, perception and practice are interlinked, but decisions at the policy level may not trickle down to the managerial levels, but a perception, good or bad, may be built around the prescriptions given at the strategic level. Some factors that channel practices and perceptions affect large corporations in multiple domains. At IITM, we can work with these issues and improve an organization’s brand position and introduce business predictability by which higher performance may be achieved based on injected CSR inputs.