Customer Relationship and Corporate Governance in Sustainability of Business

Prof. Vinod Krishna U. Makkimane

Senior Faculty

Institute of Business Management & Technology

Banashankari 3^rd Stage

Bangalore – 85

Abstract:

Sustainability is a dynamic concept born out of the environmental debate of the last quarter century. There is growing concern nationally and internationally about biodiversity and protection of plants and animals and community based activity. It is important to view sustainable efforts from global perspective that addresses socio-economic and environmental issues. 

Sustainable Development as a norm has been accepted in the literature ever since the publication of the Brundtland Commission report in 1987.The Brundtland Commission defined Sustainable Development as that which "meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of the future generations to meet their own needs".

A primary goal of sustainable development is to achieve a reasonable and equitably distributed level of economic well being that can be perpetuated continually for many human generations. It also implies using renewable natural resources in a manner that does not eliminate or degrade them, or otherwise diminish their usefulness for future generations. Sustainable development also requires depleting non-renewable energy resources at a slow enough rate so as to ensure the high probability of an orderly society transition to renewable energy sources.

Mahatma Gandhi has observed long back that "There's enough in the world to meet the needs of everyone but there's not enough to meet the greed of everyone". He has also spoke about using the non-violence principal in sustainable development something like this - "We cannot have ecological movement designed to prevent violence against nature, unless the principles of non-violence become central to the ethics of human culture."

Dictionary meaning of “Sustain” is to last out or to to keep up or keep going. Business needs to last out to fulfill its objectives and primarily for this sustainability it is very essential for any business entity to give more importance to the “Customer” aspect. My paper tries to explore the customer relationship angle for sustainability of the business and also for the sustainability of environment and natural resources.

Along with Customer Relationship, a well defined Corporate Governance is required for corporate sustainability.

 In an interesting blog post Toby Webb discusses whether governance ‘structures’ make any difference when it comes to sustainability. His conclusion: “When it comes to governance and sustainability, it’s all down to leadership, not committees, structures and articles of association. Look at the best companies on responsible business. I won’t name them here, but they just get on with it. They don’t hang around waiting for committees to recommend action, they do things, things that matter …”

The only issue with great leaders is that they usually don’t stay too long in the same company. It’s a very personality-bound asset. Governance, to the contrary, will remain the backbone of a corporation, even if the leaders change. Top leadership with a good corporate structure can initiate necessary  policies and customer intensive initiatives which help in the sustainability of any business.

Keywords: Customer Relationship, Corporate Governance, Sustainability.