Toyota and Corporate Social Responsibility..!!

This weekend I came across an exemplary example of corporate social responsibility (CSR). It was an article about Toyota operating in India. Toyota has recently started “Toyota Technical Training Institute” on the outskirts of Bangalore. This institute is worth $5.6 million and would encourage the poor, needy and below poverty line applicants of age 17, to apply in order to receive a full fledged factory training in the field of automobile industry. I would not have addressed this as a step towards Toyota’s corporate social responsibility, if the trainees of this institute had no choice but to work at Toyota and only Toyota once the training was over. I was impressed by the fact that the company plans to employ the students once they have completed their three-year training, though they will have the option of leaving the company and working elsewhere. There is no bond to be signed, and students are free to join other automakers. Toyota also adopts a curriculum that fits with the technical needs of the automotive industry today. It further provides a monthly stipend to the trainees in order to enable them support their families while they are away from them

My idea of corporate social responsibility is to return a part of your earnings back to the society, without an expectation of getting anything back. Further, the portion that is invested in the society has to be proportionate to whatever the business consumes from the natural resources, the infrastructure and the environment. In my opinion every company that survives in today’s competition is capable to make profits and keep going in future. But it is CSR that makes one company distinct from the other!! In simple terms it is morally and ethically correct to pay back whatever you owe to an entity. I also think that CSR plays a much important role when it comes to operating in a foreign country. A company is even more liable to a foreign country in which it operates. It has to make sure to keep within the laws and rules of the other country and function in such a way that the country is eventually benefitted by its presence.

Ref: "How Toyota trains India's teens," BusinessWeek February 07, 2008