Still in business

Today, the business of business is no longer just business.

As human problems grow in scope and magnitude and governments are increasingly bogged down by deficits, politics and red tape, business has found itself in a vital new role as social agent, tasked to come up with and implement solutions to such problems as poverty, lack of housing and education, water and energy, disaster relief, health crises, environmental destruction, and a host of other urgent concerns. The business model of the 21st century no longer goes by the 1970s Milton Friedman dictum that the "one and only responsibility of business is to...increase profit".

Buoyed by a recent spate of high profile and high value philanthropy by industry titans–Bill and Melinda Gates, Warren Buffet, Richard Branson and, locally, John Gokongwei–business is now in the business of transforming society, and in many ways it is well suited to do so. Business very often has more of the tools needed to respond to a particular crisis–the skill, the logistics, not to mention the money–than governments and aid organizations. When all of them join efforts, problems get solved, and increasingly all over the world, it is happening–and it’s called CSR.

Over 500 delegates from all over Asia gathered in Manila last week for the 5th Asian Forum on Corporate Social Responsibility–or CSR–to touch base, compare notes, learn and share expertise and experience on how best to carry out their common task of being good citizens of the world while fulfilling the "responsibility to make money the right way".

In his videotaped message to the group, World Bank Group president Paul Wolfowitz said that "corporate social responsibility is where the interest of business and the interest of society converge". He acknowledged business as "critical partners" in the fight against poverty all over the world, noting that 90 percent of jobs come from the private sector, making it "the most promising path out of poverty".

The two days of plenary and special interest sessions offered up a full smorgasbord of projects that work, of success stories large and small, of very real things that are being done in response to very real needs–from the overwhelming international response to the 2004 tsunami to Gawad Kalinga and the PBSP’s Step Up efforts to build houses for the poor, from the World Food Program’s school feeding projects to the Knowledge Channel connecting remote public schools, it is a welcome reminder that all is not lost, and the world is, after all, still in business.