"Business is not only about focusing on earning profit but also about removing social inequality. It is more important to share with others if you have more than what you can consume" said Mr. Sivakumar, Group-Head, Agri & IT Businesses, ITC Group during the Foundation Day Lecture held on Friday, July 25, 2014 at our the Institute Auditorium.
Mr. Sivakumar started his speech by mentioning three specific phrases from the Vision and Mission statement of SDMIMD- Creative tenacity, Intellectual Maturity and Social Responsibility. He linked these statements to his own experiences in the formation of e-Choupal initiative at ITC.
He spoke about the importance of tenacity and recounted some obstacles they faced at the initiation of e-Choupal in terms of finance, execution, and other hindrances like resistance from traders for the new idea. He urged the young members in the audience to distinguish between tenacity and stubbornness.
He then moved on to talk about Intellectual Maturity and mentioned about the relevance to context when dealing with situations.
The third point he stressed upon was Social Responsibility. He stressed on the need to balance the two imperatives of value creation for the stakeholders and at the same time fulfilling one's responsibility to society.