22 August 2003
To: The Delegates, AIMS Convention 2003
Dear Friends,
I request you to kindly see the following viewpoint. It was posted last week on the Prime Minister's Electronic Discussion Forum in response to a query on the subject of "Corporate Governance". I would be happy if my doubts are proved baseless.
Regards,
Kaushik Sahu
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17 August 2003
In response to PMO's query:
Corporate governance is in the news these days. What steps and measures do Indian companies need to take in this direction?
Kaushik Sahu responds:
Dear Sir,
The theme of the AIMS National Convention 2003 (22-24 August 2003) is "Corporate Governance and Corporate Citizenship: Challenges for Business & Management Education." It will be held at the Xavier Institute of Management, Bhubaneswar.
The best way of supporting Corporate Governance initiatives is by "walking the talk" rather than by "talking the talk". I doubt if this convention will be ever able to showcase good models of leadership by examples. Corporate Governance in India will get a fillip only when management schools start to sincerely adopt ethical business practices. To be able to showcase such models, Indian B-Schools have to learn a lot from people like Mr. Narayana Murthy. The corporate governance policies of Infosys, which has taken note of the recommendations made by the Kumar Mangalam Birla committee, can be adapted to a certain extent for effective Education Governance. The main idea is to learn some of these best practices and then develop and adopt even better models of Governance as a Management School involved in training future managers.
It is high time the Business surveys stopped measuring a B-School in terms of the number of MNCs turning up for placements. There is no point in glorifying MNCs having poor governance track record. The focus should be rather on the number of companies that adopt good Corporate Governance models while doing business in India. The focus should be on companies that insist on good governance models in Educational Institutes. All things that are necessary for a public sector organization to stand up to public scrutiny should be also applied to the private sector. The citizens’ right to information need not be limited only to the public sector. Efficient and effective IT-enabled regulatory mechanisms are needed both in the public and private sector to stimulate good governance.
Organizing and hosting conventions without following it up by actions may not give the boost to Corporate Governance in India.
Regards,
Kaushik Sahu, Ph.D. (Massachusetts),
Professor, Xavier Institute of Management, Bhubaneswar - 751 013, India
(http://home.ximb.ac.in/~kaushik/default.htm)
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