With the G20 presidency falling India’s way, eminent Indian businessmen now hold the reins of global thought leadership and dialogue within the worldwide business forum. These finance leaders work through B20, the G20 engagement group that connects with the global business community. Currently, B20 is chaired by Mr. N Chandrasekaran and led by the likes of Chandrajit Banerjee, Sanjiv Bajaj, Sanjiv Goenka, and Milind Kamble.
Commenting on India’s takeover of B20, Sanjiv Bajaj, President, CII, and Chairman & Managing Director of Bajaj Finserv, highlighted the importance of a leadership vision accelerating growth. “B20 has been instrumental in shaping economic policy statements by the G20 grouping over the years. As India takes over the G20 Presidency, the Indian industry’s proactive participation through the B20 India platform will contribute to the G20 dialogue and help develop a conducive environment for businesses to drive growth.”
What is the framework within which B20 India proposes to foster an environment for growth? Here is a snapshot of how B20 India envisions promising business development under the banner of R.A.I.S.E. R.A.I.S.E. is an acronym for responsible, accelerated, innovative, sustainable, and equitable businesses.
- Responsible strategies
When IKEA learned from a documentary that child labour was part of their rug manufacturing supply chain, they severed contracts and added clauses to safeguard children’s rights. A similar approach was taken when the company learned about high levels of formaldehyde in some of its other products. In both cases, it pivoted towards accountable business practices, revamping its production and forging partnerships with international organisations like Greenpeace and W.W.F.
B20 India seeks to create an environment for the fostering of business practices that are ethical, law-abiding, transparent and accountable. Such practices aim to make strides towards economic, environmental, and social development while keeping organisations profitable. It takes visionary leadership to see beyond temporary gains and look towards models that deliver profits without detrimental impacts on people and the planet.
- Accelerated growth
Scaling up and going lean are concepts many leaders like to hear, but employees at growing organisations handling frenetic activity all too often reach the brink of burnout. This phenomenon is also described in Harvard Business Review’s article, The Acceleration Trap, which points out that what begins “as an exceptional burst of achievement becomes chronic overloading, with dire consequences”.
It is precisely to avoid such scenarios that the B20 Summit 2023 will explore ways for businesses to scale optimally to capture the market with a sustained and measured approach.
According to recent announcements, Google chose to shut down its IoT service business, while Microsoft preferred to do the opposite. So, ‘acceleration’ can mean anything from putting on the blinders to stepping on the gas. What will work for young firms? B20 India seeks to provide a roadmap.
- Innovative solutions
With each revolution in the industry, incumbents often tend to fade away. Compaq, General Motors and Kodak are examples of organisations that ruled the roost once upon a time. One main reason for the decline is the failure to innovate. To prevent this, B20 India intends to promote tactics that can transform the business ecosystem for the better. The goal is to help fledgling companies rise quickly and show incumbents how to remain nimble.
Individual companies may see positive results by focusing on areas like R&D, tech, A.I., automation, ML, deep learning, and other data-based models. Innovation, however, is seldom an individual effort. At the recently concluded CII Partnership Summit 2023, Union Minister Piyush Goyal urged nations to innovate while maintaining a “spirit of cooperation and collaboration to achieve a brighter future for everyone.”
- Sustainable practices
Today, deliberations on carbon neutrality, net zero and environmental footprint are extremely common. The vision of the CII leadership goes further. What B20 India seeks are business practices that focus on going green, remaining socially responsible and economically viable.
After taking up Salesforce’s Pledge 1% challenge, wherein a company offers 1% of its product, equity, profit, or time to the community, PagerDuty offered last-mile medical aid in remote Africa and Southeast Asia. The hope is that R.A.I.S.E will foster a culture of such value-based leadership.
- Equitable opportunities
In this era of global teams, many companies have experienced the benefits of a diverse workforce. B20 India aims to encode the concept of plurality into the D.N.A. of every business because people have a right to work. Such an approach would nurture a generation of empathetic leaders.
The key pillars here are:
- Opportunities for all, irrespective of caste, colour, gender, ethnicity and more
- Inclusiveness, where all get access to a fair share of the economic benefits
B20 India will implement its vision through the arms of Task Forces and Action Councils. The B20 2023 summit at the end of the calendar year will allow global leaders to unfurl the vision of R.A.I.S.E further while striving to create an economically better world.