Vijay Naidoo:South Coast Chamber - Making A Real And Meaningful Contribution

2018-02-22

Vijay Naidoo, President South Coast Chamber of Commerce and Industry

There exists a perception that the social responsibility of businesses should be confined to larger enterprises: hence the use of the term Corporate Social Responsibility. In reality, no meaningful upliftment of the community at large is going to occur unless all established businesses band together to make a real and meaningful contribution in the areas they operate in.

While it can be accepted that not many smaller companies have the resources, financial or human, to undertake large scale programmes, there are several areas that I believe can have a meaningful impact.

Firstly, focusing on enterprise development of your suppliers often reaps immediate benefits.

Again, as a small business, you may not be able to fund training, and the like, but just taking a bit of time to review your existing suppliers, with a view to giving a new entity a chance, and diversifying your vendor base, may be a good start. Certainly, one would need to be prudent in the choice of the beneficiary, based on the importance of the input or service required.

Secondly, within your company, opportunities abound for developing staff that places them on the path of self-employment. If well executed, these endeavours need not threaten your existing business, and may in fact end up putting a bigger smile on the bottom line! A case in point is companies engaged in manufacturing and installation: by separating the installation division and empowering an employee to manage it with a view to outright or partial ownership, the creation of a sustainable new enterprise is possible. The new entity would have the assurance of a stable level of work from your
business and could offer his or her services to others as well. The benefit to your business is that the installation team are not a drain on your resources when they are not required. Obviously, the financial models will vary from company to company, but in my view a winwin situation can emerge.

Thirdly, limiting your social responsibilities to your staff, their immediate family, and the actual community they live in can have as much, if not more impact on their day to day lives. The added benefit to you as the donor is that you are working with people that you have a history with, and the likelihood of a positive buy in is higher. The likely spin off for employers from well executed programmes is higher staff morale, loyalty and productivity.

It is high time that the smaller businesses sector starts taking its responsibility towards social upliftment more seriously. 

Cell 083 700 5427
president@sccci.org.za
www.sccci.org.za