Technology Today

Executive Summery

Business and society have been coeval since time immemorial and also have been inter-dependant.

This relationship between business and society is appreciated in Rigveda also : “Corporates should

work like a honeybee, which takes the nectar of a flower without the flower being losing its shape

and fragrance and provides honey for the wellbeing of the society.” It means that both have to work

on a symbiosis manner for each one’s survival and success. The business history is replete with

evidences to believe that business flourishes only where society thrives. On the contrary, business

dies when society condemns and rejects it. No business can survive without societal approval and

sanction. The inter-dependant nature of relationship between the business and the society is best

illustrated by the management guru Peter Drucker (1954) by the example of a ship and sea. He states

that the relationship between business and society is “like the relationship between a ship and the

sea which engirds it and carries it, which threatens it with storm and shipwreck, which has to be

crossed but which is yet alien and distant.” No doubt, business has been conducted primarily to

earn profit and / or create wealth. However, there are reasons and evidences to believe that the

mindless obsession with profit maximization at any cost carried to any extreme has led to spurt in

sordid activities in business causing harm to both the business and society and ultimately leading

business to flounder and fizzle out. Enrons Parmalats, Union Carbide, and World.com are to name a

few representing examples of such business collapses. Business history is also replete with examples

that only the businesses that are conducted through good or right practices enjoy societal sanction

and survive and last for long. Johnson & Johnson, Maruti Limited, Reliance Industries Limited, and

Tata Iron and Steel Company are such examples that indicate that being good in conducting business

activities...