„If business is so powerful, and does so much good; why is so much wrong in the world.”
Oded Grajew (Präsident des InstitutoEthos, Brasilien)
Binod Singh, CEO of the Small and Medium Sized Business (SMB) ILANTUS Technologies in Bangalore, also asked himself this question. He has achieved with his business, what many Indian entrepreneurs are dreaming of: within only six years ILANTUS has become one of the leading global solutions provider in the domain of Identity and Access Management (IAM). Meanwhile the company has more than 140 employees and offices in the US, UK, U.A.E, Singapore, Australia and India.
Apart from the objective of becoming one of the global leading solution providers, Singh always had the dream to make a positive impact on India’s society. He is convinced: “Everyone should get a chance in life”. All our employees had this chance due to the fact that they were born in families which could afford a good education. But unfortunately, there are many Indians who don’t get this chance.”
As part of ILANTUS Technologies’ initiative in making a direct and beneficial contribution to the community, a decision was made to focus on the area of education of underprivileged children. In the belief that education is a critical requisite for socio-economic change, Singh planned to support a NGO which is dedicated to the education of underprivileged children with the knowledge and resources his company and its employees could provide.
For two years ILANTUS has been cooperating with SUKRUPA, a Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) that helps 230 underprivileged slum children to escape a background of poverty and illiteracy and replace it with as good future prospects as any mainstream child’s by providing education, nutrition and also creative arts and sports programs.
The objective of ILANTUS’ cooperation is to provide support in whatever way possible without any huge investment. ILANTUS helps in organizing fund-raising events for SUKRUPA and supports it in its marketing plan. Furthermore, the employees are engaged in various other activities. By teaching English, computers, or by spending time with the children, they encourage them to follow their dreams in their lives. The objective of the cooperation is that people from both worlds shall learn from each other. For the employees a new perspective to a so far hidden world is opened and, on the other hand, the underprivileged children are encouraged to seek opportunities in the Business World.“ A cooperation like ours does not only help the NGO to become self-sufficient on the long-term, but also breaks down still existing social distinctions and barriers”, says Singh.
ILANTUS wants to be an example for other companies. The company wants to show that despite its limited resources, even Small and Medium Sized Businesses are able to create a positive impact on society. ILANTUS is currently presenting its project to other organizations and seeks to convince them to act socially responsible.
Now ILANTUS has taken another step forward. The organization has joined the UN Global Compact. ILANTUS has identified ways of how to set in motion all possible changes to business operations so that the Global Compact and its ten principles related to human rights, labour rights, the environment and the fight against bribery and corruption, will become part of ILANTUS strategy, culture and day-to-day operations. “After all, ILANTUS is committed to being a good corporate citizen through the actions at all levels. Not only society, but also our most important stakeholders – our employees and our clients – should benefit from our socially responsible actions!” perceives Singh.
The example from India shows: CSR becomes more important – also in a future market like India!
For further information about CSR at ILANTUS: http://ilantus.com/html/csr.htm