Devarshi Maheshwari

Roll No. - 802011

Honda Siel and its Corporate
Social Responsibility
Abstract
Today, more and more companies are realizing that in order to stay productive,
competitive, and relevant in a rapidly changing business world, they have to become
socially responsible. In the last decade, globalization has blurred national borders, and
technology has accelerated time and masked distance. Given this sea change in the
corporate environment, companies want to increase their ability to manage their
profits and risks, and to protect the reputation of their brands. Because of
globalization, there is also fierce competition for skilled employees, investors, and
consumer loyalty. How a company relates with its workers, its host communities, and
the marketplace can greatly contribute to the sustainability of its business success.
This has probably been the reason for both the public and private sector organizations
to initiate Corporate Social Responsibility. This paper discusses the initiatives taken
by Honda Siel with respect to CSR and how it is perceived by the society. 1

What is Corporate Social

Responsibility?
While there is no universal definition of corporate social responsibility, it generally
refers to transparent business practices that are based on ethical values, compliance
with legal requirements, and respect for people, communities, and the environment.
Thus, beyond making profits, companies are responsible for the totality of their
impact on people and the planet.1 “People” constitute the company’s stakeholders: its
employees, customers, business partners, investors, suppliers and vendors, the
government, and the community. Increasingly, stakeholders expect that companies
should be more environmentally and socially responsible in conducting their business.
In the business community, CSR is alternatively referred to as “corporate citizenship,”
which essentially means that a company should be a “good neighbour” within its host
community.2

About Honda’s Philosophy

Existing over the years, Honda has gained prominence in the global community
through ceaseless innovation and a commitment to servicing the needs of society.
This has been possible only because they had this in their mind and also reflected in
their vision “Striving to be a company society wants to exist” and in order to drive in
this direction they established three directions: creating new value, expanding value
and commitment to the future. Creating new value means applying innovative ideas to
1
www.karmayog.org/csr1to500/csr1to500_20204.htm
2
www.esdproj.org/site/DocServer/What_is_CSR.pdf?docID=2087
anticipate changing needs and give shape to dreams. Expanding value means helping
people realize their dreams by contributing to local communities wherever they are
active around the globe. Commitment to the future means working to improve safety
for everyone while also minimizing their burden on the environment and consumption
of the earth’s resources.
With responsibility to the environment, a commitment to local markets, and respect
for people as its guiding principles, Honda aims to contribute to an increasingly
mobile society characterised by quality of life, comfort and convenience.3

Honda Siel in Greater Noida

Honda started it’s CSR activity in 2003 in Greater Noida with the initial budget of Rs.
1 crore and with a purpose of being a company that the society wants to exist and with
the objective of returning back to the society by upgrading the quality of life of the
society and improving the employability of local youth. Also reduce the impact of
corporate action by preserving the environment and promoting safety. Initiatives
taken by Honda are both internal by providing better working conditions for their
employees and external by serving the society with the concept of a model village.
The criteria for the selection of the village depends upon the following – a) associate
from the village b) distance within 10km radius c) population in the range of 1500 –
2000 d) condition of village e) the amount of participation expected from the villagers
f) level of conflicts. These are the factors under which basis the selection of the
village is done.

A Visit to Jamalpur
It was Saturday morning when are group were on our way to Jamalpur village to
attend the workshop which was initiated by Honda. The selection of the village was
based upon the above mentioned criteria. The ride toward the village was quite bumpy
with n numbers of bumpers. The village was not beside the main road but was a km
off from the main road so we have to get down on the main road since it was not
possible for the bus to go inside. Our stomach forced us to buy a dozen bananas, chips
and water with the fear of not getting anything in the village. The walk started with
the keen of seeing what actually the workshop is all about. Although the road was not
cemented with an open sewage line following the road but the feel of being in a
village in itself is a great pleasure and thrill. Reaching half the way we saw a board
were every house was numbered and the name of the person who owned the house
giving a feel of a city and not of a village, an initiative which was also taken by
Honda.
As soon as we reached the spot we saw the road was red carpeted with a tent
outside the house were the workshop was supposed to be held. The workshop didn’t
start off with a good note since the organizer Mr. Amit Tyagi, (2008 MBA grad
working with Honda) was not happy with us since we didn’t say good morning to him
as we entered the premises. Even as the talk started, he wanted us to stand for every
answer that we gave and other’s to clap on that made us feel that the person had lot of
arrogance and attitude. Anyway since we were invited therefore we couldn’t retaliate
the way he was treating us although it was annoying us.

3
world.honda.com/CSR/pdf/2009/e_csr09_4.pdf
 The workshop started with the brief about the village having a population of
around 1885 of which 30% of people condition were good. Almost everyone had
agricultural land but out of that only 30% of them had sufficient land from which they
could earn their living. It was not surprising to hear that the education level was poor
since it has become a very common reason for a village non-development. The reason
for Honda to start their activity from this village was because they wanted to have
base and Mr. Hem Singh Bhati, resident of the village was working as a permanent
employee in Honda, but when asked about his designation than it was not disclosed.
Even the house given to Honda to set up their base for CSR activities was given
without any cost to adhere.
The benefits for Honda to start up their activity in Jamalpur were to create a
brand image, to get man power and also tax benefit from the government and the way
of doing it in Jamalpur was to work under the model village project concept which
started up with giving major emphasis on health by providing free camps and OPDs
and than to create awareness and to motivate people to be responsible, it started with
road nataks. Than it moved into education by enrolling kids who were less than 14
years of age, and even with the purpose of providing quality education by providing
the kids with uniform, stationeries and computers and making sure that the teacher’s
were regular since the village had only two schools and both of them being
government and we all know how the government schools work. Anyway their next
focus was on waste management especially in the area of garbage disposable and bio
fertilizers.
This was the first time that the livelihood training programme was initiated
with the goal of helping the community to earn their livelihood in the field of textile.
The programme was especially meant for the women of the village who had no
earnings. The respond for the programme was not good with only 8-10 women
attending the seminar and the disappointment could also be seen in the eyes of Mr.
Amit. After the speech was over we asked him some questions on development issues
that we couldn’t find any thing done in terms of sewage, electricity and computers for
school. In reply to this he told us that they believed in values that until the villager’s
mental level is high that there is nothing called a free lunch and they have to be
actively involved in all the projects that they plan to carry out than only they will
think of doing something but till that time they will just be trying to motivate and
support them in all possible manner they can. Even when it comes to infrastructure
than they believe that first they have to find out what they do with the budget that is
provided to them and to see whether they are not misusing it and its only after seeing
the financial report is that they will think of providing help in terms of infrastructure.
It seems that they were correct on their part because we felt that otherwise the
villagers will become lazy and will leave it over Honda to develop their village. As
soon as the question and answers round was over, we saw two Honda city’s on the
spot from which more Honda employee’s came out along with Mr. Abhishek Kumar
head of CSR division, to look into the development of the project. Good thing to
notice over here was that apart from the member of the CSR, there were employees
from different department were also a part of the activity. We than planned to go to
the area were the park was getting renovated for the school going kids under the
initiation of Honda. The park was inside the premises of the school were we could see
some few kids studying, the place looked in a very bad shape with no tables and chair
for the kids and they had to sit on the mat. The park work was on its initial phase with
just the levelling of the ground being done with the help of the villagers, although the
future plans were to set up a proper playground. The sewage condition near the park
was worse than anywhere and chances of getting affected with some disease were
high. When asked again to Mr. Abhishek about the current condition with respect to
sewage and infrastructure condition for the school, his reply was the same that the
villagers first need to realize it that its their responsibility and Honda is their to
support them and not to do it everything on their own.
On our way back from the park I thought of having a talk with one of the
villagers whose name was Mr. Rampal Singh and to ask him how he felt about
Honda’s work toward the village. As soon as I asked him the question, I could see
anger and frustration in his eyes as he replied back by saying that these Honda people
are doing this with the motive of saving tax and nothing for the village, he even said
they had given the house to them without charging any rent with the idea of that they
will provide infrastructure for the village in terms of proper road, electricity and better
sanitation but nothing like that has happened and now they plan to charge them rent
for the house from which they could easily generate 1 lakh per annum by which they
could do something on their own. I was shocked by what he said that it made me
eager to ask him some more question. I asked him about the initiatives taken in terms
of camps provided for health and he said that the doctors available were not good and
he also had a bad experience with one of the doctor who subscribed wrong medicines
for his mother which made her condition even worse. When I told him the reason
why Honda doesn’t does everything on there own then his reply was that setting up an
electricity cable will not be possible from their side and the cable doesn’t require any
maintenance so they even don’t have to worry that what will happen some years from
now. He also gave me the example of a near by village which had all the facility
required for the village was taken care by some other company so if others were doing
it than why not Honda?

On my way back
On my way back from the village, I could still remember what the villager were
perceiving and my mind continuously looking for answer to some of the questions
like whether what Mr. Rampal Singh said really hold true especially for a company
like Honda? Does the philosophy of Honda’s way of not doing everything on their
own but sharing responsibility with the villagers would be effective? Since the most
of the villager’s are illiterate so won’t it be better if they set an example by developing
a certain area in a way of how the entire village will look like in the future with their
help, probably will help in motivating the villager in a positive way? Does the CSR
activity holds the bitter truth of just providing tax benefit as the primary motive for
the company or there’s something more to ask for?
Although the experience of being in a village was great with lot of learning’s
but the questions that I had still remains unanswered probably because that is the
nature of Corporate Social Responsibility which still remains undefined for most of
us.