AREA is an initiative of EA to bring to focus the concept of today’s and tomorrow’s Enterprises that are built around the core of Responsibility. Today we live in a world where COMPANIES are COUNTRIES. Facebook with a billion people is the third most populous country in the world after China and India. Imagine what responsibility it brings to FB in regard to being fair and ethical. And imagine it’s impact , if it does not.

Post 2008, the notion of TOO BIG TO FAIL for Enterprises  is being decimated. As in real life, Companies are beginning to feel Vulnerable. In this Complex nature of Globalization, sustainability, managing risks globally, governance and compliance, management is a tall order of magnitude. Add to this the speed at which things happen,  and you add a total new vector.

CE0’s( like all of you here  today) , have amazing powers – the question is,  how do you make good use of it?  How do you rise above what you have been taught all your life to take care of profits, stock prices, growth? How do you bring fairness in your decision making ?

How do we become more ethical, moral, socially more responsible and honor the unsaid social contract that exists beyond the 4 walls in what I call the Extended Enterprise How do we adopt a non compromising standard of operation? At the end, it’s not about the law of land or a media reporting. It’s about you. It’s about the inner voice that speaks to you and lets you sleep well.

And that’s what we are trying to build here and also recognize and celebrate today. In the course of due diligence, I saw some amazing stories – I wish we could recognize all, but we had to cherry pick. Be it the FTE program of Round Table India (roundtableindia.org) that has educated 4.5 million children in 1650 schools and 33,000 class rooms or the human resource of L&T that proudly is tobe known  as being a L&T ite. My personal congratulations  on behalf of my team to each one of you who are here to receive the honors.

We have a task ahead – we have a crusade ahead. We must bring goodness in us, and in our leadership,  and in our enterprise,  and in our communities and in our country,  and in this world. This is one thing that benefits all the 7 billion stakeholders that live on this planet.

Thank you for being here and for this celebrationJ

Have a great evening.