'Do the right thing’

Businesses would have to be more caring about society and the environment for sustainable growth, instead of running only after profit, said Sanjiv Mehta, executive vice-president of Unilever South Asia.
“We believe if we do the right thing for a consumer, a customer, an employee and the society, share holder value will [automatically] get created,” Mehta said in his keynote speech at the DHL-The Daily Star awards programme at Sonargaon Hotel yesterday.  
Business is not just making money for the shareholders, it is about creating “stakeholder value”, said Mehta, also managing director and chief executive officer of Hindustan Unilever.
He advised the business community to do the right thing for consumers and the society as a whole, which would ultimately maximise returns for the shareholders.
“We as the business people cannot be on the sidelines and just look at the government to solve a problem. We have to be part of the solution,” he added.  
Businesses must not pollute the rivers and have to find ways and means to remove pollution, said Mehta.
Unilever's purposes were not to for accumulating immense wealth for the shareholders but to make a sustainable living commonplace, he said.
Unilever is now the largest user of oils (raw material for making soap) in the world. All the oils used for making LUX and Lifebuoy soaps in Bangladesh come from sustainable sources, he said.
The promise for the consumer and the society is that 100 percent of agriculture produces would be procured from sustainable sources by 2020.  “That is the role we intent to play in society,” Mehta said.  
Mehta also focused on the potential of Asia in business and said about 54 percent of the global wealth and two thirds of global middle-class consumers would be in Asian countries by 2030.
Citing a study of McKinsey Global Institute, Mehta said two billion people would join the global consuming class in the next 15 years, having daily disposable income of about $10 at purchasing power parity.
So in Bangladesh, 160 million people are an asset “because that is the kind of market you have”.
Mehta lauded the role of capitalism in lifting people out of poverty. “Capitalism and globalisation have made an immense impact on the world in the last few decades. Millions of people across the developing and emerging world -- China, India and Bangladesh -- have come out of poverty.”
“If we look at the global financial crisis, it is perhaps the biggest financial crisis we have ever seen. It has been as much a crisis of ethics as it has been a crisis of home mortgages. Even after six years, we still suffer from a lack of credibility and lack of confidence,” Mehta said.