Businesses should not exploit labour or decrease the quality of life by any means. They necessarily need to be problem solver to create social values.
Street Talk
Expert Opinion
Have you noticed that entrepreneurship, business ownership and startup ventures are the most talked solutions to address unemployment issues? Actually, these have assumed significance after the outbreak of Covid-19 pandemic in 2020 that imbalanced the centuries old socio-economic landscape. People on mass scale either lost their jobs or saw their income facing drastic cuts, adversely affecting their livelihoods and domestic budgets. While helping themselves out of the crisis, we witnessed the boom of entrepreneurship, small businesses and the culture of startups as the pandemic shattered the established world-order in a single stroke, affecting all walks of human life be it economic, health, social or mental well-being.
In fact, the crisis on the whole put a host of challenges to entrepreneurs, businesses and startups (old as well as new ones) as they were left with no option but to align their ventures in line with the changed (and continues to change) business scenario to remain afloat. Pertinently, entrepreneurship is important to the Indian economy as they contribute significantly to the country’s GDP.
Let’s have a look at the culture of entrepreneurship, small businesses and startups being promoted in Kashmir. Here entrepreneurship has been given a different meaning. Ironically, simple selling of bread, butter, potatoes, tomatoes etc is called entrepreneurship in Kashmir. In fact, every second person you meet claims to be an entrepreneur, business owner or a startup.
For the past few years, we have observed a shift in the attitude of our youth, especially educated youth, as most of them are looking beyond government jobs to carve out a living for themselves. I could feel a spark in our youth force not only to get self employed but also to generate employment for others. During the course of time we have observed many youth establishing their business ventures here and there in the region and projecting their activities as entrepreneurship. For example, running a franchise of an established brand or selling fast moving consumer goods (FMCG) or consumer packaged goods (CPG) is called entrepreneurship here.
Basically, doing a business just for profits alone and entrepreneurship are two different concepts. Entrepreneurship is not only limited to starting a business to earn profits. A good business model embedded with social responsibility, ability to swallow financial risk, creativity, time management, be ready for anything attitude, ability to be flexible, think out of box, resilience after failure, stress management and the ability to think strategically are some of the qualities which makes an entrepreneur. Acting like a commissioning and forwarding agent is not entrepreneurship.
General rules apart, socially responsible entrepreneurship carries a huge value at our place. Besides making profits, entrepreneurship should equally pursue solutions to our plenty of social problems. It should change the way we live and work. In addition to creating wealth from entrepreneurial ventures, there should also be creation of jobs and the conditions for a prosperous society. This way our entrepreneurs in true sense can turn out to be our national assets which then need to be cultivated, motivated and remunerated to the greatest possible extent.
In short, our young brigade of ‘entrepreneurs’ need to stick to the basic concept of entrepreneurship to act as change agents to create social value. And in all circumstances, the entrepreneurs have to be problem solvers. In the words of Sonam Wangchuk, an internationally renowned innovator from Ladakh,”Entrepreneurs are not those who just make money and more money. Entrepreneurs are problem solvers. If you are not problem solvers, you are not entrepreneurs”. He went on to add, “If you’re making money, and even problem-solving, you’re not a good entrepreneur. You have to be helping others come up with you. Then you are true entrepreneurs”.
Last, but not the least. One more important contribution expected from the entrepreneurs would be to address climate change. Since entrepreneurship development has always been a thrust area at our place, it would be in the fitness of things to see ‘green concept’ embedded in their business models. For example, let it be mandatory for entrepreneurs here to base their projects on the use of alternative renewable energy resources like solar energy.
Since availability of power is crucial to the sustainable growth of entrepreneurship culture, harnessing solar energy would not only help to fight the power crisis, but will also give impetus to the concept of ‘green entrepreneurship’. This small step will go a long way to protect our environment from impurities.
Notably, green industry business is pitched as a cornerstone among the possible measures that can help to reverse the damage caused to the ecosystem. In this set-up, the businesses have to operate by using sustainable materials to produce products and minimize strain on natural resources. For example, businesses making minimum possible use of water & energy and using raw materials in renewable and eco-friendly ways form part of green industry business.
So, all this sums up for promoting a green economy. However, the process of transition to a green economy depends on an all-new mindset as well as the ability of skilled human resources who can work for various sectors. A green economy means sustainable development with environmental protection measures in place.
Here a statement from an expert is worth quoting: “A green economy is thought to be based on three pillars – People, Profits and Planet. An economy needs to have healthy communities and thereby a healthy workforce. Businesses that are part of the green economy need to commit themselves to providing products and services which are ethical. It should also be made sure that the businesses do not exploit labour or decrease the quality of life by any means.”
In short, there is a dire need to make better use of natural resources, using green technologies. As said by Bill Gates: “We somehow must get to zero greenhouse gas emissions to avoid climate disaster while maintaining digital momentum and closing the digital divide”. Remarkably, a World Economic Forum study shows that investing in nature-positive models – industry actions that add value to ecosystems and biodiversity – could add up to $10.1 trillion in annual business value and create 395 million jobs by 2030.
So, it makes sense for businesses to rethink their business strategies leveraging green technology to drastically reduce the impact of humans on the environment, lessen resource usage and simultaneously incorporate renewable resources. Respecting the natural resources and reversing the damage caused to the ecosystem by our actions is a guarantee to a healthy future.
To conclude, the final message to our entrepreneurs is that they seriously need to be problem solvers not only to build fortunes for themselves, but also help the societies and communities to get scaled up on the socio-economic front. They also need to protect and promote a clean environment in their region by embedding green concepts in their entrepreneurship, business and startup ventures. A Chinese proverb is worth quoting: The frog does not drink up the pond in which it lives.
(The author, a veteran journalist & columnist, is Editor-in-Chief of News Agency Press Trust of Kashmir. He is former Head of Corporate Communication & CSR and Internal Communication & Knowledge Management Departments of J&K Bank)