Social equity and the new consumer
By Random Access Memory (RAM)
Writing, speaking and sharing of profound ideas have a strange way of influencing people. Archimedes, Galileo Galilee, Aristotle, Charles Darwin, Mahatma Gandhi and the likes were indeed square pegs in round holes given their times and context. They challenged conventional wisdom and chartered new courses for humankind. What was special about them was that they stood up for what they believed. Most among them were ridiculed for swimming against the tide of accepted norms of their time. Others had the courage to lead even in the most trying circumstances and are now revered for thinking ahead of their times and for defining new boundaries for human interaction. Their ideas were successful. They changed the world for us.
It is always easy to echo the sentiments of the dominant culture, its beliefs and actions and tag along with values, beliefs and doings of the powerful. What takes courage is to logically see beyond dominant beliefs, doings and wishes of the powerful and have the guts to challenge them to create a better world for all.
Today, RAM's focus is on Dr. Uditha Liyanage's remarks at the recently concluded Chartered Institute of Marketers (CIM) annual sessions. Dr. Liyanage, one time top marketing practitioner turned academic with the Postgraduate Institute of Management (PIM), speaking on the theme 'The New Consumer', challenged conventional wisdom through a well researched paper presentation titled, 'Profiling the Sri Lankan Consumer: Multiple Portraits and Manifest Patterns'.
In the main, he referred to the post-ceasefire acceleration of economic growth in many sectors and concurrently presented a 'flip side' view of the economy. He stated that, "this economic growth is by and large confined to the urban sector, and within the western province. In the rural sector, poverty accompanied by the alienation of the educated rural youth from the economic mainstream and the expanding private sector presents the 'flip side' of the economy. This is reflected sociologically in the emergence of a new urban middle class (NUMC), which champions a consumerist ideology and western ethos. The rest of the country, though influenced by the ideology, is unable to embrace it, given the lack of resources and access to the domain of the NUMC". The paper further stated that, "the formal private sector has, in the main failed to go beyond its narrow urban markets and has exaggerated the urban/western lifestyle of an unrepresentative few. It has projected this unrealistic consumer portrait to the rest of the country, without much success."
In the world of business, it is normal to place focus on customers, market segments, markets, products, sales, revenue shares, costs, efficiencies and of course profit. It is not so normal though to speak of society, responsibility, equity, impacts, sharing and caring. The UN Secretary General, the world's leading public servant, had to re-initiate a process bringing these issues to the front by urging the global business community to join the movement "Global Compact". Since these and other efforts came about, it has become fashionable for captains of business in Sri Lanka to talk of social responsibility. If social responsibility is discussing its merits at seminars and within the realms of the cocktail circuit or making contributions to building temples, churches, kovils and mosques or making political campaign contributions or undertaking 'so called' poverty alleviation projects with social clubs, then we are in good stead for there are many such projects undertaken here in Sri Lanka.
The conclusion of Dr. Liyanage's paper states "indeed, if the formal private sector is to be faithful to its glorified title of being the 'engine of the nation's growth', it will have to broaden its scope, first in terms of its mental grasp of the socio-economic realities of the rest of the country, and thereafter, aided by prudent governmental policy regimes, physically grasp markets outside their present comfort zones. If the private sector fails to do so, while the government continues to look upon it to spearhead the nation's growth initiatives, then the educated youth, given their alienation from the private sector and their belief that society is unjust, will once again attempt to usurp the very economic edifice and social fabric that the formal private sector relies upon for its own survival and growth".
Is it not time to take a good look in the mirror and shift our gears somewhat?
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