Savant Electronics Sustainability or Corporate Social Responsibility

Abstract

Mr. Prabhu Savant, CEO of Savant Electronics, has to convince the management that sustainability is different from CSR. Savant has to develop a plan to address the local communities' CSR (corporate social responsibility) issues he would be facing while setting up the new plant. The case discusses achieving sustainability while deploying CSR as a strategy. The case looks at the Greenfield sustainable manufacturing plant project (electrical and electronics devices) in Madhya Pradesh, India, by Savant Electronics. According to the case study, this would describe the project's provenance, the various stakeholders who participated and what they thought of the project, Savant Electronics' involvement, and what they did to achieve a long-term sustainable economic and social assessment of the local community members as well as other beneficiaries who were included in the CSR initiative and became responsible “corporate citizens.” The case illustrated Savant Electronics' perspective on the social, environmental, and economic sustainability challenges related to this specific project. The case investigated the repercussions of establishing manufacturing units, particularly in developing nations, and critically analyzed corporate-society interaction. The case also evaluates the trade-off between promoting sustainability efforts and the impact of such mega-infrastructure projects on society and the environment. The case also prepares the students to analyze whether sustainability promotion causes more risk than benefits and how managers should mitigate the risks to maximize the benefits.