Philosophy: The act for community

A corporate exist amidst our community and it inevitably affects it. The effects can often be negative

or positive depending on how the corporate utilize its community. More often than not, the mostly

known compromisation from the community to the company is how the corporate took resources

from the community. In order to 'redeem' itself, companies often do CSR or Corporate Social

Responsibiltiy. However, two professors from Harvard jotted a new idea to give back to the

community which is creating shared value (CSV). The two terms are often misunderstood and this

piece of work is going to differentiate the two and define them.


Corporate Social Responsibility is an activity of giving back to the community, in the simplest

definition. The act is done by the company to groups or people who are the members of the

community. According to United Nations Industrial Development Organization, Corporate Social

Responsibility is an act where the company is taking social and environmental concerns into their

business operations. The company may segregate a certain amount of money from their yearly

budget plan in order to help the community on behalf of them. Their CSR programs may be sourced

from the company based programs or a kind of funding for another program set by external party.

However, the second option must correlate and be relevant with the company's scope or the

company's vision and mission for their CSR. A CSR has a regulation of segregating a percent ot 1.5

percent of the yearly income for CSR. For example, the biggest private bank in Indonesia shared 1

percent of the budget for their CSR program. The CSR department of the company arranged a

marathon in three cities in order to support community health. Then, they funded a banking

tournament arranged by a university as it is relevant with the company's vision and mission.

CSV or Creating Shared Value is a new notion about giving back to the community notioned by

Michael Porter and Mark Kramer. It is so new that when it is googled, most of the sources would

refer back to Porter and Kramer. CSV is an act of a longer-term CSR directed to direct stakeholders

of  the company or corporate. It is done with a vision of creating a corporate production, distribution

chain and other elements work in a synergy of common value. CSV aims to bring a change to the

social and environment becuase of the value they hold that are implemented to the society. The

shared value that is created is aimed for the direct stakeholders for the company. Direct

stakeholders can be the supplier, farmers or distributor. The Body Shop is known for their

environment friendly trading system value. The company encourage local farmers to trade with

them. In their products, it is attached that they are getting the alcohol for the perfume from local

farmers trading. Producers, distributor and other stakeholders are taught of the value and

encouraged to practice it.


All in all, CSR and CSV is there in order for a company to give a positive impact to the community.

CSR aims for an external stakeholders and it may not always have to be direct stakeholders that got

the effect. Like the university event, the university students may not be directly related but the

vision and mission is related so the company give a hand and a part of their CSR programs. CSV is

creating a shared value among direct stakeholders in order to create a better economy and business

progress. Both of the programs are there to improve the community that the corporate is in and

they are looking to improve the environment.

Philosophy: Studying the hows and the whys of life

Philosophy appeared to my life as a major of study I did not understand initially but interests me eventually. When the words ‘philosophy’ came up in the list of university majors, I could not help but to look up for it in the dictionary. Then, the definition amazes me of how there is a major for something like this. What exactly is philosophy? I see philosophy as the study of the hows and the whys in life.

Philosophy is the study that looks into the basics of the life and other fundamental matters linked with it. It tries to decode on how an idea or a matter like new invention changes the life we live or the thoughts we think. In a talk for TEDx about philosophy, Amy Leask compares the idea of philosophy with plumbing. It compares how both philosophy and plumbing are always existence in our life but sometimes they are not taken into account due to its perfect blend with the routines and its ‘normality’. By normality, it means the constant existence and the stability of it. People pay no attention to their plumbing as long as the toilet flushes when it is flushed or the water in the sink goes into the sewage and not turning the sink into a mini tub.

Some people, at least in the circle I currently live in, would probably think it’s foolish to study philosophy. Why spend four years to study something that works already? The life has no problem, it goes just as usual. Perhaps it is a better idea to study biology of medical to find a cure of the world’s nightmare now, Ebola. There is a point to the study, which is it can troubleshoot a problem in life. The thing is, philosophy is not about troubleshooting. It is making sense of what’s in the world, assembly of ideas to live and study of fundamental matters and beliefs in the world. Merriam-Webster dictionary wrote a very interesting definition of philosophy which is ‘a pursuit of wisdom’. Wisdom itself is defined as a natural ability to understand things. Philosophy is there in order to look through life and understand it, make sense of it from the sphere of life or other things.

In this sense, I see Amy Leask definition of philosophy for young thinkers relatable. The example she gave proves the definition I speculate philosophy to be. She told the audience what she gave to her philosophy students, a microwave example. The question was how it changes the life they live and the thoughts they think as the microwave invented.

On the other hand, people do use the world philosophy multiple times. A junior in high school named Sam who has a biological cell illness called Progeria gave a talk about his philosophy of life. After 15 minutes watching him and comprehending what he is trying to say in his talk, I could conclude that philosophy is the fundamental of a matter. In Sam’s case, it is the fundamentals of happiness. How he must act in order to be happy and it is a set of understanding of where happiness comes from.

All in all, I can agree to the term philosophy is a pursuit of wisdom. From that big definition, it runs to a more narrow definition which is a study to gain general understanding of life and the ideas or changes in it. It can relate back to our life as in it looks how something can change us. Philosophy can also means to make sense of fundamentals of something after experiencing it like how Sam experiences Progeria and learn how to actually not think of it as an entity then establish his own philosophy to be happy.