A top business executive, on Friday warned that companies would be forced out of business if they stayed focussed on creating merely economic wealth and did not shift focus towards total wealth creation that included the community and the world at large.

Unilever Ltd Group Vice President (Southeast Asia & Australasia) Tex Gunning said, “There is an urgent need to re-define the logic of businesses from economic wealth creation, as a sole measure of success, to a new concept of total wealth creation.”

Build great business

Addressing the valedictory session of two-day national summit on corporate social resonsibility, organised by the CCII here, he said:

“We must build great business that should serve not only its stakeholders but also the community and the world at large.” Mr Gunning said that the role of businesses is not just about being responsible to its own shareholders. It should also act as agents of change in solving the most pressing challenges like poverty, inequalities etc.

Evolve or dissolve

Mr Gunning urged for business leaders who will take care of not only themselves and the shareholders but also other stakeholders like the community at large. “We can either act now, out of choice, or have change forced on us. We can either evolve, or dissolve,” he said.

He said that developing world presents great opportunities for total wealth creation. There are over two billion untapped consumers in the developing Asian countries, over 45 per cent of  whose population are under 25 years of age.  Business can have a tremendously positive impact, he said, provided it redefines the logic of economic wealth creation.