With this capacity comes responsibility, and ultimately, corporate social responsibility is beneficial to both society and business because a thriving and well-educated society gives corporations the customers, associates and employees they need to grow and succeed.
In keeping with our unwavering commitment to being a responsible corporate citizen, the B.I.G. Board of Directors has allocated a fixed percentage of our annual Group earnings to fund our CSR programs. Therefore, B.I.G.’s financial commitment to responsible citizenship will remain intact, and citizenship will be embedded within our Group strategy, planning and execution.
One of B.I.G.’s Board committees is the CSR Council, chaired by our Chairman & CEO. The Council is accountable to the B.I.G. Board of Directors for upholding the purpose and intent for all of our CSR programs, consistent with the highest standards of effective leadership and governance.
This integrated connection between our corporate business agenda and citizenship by making use of our Group’s strengths and expertise has yielded CSR programs that truly reflect our values and our corporate culture. We have also found that a positive impact from our citizenship resources can often be achieved by close cooperation with other institutions by leveraging the numerous grassroots non-governmental organizations (NGOs) that present an opportunity for sustainable changes to society at large.
B.I.G. devotes the same level of rigour and discipline to our citizenship efforts as we do in our business to ensure that we do it right, and do it timely. Strong governance is the mechanism used for ensuring that our values are faithfully reflected in each of our CSR programs by implementing procedures defining and regulating the conduct of each program in a transparent way befitting our Group, the institutions we work with, and the individuals who are personally touched by our programs.
B.I.G.’s commitment to positive change is also reflected through our regional and international strategic philanthropic programs in support of worthy social causes in our region.
Our Group focuses on human development through education because we believe this is a fundamental pillar to helping the youth of our region realize their career aspirations. We seek to support innovative and sustainable programs that contribute to the improvement of the quality of life for everyday folks.
We are strong advocates of cross-sector educational partnerships by adopting initiatives to better align educational outputs with labor market requirements. We support public and private sector partnerships with the aim of mobilizing regional business leaders and government officials, as well as the institutions they represent, to help develop graduates capable of competing successfully in a global economy and who can meet the continuously expanding and ever-changing needs of the private sector.
As an example of our support for foundations involved in philanthropic activities and community development, through the founding vision of our current Chairman and CEO, B.I.G. created the Chair of Islamic Economics, Finance and Management at Rice University, Houston, Texas, the first of its kind in the United States. We are grateful that other business leaders in the region recognized the value of this Chair and have contributed generously to its support.
More recent initiatives include a unique and unconventional program recognizing the talent and potential that exists today among our youth who represent prime candidates for enriching the leadership landscape in our various institutions. As a follow through we continue to engage with academic institutions to augment their curriculums by developing programs to promote civilized debate to enhance the quality of dialogue of national and regional issues, leading to the advancement of society as a whole.
In a global economy, the inter-link of corporations and their executives from all corners of the World is critical to capitalize on opportunities and to deal with the challenges of inter-dependent economies. Therefore, we are also an active member of regional and global business leadership organizations which encourage the adoption of forward looking business practices and disseminate the knowledge and experience of those corporations and their executives.
