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SUSTAINABILITY: KEY ELEMENT OF 4S FRAMEWORK

 

Do not wait for extraordinary circumstances to do good action; 

try to use ordinary situations.

Jean-Paul Richter (1723-1825) German Novelist

Just before the birth of the new millennium, I lost my younger brother to cancer and he was only forty six years old. During that year (1999)

  • I was the Executive director of an export company travelling abroad three to four times a year, 
  • I was busy in forming my team of office-bearers having taken up the responsibility of leading the Rotary club of which I was a member since 1988, and raising funds for the service projects, thus getting prepared to function as the President with effect from 1st July 2000, and 
  • I was managing my ancestral home situated in a busy locality of eastern Bangalore.  
I was planning to implement fifty service projects during the Rotary year 2000-1 as I was turning fifty. But, typically it is also an age when the metabolic rate[1] starts slowing down. Hence, with the ushering of new millennium, I had to seriously think of reorganising myself to perform a new set of activities that will sustain and keep me physically, emotionally and intellectually active.

It was for the first time that I started thinking about sustainability from two different perspectives; physical – responsibility of managing the ancestral home as long as possible until I hand it over to my next generation and emotional-responsibility of performing my duties towards family and society. According to Gro Harlem Brundtland (b.1939), who served three terms as Prime-minister of Norway, sustainability means meeting our own needs without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. It can also simply mean the ability to maintain or support a process continuously over time. As I was turning fifty, fortunately I had saved some money that was good enough to meet my family’s basic requirements. Hence, I did not have the economic compulsion to earn for livelihood, nor were there any pending EMIs (Equated Monthly Instalment) to pay!

In the context of the situation that I was in, my business related responsibilities that included frequent international travel was on the rise, as the company having entered its seventh year of operation had to scale up for its survival. I found this stressful sometimes as I had to balance between managing my profession and family, considering the fact that my wife was also employed as a full-time lecturer in a college and one of our two teen-aged sons had just got into college, apart from my mother who lives with us was in her seventies. 

Today scientists know how stress is intimately linked with many chronic diseases. It can drive immune changes and inflammation that can worsen symptoms of conditions of asthma, arthritis, heart disease and inflammatory bowel disease. Similarly many issues caused by stress – headaches, heartburn, blood pressure, mood changes, etc., can also be due to some chronic illnesses. Both for doctors and patients this overlap can be confusing. ‘It’s really hard to disentangle’ says Scott Russo, director of the Brain-Body Research Centre at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York, USA. Instead of inviting any health-related issues, with effect from 1st April 2021 I decided to resign my position as Executive director of the company of which I was one of the cofounders. I informed accordingly to my board, giving them enough time for another director to take over the operations. 

After completing my term as president of the Rotary club on 30th June 2001, I decided to register for a research programme leading to Phd, and also look out for some consulting work from Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) or Business Schools based on the experience that I had gathered over twenty seven years. In the process of establishing myself in the areas of academic research, business consulting and social service, I started developing new networks as sustainable development in any area requires human ingenuity and hence, people are the most important resource. 

Having shared in my earlier blogs the various aspects of life that I learned from individuals in the four different areas that I was involved with over forty five years – Research and Development, business, academic research and social-service, in the next few blogs I’d be highlighting roles played by a few more individuals who made my postentrepreneurship life sustainable in the areas of business, research, and service other than my daily life, ensuring my body and mind are fit and functioning!

As Jochen Zeitz, Chairman, President and CEO of Harley-Davidson had said, Sustainability is no longer about doing less harm, but it’s about doing more good’. To do good one has to actually do something!

[1].Metabolic rate is an umbrella term for all the chemical reactions and processes that happen in the body to turn food into energy. 

September 11 , 2024 | Ravi 85 

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