The rise of Indeed- India's new age CSR Consultancy

We are past the age where corporate organisations used to operate for the purpose of maximizing shareholder value and due weightage was not given to corporate responsibility. Today, board rooms face continuous struggle and are ensnared to keep a healthy relationship between the firm and the society. Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) has emerged as an important filler to bridge this gap and is being given due weightage by corporate leaders as a strategic lever to drive broader societal goals.

The CSR sector has witnessed unprecedented growth in the past few years especially in the sub-continent which became the first country in the world to mandate social responsibility as a law. The sector in India stands at a yearly valuation of Rs. 18,000 crores mandating more than 15,000 companies to comply and invest in social activities recognised by the act. Initially, the companies were facing teething issues and were not able to comply with the law due to multiple reasons such as non-existence of CSR policy, not being able to find suitable implementation partner or identify projects etc. earmarking the need of consulting partners in the space who could guide companies to abide by the law and invest responsibly.

The law also gave birth to a plethora of NGOs and consultancies which tried to address these challenges and help companies cope up with the new regime, but it was only done to achieve compliances. In the past few years, the compliance and reporting percentage has significantly improved however, the “consultancy” required for realizing the intention of the law has not been provided creating a huge gap in the expectation and delivery. On the contrary, even companies have not enjoyed due credit because of haphazard CSR policies and haywire fit to purpose CSR projects.

Realising the need of a new age CSR Consultancy, Dentsu International- World’s leading advertising giant launched its CSR Advisory and Consulting Practice Indeed which focusses on Brand Led CSR, a concept which helps companies not only to invest responsibly but develop their societal image and brand value. Indeed serves as a 360 degree CSR Consultancy providing turn-key and be-spoke solutions to corporates for creating and implementing their CSR strategy on ground. The consultancy leverages the strength and capabilities of building brands from its parent company Dentsu providing innovating brand led CSR projects backed by solid desk research, data and technology

Haresh Nayak, COO, Dentsu International, Media Brands states “Our philosophy has been to create a Brand led CSR approach & help our clients Invest Responsibly, Indeed uses an in-house data and analytics platform (VAULT) to identify the right kind of beneficiaries, geographies and sectors for a given corporate. VAULT deploys algorithms by using multiple data sets from public and private domains to map the right theme and beneficiary for a given project area, or approach. This data driven approach helps us in creating high impact social projects giving maximum social return on investment (SROI) to our client.

Dentsu’s new baby is 4 years old and has seen unprecedented growth since its evolution. Indeed has become one of the fastest growing CSR consultancies supporting projects worth 90 crores not only in India but in 7 International markets. They have managed a sustained client base of 70+ corporates and a team of 150 committed professionals across the globe.

Sahil Arora, Vice President & Head- Indeed states “We realise that in the wake of compliance, there has been widespread interest showcased by companies to use CSR as a strategic lever for social impact, political unlocks and achievement of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the potential in the space also calls for a new view on corporate governance which can be exercised by having the right CSR strategy and projects”

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