THE ULTIMATE BATTLEFIELD IS THE MIND
A Commentary
By Jane M. Estrella

CSR or Corporate Social Responsibility has become the latest catchword not only among the companies but also in schools. Students tend to scrutinize what particular CSR to implement in order to provide the needs of community and its people. Actually, it has been tackled under the financial management subject and among students taking the topic there is an ongoing debate arises over whether a firm should exist solely for making profits or whether it should pay heed to the social and environmental concerns that accompany the practice of Corporate Social Responsibility or CSR. The proponents of the view that a firm exists solely for making profit argue about the market being the final arbiter of allocating resources and point to the market as the place where incentives for allocating resources for social and environmental causes is to be found. The opponents of this view take the stand that everything cannot be left to the market and there needs to be a mechanism in place whereby the environmental and social causes need to be taken care of.If we examine both sides of the debate as well as take into account superficial attempts by businesses to pay lip service to CSR, the first strand of thought that comes to mind is about the need for businesses to invest in CSR as a way of mitigating the deleterious effects of the industrial paradigm on the environment. The practice of CSR by industrial companies is in vogue these days because of the fact that they have contributed to polluting the environment. As Martha Nussbaum contends, “If this world is to be a decent world in the future, “we must acknowledge right now that we are citizens of one interdependent world, held together by mutual fellowship as well as the pursuit of mutual advantage, by compassion as well as self-interest, by a love of human dignity in all people, even when there is nothing we have to gain from cooperating with them”
Hence, in this interconnected and flat world there is a need for concerted action by the businesses to take steps that would alleviate the pressing issues of the day. However, the opponents of this view are some of the multinationals themselves as can be seen from the following excerpt, “Thus the central theoretical and practical question in the discussion of corporate social responsibility is whether it remains a voluntary choice of the business or should be ensured through formal control”.
The point here is that CSR is being enforced rather than voluntarily embraced. This fact alone makes it clear that businesses by themselves do not contribute to CSR and that they have to be regulated to do so.
In other way, the brain has always been the battlefield. The ancient Chinese military expert Sun Tzu gives an example. On the first night, a general has his troops build 100,000 campfires. On the second night, they build 50,000 campfires. And on the third night, they build 20,000. Watching the fires on the horizon dwindle over three nights, the opposing general believes that the enemy forces are deserting, and so he marches into battle confident that he faces a small, demoralized army. He marches straight into an army 100,000 strong and is soundly defeated.
Sun Tzu argued that you have to know your enemy in detail, but prevent your enemy from knowing you: pretend that you are weak where you are strong, and pretend that you are strong where you are weak. Information and deception have always been integral to warfare, and always will be. More modern examples include the Allies managing to trick Hitler into believing that they will invade at Calais, rather than Normandy, and Saddam Hussein pretending that his WMD programs are much stronger than they are (a ploy that backfired, in his case). But I'm not sure technology really changes this that much. It changes how we can collect and disseminate information, but at the end of the day, you need to have smart, educated, capable guys sifting through this information with their brains and giving good advice to their Commander-in-Chief... and a Commander-in-Chief with the brains to listen.
So what then CSR really meant and serve for us? Is it only good for profit potential, for our stockholders benefit, or for the welfare of people we are extending help for? Mind is said to be the ultimate battlefield because it encompasses our thoughts (imagination, reasoning, and intellect), as well as our emotions and will. In all of these aspects lies the very heart of an individual. By our thoughts and feelings we determine our will and purpose for our lives. It is from here our decisions is based. Decision making would be a tough task however whatever the verdict it reflects to our own personality. It’s just like setting our vision and mission in life, knowing our purpose and doing our part either for our own selfish interest or for betterment of everybody.