Corporate Shared Value

‘The essence of community, its heart and soul, is the non-monetary exchange of value; things we do and share because
we   care   for   others,   and   for   the   good   of  the   place.’  
– Dee Hock

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At Navyush, the five ingredients for shared value are:

1. 1. Social purpose
2. 2. A defined need
3. 3. Measurement
4. 4. The right innovation structure
5. 5. Co-creation

Tourism has a natural advantage that lies at the heart of its business, yet responsible tourism is about using tourism to make better places to live in and better places to visit. At Navyush, we believe that contributing to develop a destination makes business sense since any tourism experience is seldom about the hotel or the resort.

As travellers and holiday goers look for more authentic experiences that enrich their experience of the destination, creating shared value relates to economic and social progress through innovative products, redefining supply chains and developing local clusters. Whether this translates to organising guided heritage walks or giving a taste of the local cuisine or availability of organic agricultural products, it certainly creates the opportunity to showcase rural culture and art while promoting our rich and varied heritage. For Navyush, it translates to responsible tourism creating win-win situations for all our stakeholders thereby creating shared value.

‘The principle of shared value involves creating economic value in a way that also creates value for society by addressing its needs and challenges. Businesses must connect company success with social progress. Shared value is not social responsibility, philanthropy or even sustainability but a new way of achieving economic success. It is not on the margin of what companies do but at the centre.’ – Creating shared value, Harvard Business Review 2009.

We strongly believe that rural tourism has the potential of being a non-polluting, sustainable, income provider that can create a huge opportunity for us to provide unique visitor experiences in low-impact settings. It has the capacity for local environments, alternate energy options, local community acceptance and visitor satisfaction. It can provide income for the most disadvantaged while strengthening communities through support to capacity building and sustainable rural infrastructure. At Navyush, we place greater emphasis on the role of women and youth, rural tourism further increases the authenticity of travel experiences and creates value for the entire eco-system.

Changing Trends in Tourism

The ‘tour’ lies at the centre of our business and is the single most important determinant of our success. In fact, this is the impetus that drives the entire travel industry that looks for ways to design the most interesting routes to travel, to train and retain the best tour guides, and to offer the best value to our customers. It calls for mutually beneficial partnerships with the local communities at destinations we promote.

Anyone on vacation seeks local and authentic experiences that are unique in their offering. Our team in constantly working towards creating opportunities to engage aspiring students in tourism colleges, running a campaign with an NGO on building social awareness on hygiene and sanitation, promoting local means of eco-friendly transport and creating more jobs for inclusive growth and sustainable development for livelihoods.

Furthermore, sustainable tourism initiatives by the government provide the platform for the industry to partake in awareness campaigns and initiatives that improve facilities for tourists visiting India. Sustainable development criteria and indicators for hotels and tour operators require continuous focus and training to be applied to rural tourism and home stays.

Fortunately, in India, the tourism sector is based on its unique endowments of biodiversity, forests, rivers and its rich culture and heritage. The opportunities, for Navyush and our fraternity, lie in successfully preserving these in their original form while making them accessible to domestic and international travellers together with safeguarding the economic interest and heritage of local communities.

There are abundant examples of successful businesses that are helping society by building resilience, providing healthy lives and well-being, education, hunger and food security, as well as many other examples. Such coprporate behaviour is consistent with the ‘shared value’ framework. We believe this notion is rooted in the specific issues that improve the businesses’ own performance.

At the same time, these responsible behaviours can create large-scale social benefits. Tourism can create shared value by having partnership agreements with local communities and embedding sustainability and corporate social responsibility into our portfolios where all business processes operate in an environmental setting within the wider community context. At Navyush, we encourage focusing on training of suppliers, improving social conditions, buying from cooperatives, paying premiums, working with certification programs (with eco-labels) and effective communication with stakeholders are important elements of responsible business.

The shared value proposition sets out new business opportunities as it creates new markets and niches, improves profitability and strengthens competitive positioning. Our shared value proposition focuses on the scale of impact and degree of innovation that companies can bring towards the societal requirements where traditional NGOs and governments have often lacked.