On Feb. 16-19, 2016, I attended the Inclusive Business Asia Forum (IBAF) at the Asian 
Development Bank (ADB) Headquarters in Manila, Philippines. The IBAF is where the private 
sector can talk about and showcase solutions and their participation in nation-building such as in 
job creation and providing services and infrastructure to the low to very low income sectors.

I came to know about the conference through CSR Asia www.csr-asia.com. Representing my m company at the time, I attended the IBAF to learn about how the big leaders who attended the event would seek to help the poor. The conference was sponsored by the ADB in partnership 
with the World Bank Group’s International Finance Corporation (IFC), the Inter-American Development Bank (IADB), the UNDP Business Call to Action (BCtA) program, the World 
Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD), the Inclusive Business Action Network (IBAN), CSR Asia, the government of Sweden (through SIDA), and Credit Suisse.

Needless to say, the event was jam-packed.

This conference was attended by the CEOs and top ranking executives of their respective 
organizations. These included Ms. Naina Suberwal Batra, the CEO of Asia Venture Philanthropy 
Network based in Singapore; Mr. Eric Berkowitz, Head of the Asia team of Bamboo Finance and 
board of several portfolio companies; Mr. Joost Bilkes, Vice President for the Microfinance and Impact Investments group Asia Pacific of Credit Suisse; Ms. Penny Burtt, Vice President for Government Affairs and Public Policy for VISA, and; Mr. Lito Camacho, Managing Director and Vice Chairman of Credit Suisse Asia, among others. I was actually overwhelmed because I wasn’t a CEO, I just wanted to learn new concepts and see what the differences are between corporate social responsibility (CSR) programs and inclusive business.

These illustrious speakers showed how the private sector supported inclusive business 
through their business models and programs. Government agencies of different countries came 
and supported inclusive business as well. I learned that in India, CSR programs related to the 
company’s nature of business is a requirement for large companies before they can operate. 
Even international banks support inclusive business and they have several models being 
implemented.

Even in the Philippines, there are many large companies who do inclusive business without even knowing it!

So what is inclusive business? And is it different from a company’s CSR?

After attending the IBAF, I learned that CSR programs are designed to help community indigents identify their needs and the concrete ways of how to help uplift their way of life. CSR programs may or may not be related to the business nature of the company.

Meanwhile, inclusive business means including the poorest of the poor in the business 
operations of the company by creating a business model that is integrated or very much related to 
how the company does business. The main goal of inclusive business is poverty eradication.

To be an inclusive business, a thriving and sustainable company has to have, at its core, 
business models that provide “in-scale innovative and systemic solutions to the relevant problems of the poor and low income groups (Base of the Pyramid-BoP); the bottom 40-60% income groups.” The G20 framework on inclusive business distinguishes between IB models, IB activities, and IB initiative.

I believe one of the reasons why the forum was held was for information dissemination of the current trend in helping the poorest of the poor.

In general, Filipino business owners and entrepreneurs may not be aware that there is a sure ROI (return of investment) for companies who include uplifting the poorest of the poor in their corporate strategy and business operations. Inclusive business promotes business success, due to the law of attraction stating that generosity is given back a hundred fold.

The Forum successfully showed that companies using the inclusive business model produced a high return of investment. This even included those companies that initially came from losses or break even figures.

All in all, it was a great learning experience for me.