Bill Gates, co‐founder and chairman of Microsoft, appeared on American TV interview show Charlie Rose in July 2012. He spent the bulk of his hour‐long interview discussing the work of the charitable Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation in impoverished countries like India. Gates stepped down as chief executive of Microsoft in 2000, and in 2006 began transitioning from full‐time duties at the company to spending the bulk of his time with the charitable organisation he founded with his wife six years earlier. Initiatives the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation have overseen include vaccination programs and the distribution of mosquito nets in malaria‐stricken regions.

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has contributed more than $US1 billion to combat disease and poverty in India. The country has now been polio free for over five years. Gates (pictured), who recently visited the country, told Rose that ‘health is improving in India as fast as any place in the world’. Asked by Rose to compare China and India in terms of a culture of innovation, Gates said India’s leadership in producing software engineers was unparalleled, but, overall, China’s engineering and manufacturing sectors were ‘much further ahead of India’. Gates also described the reasoning behind his transition from cutthroat businessman to philanthropist.

I think the world’s best companies are built by fanatics, and when you’re in your 20s and 30s, being fanatical comes easy, at least it came pretty naturally to me. I didn’t feel that bad that that’s what I was doing . . . I think now in my 50s, this way of operating, where I’m backing a lot of these great scientists [developing health care programs and technologies] is what is the most natural for me.

QUESTION

What does corporate social responsibility mean to you? Can you provide examples of positive CSR? When does CSR become a marketing tool?