CSR — Today and Always: Ecuador’s Sustainable View.
12 de May de 2021
12 de May de 2021
Martin Luther King once said: “Even if I knew that tomorrow the world would go to pieces, I would still plant an apple tree today”. The same happens with companies and their sustainable view of the world. As low as corporate social responsibility (CSR) implementation levels may be, even if it may seem too late, it isn’t. There’s always good reasons to go one step further.
Bethlem Boronat —Director of the Máster in Customer Experience & Innovation and Expert Researcher on Sustainability— is in charge of presenting the results of the 1st Observatory on CSR Trends in Ibero America that was carried out by EAE Business School and CEAPI — a corporate council made up of 140 presidents of major Ibero American companies that bet on strengthening the relationship networks and the corporate space.
José Luis Fernández —EAE Business School’s General Manager— wants this 1st Observatory to bring about “positive, constant and sustainable change”. For him, the main goal is to study how the work of the future is going to be like, sharing experiences and debates, in order to transform society through sustainability and CSR. On the other hand, Nuria VIlanova —CEAPI’s President and President/Founder of ATREVIA— thinks that COVID-19 is the first crisis that will be tackled from a brand new perspective. Currently, people want the recovery to carry within itself the commitment towards society, the environment and, most importantly, towards inclusion. Nuria wonders: “Which will be the path chosen by the companies and institutions that will lead the much needed recovery after the pandemic is over?”
The study collects the answers of 103 major Ibero American companies and, during the conference, the focus was put on the Ecuadorian results. These are the conclusions we drew:
1- LFocus on the Stakeholders.
Ecuadorian companies are the ones that pay the most attention to interest groups’ expectations as part of their CSR strategy. Among them, 87,5% think that the stakeholders are at the centre of their work and, therefore, they must have conversations with them in order to come up with a strategy. Their second point of interest is to generate wealth and well-being in society — followed by giving back to society some of what society is giving to companies, thus, achieving synergy between companies and society.
For Paula —Sustainability Director at Consorcio Nobis— it’s clear as day: the predisposition to form alliances with other organisations is much greater, as is also the commitment towards society. For her, value chains become networks that give place to synergy between companies and, in this way, investment becomes greater. Rafael Roldán —President of the Official Spanish Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Quito— thinks that one of the chamber’s missions is to unite companies, regardless of the fact that they may be in direct competition.
2- The Importance of Being Close: The Local Impact
Another interesting element that showed up in the Ecuadorian results is the focus they put on establishing local projects as part of their sustainability strategy, placing value on a company’s local impact. While other countries are thinking about more global strategies, Ecuador focuses on projects that have an impact in the environment that’s closer to the companies.
3- The Focus Is on the Clients.
Regarding the importance of the different CSR areas in the post-COVID era, Ecuador choses to focus on the clients. That’s why 21,9% of the companies’ CSR work is centred around getting back to clients and having conversations with them. Subsequently, employees, the environment, people and the setting: all of these make up the future of CSR.
According to Rafael, “part of the social responsibility lies in not forgetting what is going on with our workers” — something that Paula agrees on. She thinks it’s crucial to protect employees and to be committed to not carrying out mass layoffs.
4- Facing the Social Problems.
Ecuador is one of the countries that stands by the idea that Latin American companies will take the lead in the fight against social problems caused by COVID-19. Social commitment by companies is key. They must play a more active role when it comes to the country’s social issues and they must get more involved and become a pillar to create positive impact and help in the development of society. Ecuador’s social commitment is above all others’ in the region. Paula explains that during the pandemic, her company was one of the three alcohol production companies that got together to carry out an important production of alcohol to face the needs that COVID-19 was creating. They put themselves at the government’s service in order to make distribution easier in hospitals and primary necessities centres.
This 1st Observatory promotes further investigation in order to bring about new possibilities, new sustainability approaches. But also to keep educating and training the leaders of the future, creating awareness, so that they will lend us their help and, together, change this planet and live a better life.