May 2011
Summary
Réalités industrielles
New fields for performance in firms To read summaries, click on the article titles
Complete issue
Editorial
By Pierre COUVEINHES
Rédacteur en chef des Annales des Mines
Foreword
By Jacques BATAIL
Président de la Section « Service public et marché » du Contrôle économique et financier (Ministères chargés de l'Economie et du Budget)
La notion de performance et ses variations
Cultures and performance
By Philippe d'IRIBARNE
Directeur de recherche au CNRS, Directeur de « Gestion et société »
Corporate performance cannot be assessed absolutely, independently of time and place. Beyond objective factors related to the corporate context (profit-earning capacity, the impact of environmental legislation, etc.), the conception of performance relies more deeply and subtly on cultural factors. Each country has its own traditions, its definition of rights and obligations, its conception of corporate performance. In France, for instance, the concepts of status and honor weigh more on social relations and the organization of work processes than in the United States, where emphasis is given to the quest for profits and fair contracts. It is not a mere academic exercise to observe the facts in each culture and sociologically dwell on what brings various cultures closer together or sets them farther apart. Understanding the diverse conceptions of performance can open perspectives at the national level, provide assistance to management in transnational corporations or shed light on international negotiations.
Corporate social responsibility very popular in emerging countries, despite its ambiguities
By Michel DOUCIN
Ambassadeur chargé de la bioéthique et de la responsabilité sociale des entreprises
Since corporate social responsibility has many more aspects than we might imagine, it is an ambiguous concept owing both to its numerous origins (philosophical, utopian, religious and paternalistic) and to the “utilitarian” view associated with it (Reducing a firm’s risks will eventually maximize its profit-earning capacity). These multiple origins interact with contexts and needs that are just as varied. Several emerging countries, such as China, India or Brazil, see corporate responsibility as a means for containing the social and political pressures of rising inequality, whence complex interactions between this concept and public authorities. Through corporate social responsibility, firms can make up for certain limitations in government actions. Besides, public authorities often have the power and legitimacy necessary for bringing firms to take part in improving the regulation of society and economy.
Corporate social responsibility in Japan from the Edo period to the Fukushima nuclear accident
By Etienne ROLLAND-PIÈGUE
Conseiller économique et financier à l'Ambassade de France au Japon
Behind an apparently universal adherence to corporate social responsibility, differences in approaches are lurking with roots in distinct traditions of thought. Japanese business values date back to merchants during the Edo period and to the pioneers of Japanese capitalism during the Meiji period. They have always emphasized the diversity of all the parties — and not just shareholders — who contribute to a company’s prosperity and should share in the benefits. Imported from Europe in 2003, corporate social responsibility was quickly institutionalized by Japanese firms that want to comply with international standards. This concept, Japanese-style, barely touches on social questions, which are referred to traditional values; but focuses instead on environmental issues and consumer protection. NGOs are not very active in Japan, and the state refuses to take a leading role even though its probusiness policy supports corporate social responsibility and should help, for example, diffuse the new standard, ISO 26000. Since March 2011, a new phase, laden with uncertainty, has started. The most devastating earthquake since WW II and the crisis at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power station should lead the Japanese to raise fundamental questions about what they expect from firms and public authorities.
La volonté politique nationale et l'approche macroéconomique
The economic dimension of the Grenelle of the Environment
By Michèle ROUSSEAU
Directrice, Commissaire générale adjointe au Développement durable (CGDD) Ministère de l’Ecologie, du Développement durable, des Transports et du Logement (MEDDTL)
In 2007, the Grenelle of the Environment assembled French officials and organizations for a wide-ranging discussion for the purpose of mobilizing society to cope with the daunting environmental and climatic crisis. Despite the financial meltdown, its investment plan of € 440 billion has the ambition of placing France on the path toward new economic growth. This greener growth is to be based on developing new industries, adapting several sectors of the economy and promoting consumption patterns that devour fewer natural resources.
The Commission on the Measurement of Economic Performance and Social Progress, its reports and the followup
By Jean-Philippe COTIS
Directeur général de l’Institut national de la statistique et des études économiques (INSEE)
Set up on President Sarkozy’s initiative and chaired by Joseph Stiglitz, Amartya Sen and Jean-Paul Fitoussi, the so-called “Stiglitz Commission” was asked to examine the limits of using the gross domestic product as an indicator of economic performance and social progress, and to identify the information necessary for designing more pertinent indicators. Public opinion and the international community have acclaimed the report’s recommendations. This report of 14 September 2009 does not call for replacing the GDP with another general indicator but for adding to it a recommended batch of indicators. The application of these ambitious recommendations at the French National Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies (INSÉÉ) and international organizations is under way.
Des outils de la performance sociétale et environnementale
A commitment, concepts and methods for an economy in the service of humanity: Global performance for sustainable firms
By Michel MEUNIER
Président national du Centre des jeunes dirigeants d’entreprise (CJD) : 2010-2012
et Daniel LUCIANI
Membre du Bureau national du CJD, en charge de la Performance globale
In line with its assignment as a “laboratory” for employer organizations, the Centre des Jeunes Dirigeants developed in 2002 the model of “global performance”® for sustainable firms. This model of responsible performance makes the economic, social, societal and environmental dimensions an integral part of a firm’s strategy and governance. Nearly ten years later, more than 2000 young “leaders” have experimented with this approach in their companies. A review, feedback, and the prospects…
The Global Reporting Initiative: Toward corporate transparency
By Teresa FOGELBERG
Directrice exécutive adjointe de GRI
Founded in 1997, the Global Reporting Initiative has become a place of planetary dialog for the parties involved in reporting on sustainable development. In the first rank of these parties is France. The GRI provides a sustainability framework with guidelines for environmental reporting that describe the basic contents of reports on sustainable development for firms. Recognition of the GRI will grow owing to the financial meltdown and investors’ demands for transparent information related to the environment, social impact and governance.
The responsible performance of firms: Auditing them to make progress and rating them to facilitate investors’ decisions
By Nicole NOTAT
Présidente de Vigeo
The stakeholders in a firm include wage-earners, consumers, associations, public authorities, NGOs, etc. Representing interests ranging far beyond those of the company’s owners, they are open to new debates and have created a new lineup of forces. This situation entails certain risks for firms. Contrary to expectations however, the social responsibility approach offers them opportunities for innovation and differentiation with an impact on the creation of value. The “ethical funds”, which give preference to moral considerations, and the “socially responsible funds”, which assume that social responsibility guarantees development, are examples of operators who pay attention to the commitments made by the firms in which they choose to invest. Vigeo is an agency turned toward fund managers. It measures a firm’s control over its social and environmental externalities. Under certain conditions, defined in a code of ethics, Vigeo may advise or audit firms.
ISO 26000 on social responsibility: A promising convergence despite the diversity of sensitivities
By Christian BRODHAG
Directeur de recherche, Institut Henri Fayol Ecole des Mines de Saint-Etienne
In November 2010, wide-ranging multiparty negotiations ended in ISO 26000 on social responsibility in organizations, particularly firms. This standard addresses major issues of social responsibility in the strict sense of the word and sustainable development in all aspects (environmental, social and economic). ISO 26000 has come out of compromises: 1) between a contractualistic approach based on the willingness and interests of stakeholders and an institutionalistic approach involving political institutions; 2) between, on the one hand, the attachment to economic development and the growth of exports and, on the other, more restrictive approaches; and 3) between the aspirations of “North” and “South”. The few votes against adopting this standard (by Cuba, the United States, India, Luxembourg and Turkey) and the abstentions (for instance, Germany’s) are evidence of cleavages. Nonetheless, ISO 26000 proposes a “metaregulation” for endowing sustainable development with a widely shared operational basis.
Tools for corporate social responsibility
By François FATOUX
Délégué général de l’Observatoire sur la responsabilité sociétale des entreprises (ORSE)
Firms and their partners (investors and fund managers) feel ever more concerned with corporate social and environmental responsibility, codes of ethics, codes of fair conduct, ethical investment funds, etc. In this new, complicated context, a hundred organizations (big firms, investment funds, labor unions, NGOs, mutualist institutions, etc.) have joined the Observatoire sur la Responsabilité Sociétale des Entreprises (ORSE). This research center monitors currents of thoughts, tools and practices in the field of corporate social responsibility. The experience acquired has, for example, led it to recommend an open, contractual approach.
What does commerce have to gain from fair trade?
By Pierre-François COUTURE
Président de la Commission Nationale du Commerce Equitable
What is fair trade? It is a worldwide movement for helping the least advanced countries develop, thus gradually eliminating structural malnutrition, achieving sustainable development and respecting biodiversity. Fair trade places the purchasing act in an ethical framework. In particular, it guarantees producers a stable minimum price, even if market prices fall. Sustainable trade is in the service of development and based on a philosophy summarized as “trade, not aid”. Although fair trade is now mainly centered on improving the conditions of producers in the “South”, it is intended to be an example to follow, a model for changing practices at the national and international levels.
Ethical and socially responsible investment funds: From sacred books to financial capitalism
By Grégoire POSTEL-VINAY
Responsable de la Mission « Stratégie » à la Direction générale de la compétitivité, de l'industrie et des services (DGCIS) - Ministère de l'Economie, des Finances et de l'Industrie
The history of investment funds that are managed by taking into account ethics or corporate social and environmental responsibility is recounted while paying attention to changes in the criteria they use. After describing a few recent trends, the possible economic and industrial consequences are pointed out along with the implications of the rising power of these funds for government interventions.
Des témoignages de dirigeants d'entreprise
La Poste in quest of global performance
By Georges LEFEBVRE
Délégué général du Groupe La Poste
Modernize without disowning one’s past. This is the line of conduct adopted by the French Post Office, La Poste, to transform itself and address the often contradictory challenges facing it. How to move in a fully open market while fulfilling its duties as a public service? How to maintain “local” relations with the French while adapting to new, increasingly dematerialized means of communication? By wagering on confidence and tightly combining all dimensions of performance (economic, social, societal and environmental), La Poste has found the way toward a balanced, sustainable development.
France Télécom: From the management of a crisis to the creation of a new meaning
By Marc FOSSIER
Directeur exécutif Responsabilité Sociale d’Entreprise, Groupe France Télécom
Subject to fast transformations and heavy competitive and regulatory pressures, France Télécom underestimated the impact on its wage-earners in France and had to deal with a social crisis. The measures for handling this crisis of meaning and management have led to a new ambition for reconciling economic performance with social, societal and environmental progress.
Ecodesign at the RATP
By Yves RAMETTE
Directeur général adjoint à la RATP (Projets, ingénierie et investissements)
The Paris Area Transit Authority (RATP) plays a leading part in developing a mobility for riders that is compatible with sustainable development in the Île-de-France region. To this end, it has entered new fields of social and environmental performance and made them a part of the firm’s global performance. After discussing the RATP’s approach for ranking the issues of sustainable development and formalizing its commitments, the innovations in “ecodesign” are presented that might reinforce the firm’s environmental and economic performance.
ÉdF: Original tools for environmental actions with controlled costs
By Philippe HUET
Chief Officer, People, Organisation and Brand Performance à EDF Energy
et Claude NAHON
Directeur du Développement durable à EDF
Original solutions sometimes have to be imagined for launching ambitious environmental programs. For instance, ÉdF’s “Carbon Fund” finances projects for reducing CO2 emissions in certain countries, thus enabling the French electric company to obtain emission credits. This has a cost, but it optimizes ÉdF’s compliance with its obligations for reducing greenhouse gas emissions under EU directive EU- ETS. It has even generated a new business. ÉdF also has the legal obligation to save energy or, otherwise, pay heavy penalties. Thanks to a “certified savings” procedure, the expected result can be attained while optimizing modalities and costs. The sophistication of technological and economic tools is not the only card to be played. ÉdF is developing several arrangements for improving transparency and its transactions with stakeholders. In all, the hoped-for progress is multidimensional: environmental, social and societal actions aim at creating sustainable value all along the energy supply chain.
When Danone’s sustainable development procedures are audited…
By Philippe HELLICH
Directeur général du groupe Danone pour les risques, le contrôle interne et l'audit
et Martial VIDAUD
Directeur adjoint de l'audit interne de Danone
The “Danone Way” refers not just to this industrial group’sprinciples of sustainable development but also torecommendations for applying them and their indicators.Although the fields concerned might seem too abstract for asystematic review, the program comes under regular audits inDanone’s subsidiaries. The key factors for the success of theseaudits are: 1)the audit department must take into account the“sustainable development” process as much as the processes“purchasing” or “production”; 2)the quality of the phase ofpreparation; 3)the training of auditors in this new problemarea; and 4)an educational approach toward those who arebeing audited but are not used to this type of experience.When these conditions are met, the audit contributes to thesuccess of sustainable development procedures and adds toauditors’ professional qualifications.
Conclusion
Clarifying choices and assessing their consequences
By Charles COPPOLANI
Chef du Service du Contrôle général économique et financier (CGÉFi) Ministères chargés de l'Economie et du Budget
et Pascal FAURE
Vice-président du Conseil général de l'industrie, de l'énergie et des technologies (CGIET) Ministère chargé de l'Economie
Although we are satisfied to observe a rising interest in social and environmental issues, especially in firms, several questions crop up. How to see to it that these issues, despite their complexity and the intense feelings they arouse, be handled with a maximum of pertinence? This question arises for firms, of course, but also for the state, which has a direct responsibility when it or its firms are concerned and an indirect responsibility when private firms are concerned. A few answers shed light on what is to be gained from research, highly specialized interdisciplinary expertise, full and coherent corporate governance processes, the pooling of experiences, training, information and debates.