The Responsible Business Summit Asia – Empowering suppliers and engaging customers
-SINGAPORE 17 & 18 MAY 16
-Hosted by Ethical CORPORATION
Many companies have been working to ensure environmental compliance, safe work practices, ensuring workers are fairly paid and fairly treated, in their supply chain for well over a decade. I was fortunate enough to attend the summit with the purpose of gaining insight and inspiration from a number of the leaders in this field.
Some of the bigger well-known brands (and product manufacturers) that presented at the summit included; Adidas Group, AkzoNobel, BASF, Monsanto, Levi Strauss & Co, GSK, Interface and Hayworth.
There were two key themes running through the event, Stakeholder Engagement and Collaboration AND Engaging Customers.
STAKEHOLDER ENGAGEMENT AND COLLABORATION
Here are some of the key learnings, with a focus on working with your Supply Chain.
GOOD COMMUNICAITON with your suppliers is a MUST. This was really emphasised throughout the whole event, and has been my experience of working with my clients suppliers, you need to bring them on board from the outset.
BE VERY CLEAR on what is expected of your suppliers. What is the purpose, why are we doing this, and how do we do it. Give them guidance, a pathway to get there. A Suppliers Code of Conduct is a good start.
PARTNER with your suppliers - Collaboration, collaboration, collaboration. How can we make it better together. Understand what is important to your suppliers and how you can work together to achieve this. Make sure they are comfortable with what has been requested.
GIVE your suppliers incentives – help them understand that companies that take care of their staff have better staff retention, or consider preferred supplier agreements, and or early payments.
BE Persistent – there will be setbacks, persevere, it’s a marathon, not a sprint.
ENGAGING CUSTOMERS
HOW CAN YOU HELP your clients be more sustainable – sell the environmental benefits of the products and why it’s important to the end user, e.g. LOW or NO VOC PAINTS(Volatile Organic Compounds) creates a healthier Indoor environment.
TALK about your purpose - What is your sustainability vision, your sustainability story, how do you engage staff to help deliver sustainability outcomes. What socially responsible projects have you been working on.
FRAME it in the positive – for example “ Improving people lives” and then talk about how your company is doing that. Engage your customers, make it real, authentic and meaningful
One last interesting insight that was presented at the summit - TEST YOUR PERCEPTIONS of where potential human and or labour rights abuses may be occurring in your supply chain, it may NOT always be the obvious (i.e. in developing nations). As we have seen reported in Australia with various ABC Four Corners reports – “Slaving away: The dirty secrets behind Australia's fresh food” and “7-Eleven: The Price of Convenience, with underpayment of it’s workforce”.
If you would like more information about how to manage your supply chain or how to communicate your Sustainability Story, please get in touch