Towards a broader view of corporate responsibility to support local development

The recent debate in France around labor law reforms has provoked discussion around the role that businesses should play, not only regarding their financial performance but also on behalf of the public interest. In ever greater numbers, government officials as well as citizens are challenging corporations about their contributions beyond the scope of their business activities: education and job training, employment and social inclusion, public health and ageing, agricultural issues, to name a few.

These are legitimate questions. Corporations should work on behalf of the common good, beyond simply limiting any negative impacts related to their activities. Companies are part of a community, in contact with the citizens who live there, at the heart of an ecosystem of which they use resources. Shouldn’t we expect them to live up to this greater responsibility?

In some cases, this sense of responsibility may even stem from deeper motivations. Among executives and investors focused exclusively on the bottom line, there can be a person, or more, with a history, with experience, with beliefs and a sincere sense of commitment, who shapes a vision that extends well beyond the simple hunt for profit.

Back in 1966, this is how Pierre Bellon defined the mission of Sodexo: “Improving quality of life for our own employees and for all those we serve, while contributing to the economic, social and environmental welfare of the cities, regions and countries in which we operate.”

Sodexo evolved from this business model – visionary for its time – to become the leading French employer, with 450 000 employees around the world. Sodexo is also a company lauded for its commitment to the planet, as our ranking at the top of the prestigious Dow Jones Sustainability Index for the 13th consecutive year can attest.

Yet these are changing times. Youth unemployment has become a ticking time bomb. The question of how to care for our growing population of senior citizens is a challenge for our society, in both human and economic terms. Meanwhile, in the context of globalization, rural economic development has suffered, while manufacturing industries have relocated. Certain areas today see high unemployment rates while at the same time they bear the brunt of disappearing public services (emergency medical facilities, maternity wards, post offices, public transportation), placing large sectors of the population in a state of isolation and insecurity and leaving them feeling abandoned. 

Considering the continuous deepening of the government deficit, successive administrations face ever greater constraints. Corporations, it must be acknowledged, have provided little assistance, even when their commitments are authentic and when they make a real contribution. We just have to look at the meteoric rise of the social economy (accounting for 10% of employment in France), a new sector that arose to meet the needs of those underserved by both the government and by traditional private sector stakeholders.

So, what to do? Each new era brings new challenges, and the old remedies no longer apply.  These new divisions are geographic; hence, solutions should emerge from within these affected communities.

Through their business activities, many companies are, firmly anchored at the local level. For example, Sodexo is present at 4500 sites throughout France, the country in which we were founded. We use local suppliers and we recruit and train employees from the local job market. Our clients include SMEs, mid-cap companies, public entities, local and regional authorities. We serve employees, children and parents. To do this, we work with public and private stakeholders across the spectrum: small producers, employment agencies, associations to combat social exclusion, and other actors of the social economy.

This proximity is a key asset, and we want to use it to make a genuine positive impact on people’s lives, particularly on those who are most in need, wherever they may live. This is the role and the mission we have given to our new team dedicated to social innovation.

To allow the greatest number of people to benefit from their profound understanding of local conditions, businesses should develop a broader vision of their responsibility to serve communities. But they cannot succeed alone. The determination of all stakeholders to join forces on behalf of progress is a prerequisite for change. Companies, public entities and social enterprise must come together to identify the challenges specific to their local context, to prioritize actions that will re-energize their activities and restore social ties, and to gather together the necessary resources to succeed.

From this collective effort the real impact will come, and it will be measurable by the renewal of our communities and the revival of our local economies. Corporations will come to understand that showing responsibility for communities provides them with a distinct competitive advantage, in the same way their corporate social responsibility and sustainability policies do today.