Ethics and governance - with Viviane Neiter, corporate administration consultant.
Ethics and governance: these two subjects have dominated Viviane Neiter's career. Marked by the Enron affair in 2001, she decided to create her own governance firm and joined several boards of directors. Starting from the observation that only 7% of women are on boards of directors, in 2003, she joined an association to combat this imbalance, which led to the promulgation of the Copé-Zimmermann law. Concerned about global warming, Viviane is involved with Chapter Zero , an association of directors who are mobilizing to work within boards and limit the impacts of global warming in their strategy. With her governance firm, she helps companies improve their relations with shareholders. She also teaches governance and CSR. She tells us about the current challenges of good governance in a company.
What is driving companies today to start or progress in their thinking around CSR, ethics and governance issues? Do you see an acceleration on these topics?
There is indeed an acceleration, due to several phenomena. The laws put in place often seemed more appropriate for large companies, but SMEs and SMIs have taken hold of the subject. Today, the notion of CSR, after having been devalued, takes on its full meaning. However, many people wonder about the meaning of the “S”, “Social”, “Societal” or “Sustainable”. Social includes internal stakeholders, i.e. employees and everything that is done for them. We know that today, for example, the flight of talent is one of the major risks in companies. The power of social networks is terrible: today, NGOs or former employees can destroy the brand image of a company, either because it is not respectful of employee rights or the environment, for example. I also see great volatility in employment. In the last century, when you joined a company, you worked there for at least 20 years. Nowadays, young professionals are more demanding and want the company to be aligned with meaningful values. In fact, the business creation movement can explain this and companies must carefully define their purpose. It must be built with employees, since they are the first to be interested. As a member of Governance Professionals of Canada, I observe good practices that we can draw inspiration from, for example, creating a stakeholder advisory committee that would include customers, suppliers, journalists, NGOs, members of civil society, etc.
In France, companies interview stakeholders one by one, which seems too restrictive to me. The results are much better when everyone works together, at the same time. These stakeholder committees are still too rare in France. In the United States, Benefit Corporations * understood that by establishing this constructive dialogue with stakeholders, they would create a virtuous working environment, much more profitable in the long term, with employees and customers proud to participate in the establishment of such companies.
Clearly, for me, CSR has allowed companies to really make progress on integrating new topics in recent years. We must hope that the implementation of good practices based on “comply or explain”** - if you do not apply certain measures, you must explain why - will be sufficient and will avoid overly restrictive laws. There are more and more whistleblowers who dare to denounce fraudulent practices coming from companies. The Pacte Law has set milestones, benchmarks for companies, leading them to take into consideration the interests of stakeholders (not just employees), the social side, and the environmental side.
Do you have any concrete advice that you would like to share with the business leaders you meet?
As described earlier, I think one piece of advice for business leaders is to surround themselves not only with a shareholder advisory board but also with a stakeholder advisory board. Significant improvements have been made in terms of transparency with shareholders and stakeholders to promote the long-term strategy rather than the short term. Good communication is also key. Setting up a stakeholder advisory board is a first step. Then, you have to follow up on the files developed together until the end, present them to the board of directors, because it is the latter that is the guarantor of the sustainability of a company. The key is to ensure that the relevant themes proposed by the advisory board are discussed within the board and, if necessary, are integrated into a sustainable and effective strategy.
I think that if the stakeholder committee actually makes a full report to the board, the leaders must take these remarks into account. The discussion on strategy will be much richer, because we will ultimately have transparency and much more information to make a decision. This is how we sustain a company in the long term.
Let's take the case of cybersecurity. Recently, in one of the companies I work with, someone suggested having a cybersecurity committee. As the risks are increasing, the board of directors must be able to integrate all these new beams to determine the best possible strategy. The important thing is to also work in a climate of trust, the committee must not challenge but support the decision-makers.
Can you explain to us how the Chapter Zero association works ? What are your missions?
Chapter Zero is an association of directors. There are no leaders, just directors, who are aware of the problems related to global warming, and who rely on the work of the World Economics Forum. We produce papers to help directors know how to ask the right questions.
We also organize group meetings with personalities and leaders. There are 2 types of meetings: either they are CEOs who are firmly convinced that we must work on these risks, because they can impact the company's strategy, or they are specialists in future standards. The association is free, but people must participate, give their point of view and work on the impact.
We give instructions to the people who consult us. We must recognize that we have people who are very motivated, to move forward, and also to give a better brand image to a company. I also notice that many companies create foundations for this purpose. Foundations that carry meaning, that bring together and unite, and also enhance the value of the employees of these companies.
*Editor's note: Benefit Corporations or mission-driven companies are often identified by the B Corp label , which we will discuss in a future interview. However, there are a number of companies that have not yet taken the step of obtaining this label, but have implemented a number of initiatives and values that go beyond their purely commercial activities.
** Comply or Explain : Comply or Explain
