SPONSORED SECTIONS

Summer 2009

by Jean-Paul Bailly

Over the past 20 years, finance has taken hold of the economy. Stock market prices have become the measuring stick for corporate solidity. Companies have concentrated all their efforts on maximising return on investment and value for shareholders. Financial players began imagining that they could create wealth from finance itself, and the world started living off this unbelievable virtual economy. This all-finance phenomenon was adversely exacerbated by a narrow focus on short term results. IFRS (International Financial Reporting Standards), for example, evaluate business according to daily market prices. The system works well when growth is rising, but is dangerous when things turn around. All the technical instruments contribute to a short-term dimension of financial results, and instantaneous transmission of information accelerates the consequences. Shareholders monitor corporate profits on a quarterly basis, and they react accordingly. All of this has made the system unstable and volatile. What if we refocused on a strategic vision, on broader issues, taking a long-term view? What if we considered sustainable development?

In reaction to the system's shortcomings, today's crisis is leading to far-reaching, but unpredictable, changes. The crisis is opening our eyes and widening our horizons. It is showing that a company's true pulse is its long-term viability. It is showing that true performance is shaped as much by how a company achieves success as by the success itself. It is giving rise to true corporate responsibility, in the environmental, social and societal realms. What we at La Poste call responsible development.

Today, nearly 75% of all companies are talking about sustainable development. It is a concept that has produced vast changes over the past five years. Companies have often – it has to be admitted - adopted it as part of their communication policy, using the vocabulary of experts that made the policy much less accessible. Gradually, companies forged progress plans focused on a few key points that could be measured and quantified. I will admit that La Poste Group did follow the same path. Our first strategic plan, “Performance and Convergence”, put our Business Sectors on the front line against the competition. The 2008-2012 plan, “Performance and Trust”, helped us to move to the next level: putting responsible development at the heart of our project. This completely open approach is based on one conviction: our success must respect all those involved and benefit everyone.

Let's start with our customers. By viewing customers with respect in our dealings with them, by giving them advice that fits their interests before thinking of our own, and by upholding a certain number of tangible commitments such as “cutting waiting time in the 1,000 largest post offices,” we work to build their trust and confidence and earn their lasting loyalty. Which is essential as we await total market deregulation! Inspiring our 290,000 postal employees to support the company's transformation by sharing in its success is fair and crucial. La Poste has used temporary and part-time employment contracts for too long. We will now give priority to job quality, skills development and professional growth. At the end of 2008, employees on fixed-term contracts made up only 3.3% of staff; 87.6% of workers were full-time and 10% of postal employees were promoted during the year! We are working to make La Poste Group an employer committed to developing its employees’ abilities, and we are on track to meeting that goal. One of the things that sets La Poste apart from other companies is that it is a fully-fledged member of French society, sharing in the issues that face people on a daily basis. One of our priorities is to give hope to those who live in underprivileged suburban areas. In 2008, we hired over 1,400 young people from these districts, and we believe we can go further still. The future of La Poste Group is also closely intertwined with the future of the regions where it operates. We have appointed 21 regional sustainable development officers who can focus on local issues and work in close cooperation with local stakeholders, supporting them in their approach to sustainable development.

I have kept our work on the biggest challenge for the end: our commitment to combat climate change. As a world-class group, we must make a contribution to the French and European objectives to cut greenhouse gas emissions. This drive will influence our industrial, commercial and real estate decisions. It will change the way we are organised and our operating methods, designed to bring everything into line with this challenge.

To do this, we are taking action alongside postal operators from across Europe and around the world. La Poste is one of the founding members of the European Postal Services' GHG (Greenhouse Gas) Reduction Programme launched by PostEurop in 2007. We take part in the Carbon Management Programme set up by IPC (International Post Corporation), which brings together 25 of the world's leading postal operators. Finally, we are at the head of the Universal Postal Union's sustainable development working group.

We are making bold commitments at group level. La Poste Group has France's largest vehicle fleet, with more than 60,000 cars, trucks and bicycles on the roads every day. We also have France's largest property base, with around 15,000 sites. Transport and buildings make up the two largest sources of CO2 emissions, so we have to feel responsible for their control.. We aim to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions by 12% between now and 2012. By the end of 2009, 60,000 mail carriers will be provided with ecodriving training, and we are making investments in electric vehicles: the government has given us the task of significantly increasing demand for electric vehicles, which will help develop this industry in France and in Europe.

The Group is also committed to a more responsible use of paper resources. The Mail sector represents 50% of our turnover for tonnes and tonnes of paper consumption. Paper is an integral part of La Poste's business, and we have a large responsibility to manage this resource wisely. The Group has set the goal of using exclusively recycled paper or paper from sustainably-managed forests for internal consumption by 2012, and we are developing a range of more responsible products and services while raising customers' awareness of the values of written media and mail-related issues.

All these commitments are building trust and confidence in La Poste Group while stimulating its performance. This is the Group's choice, and its driving force. Our objective is not to make short-term profits, it is to generate added value for society over the long term. The financial crisis is going to be difficult, but it will provide the chance to change our companies' role and to visualise a system that is more responsible and more socially-aware. Let’s take the chance!

This section is sponsored by La Poste Group