Business can make profits and, at the same time, achieve social goals which are required from it by its employees and customers – argued the participants at the panel discussion “How to build a better future by responding to the challenges of the present” which was held as part of the Congress Impact’21 in Poznań (27-28 October 2021).
Concern for climate and environmental protection plays an increasingly important role in modern business. This is why more and more companies follow ESG (Environmental, Social and Corporate Governance) policies in their operations, i.e., they take actions for the benefit of the environment, care about social issues and introduce corporate governance principles.
“Employees expect wages to go up, and investors want a return on their investment, so the company needs to grow. But times have changed. We focus on profit, but we also look at the higher-order needs from Maslow’s pyramid,” said during the panel Bartosz Ciołkowski, General Director for Poland, the Czech Republic, and Slovakia at Mastercard Europe.
Ciołkowski also emphasized that social media has made the management of organizations more transparent.
“Because if any of us are inauthentic and insincere, we can read about it on the internet,” he said.
According to Tomasz Suchański, President of Żabka Polska, the last year and a half have brought significant changes for running the business. Pre-existing trends, such as the rapid growth of e-commerce, have been reinforced.
“In fact, whoever does not think about digitalization today, one can say that he does not think about the future,” Suchański said.
The covid reality has also completely changed the relationship between the employee and the company.
“Today, in recruitment interviews, there is less talk about salary and more about how much you can work from home versus how much you can work for a company. This raises other problems, such as how to build an organizational culture and common values,” said the president of Żabka Polska.