Impacts
Societal engagement to increase reputation, motivation, innovation & profitability.
Hugues Chatelain
Founder & CEO SocietyVision
Hugues Chatelain
Founder & CEO SocietyVision
More than 30 years’ professional experience in general management, services, sales and marketing. I have held top positions in major groups such as Renault SAS, Nikon Europe BV, Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, AUDI and latest as managing director at Euromaster Suisse SA.
My work took me from Paris via Vienna, The Hague, Frankfurt, Zurich to Bern.
My many years of experience has reinforced my belief that a business‘s contribution to society can also help boost its economic success. Based on this insight, I wrote in 2014 the book ‘Penser autrement: l’entreprise, la société et le capitalisme durable’ and developed in 2018 the SocietyVision business model based upon projects with Raiffeisen Wagrain-Kleinarl in Austria and Accademia Teatro Dimitri (SUPSI) in Switzerland.
As a senior manager in the Automotive and consumer goods and as a societal entrepreneur and founder of SocietyVision, my conviction is that the key differentiating factor of business is its societal engagement in creating a positive impact. I want to increase the social, cultural and environmental impact of businesses. As Managing Director & member of the board of Euromaster Suisse SA (Michelin Group) I implemented a societal project binding Business & Movement Arts in partnership with the Accademia Dimitri (SUPSI member). Based on this and previous experiences, my goal is to spread this new model to increase motivation, innovation, reputation and profitability while creating a measurable positive impact on society.
Financial appetite is devouring society for the sake of profit maximisation. WHY have we reached this point ? The motto of our current system is profit maximization, no matter the cost for society. Profit is gnawing away at the substance of our common good ! Are we going to continue to put up with this?
Change is possible. Placing the good of society at the heart of business is one of the keys to change. Can we rethink the way we do business to create sustainable capitalism? RETHINK is the keyword in the paradigm shift.
The fiduciary obligations of the company's managers must be adapted to the change in its purpose. The duality of the vision changes decision-making: profit, social and environmental are inseparable parameters and one cannot take precedence over the other.
We often think that capital, labour and societal values are conflicting. True or false? But capital, labour and societal values do have common points of interest. To unify these values we need to rebalance the system, to have SHARED PROFITABILITY TARGETS which favour societal progress.
The keys to change: move from a profit centred system to shared values. Rethink business organisation with three targets: 1) Return on equity, 2) Employees’ participation, 3) Positive impact on society.
How can we achieve this ? Grouping together under a cooperation structure the traditional businesses activities and a NPO (non profit organisation). Traditional business activities finance societal development through the NPO, which acts as a facilitator at local, regional or national level. The GROWTH principle is replaced by the PROGRESS principle.
The challenge is to switch to a new management mode, which is societal and responsibility driven and to change our mindset from COMPETITION to COOPERATION, to replace GROWTH with PROGRESS, to combine RETURN o/ EQUITY targets with the imperatives of RETURN o/ SOCIETY
Societal good is at the heart of the new organisation, employees are the driving force and capital the enabler. The challenge is to rethink the welfare state and stimulate business social responsibility. The role of the State must focus on redistributing the prerogatives of public action to responsible businesses.
