A transparência é fundamental para se conectar autenticamente com os consumidores, mas será que as empresas estão compartilhando tudo o que seus consumidores querem saber?
Julia Wilson, VP, Global Responsibility & Sustainability, Nielsen, recently sat down with Martin Whittaker, CEO of JUST Capital, to pick up a conversation about the connection points among social and environmental issues, opportunities for corporate impact and investment, as well as how consumer preferences—and a focus on trust and access to information—are driving business forward.
"A confiança nas grandes corporações ainda é muito baixa; vemos isso em nosso próprio trabalho e no trabalho de outros", disse Whittaker. "Estamos no processo de reconstruir essa confiança - não apenas com os consumidores, mas com o público em geral. Acho que as empresas estão cientes da necessidade de investir em sua licença social para fazer negócios, [e] que as empresas vão querer saber se as informações que estão sendo usadas pelos consumidores para tomar decisões são boas. Portanto, acho que haverá muito foco na qualidade dos dados, no significado das informações, na origem delas... Como tudo, para criar confiança, é preciso ter esse senso de abertura [e] transparência."
Whittaker cited the connections between company performance on “just” themes—like worker pay and environmental impact—with stronger financial performance, also focusing on the important role that investment can play in advancing action on corporate social responsibility and sustainability issue areas.
“Influencing how capital flows, and certainly influencing the way investors think about the themes that we cover, is really important for companies to understand,” said Whittaker. “We found that the more investors use our data, use our rankings, invest in “just” funds, the more companies were interested in that and wanted to really understand how their Investor Relations, their corporate leadership, C-suite, and Boards connected the dots between their performance on social and environmental issues and their financial performance.” JUST Capital has launched a series of indices, including an exchange traded fund (Ticker: JUST) with Goldman Sachs Asset Management in June 2018.
Nielsen research shows that consumers care about sustainability and are willing to change their consumption habits to address their own impact on the environment. Whittaker shared some examples of how these human and environmental needs intersect with opportunities for corporate impact. “Consumers are very motivated by aspects of environmental impact and a company’s environmental footprint,” said Whittaker. “We see it in health for example. We know people really want to drink clean water, they want to breathe clean air…Environmental impacts that affect health and the health of communities I think are very important.”
Olhando para o futuro, Whittaker previu que a onda de divulgação e transparência só vai ganhar força. Ele prevê que as empresas continuarão a "se aprofundar" em termos de determinar o tipo de dados a serem compartilhados e com quais grupos de partes interessadas. "Certamente, acho que saberemos muito mais sobre a liderança corporativa em uma série de aspectos com os quais, há dez anos, você nunca imaginaria que as empresas estivessem preocupadas", disse Whittaker.
