Build back better: Embrace the ‘social’ opportunity
In the third article of FTI Consulting’s ESG series, their Strategic Communications experts highlight how companies should focus on engaging with key stakeholders to truly embrace the ‘Social’ opportunity and strengthen their efforts towards building back better than ever.
Appetite for impact investing has increased globally as investors have grown more eager to align with a higher purpose and show that profit can go beyond the financial. Combined with the fact that COVID-19 has increased the need for Boards and management teams to deliver on their ESG commitments, there is now an urgent imperative to ensure a more holistic and integrated approach to ESG is embedded in your corporate strategy.
ESG issues have all grown in importance for years, however higher attention was paid to the environment and governance, while social criteria were often put on the backburner. That is all changing now.
In recent weeks, management teams have had to regroup to respond to the most severe public health and economic situation many of them have ever faced. Investors are now more articulate with their view on where the emphasis of the ‘S’ in this new world should lie, and what it should mean for companies. Legal & General Investment Management (‘LGIM’), encourages companies1: “not to only focus solely on their shareholders but to focus on stakeholder primacy and include all stakeholders, especially their employees, supply-chain relationships, the environment and communities in which they operate.”
As the COVID-19 pandemic works its way through countries, companies are being forced to assess internal and external operations, to ensure they’re well positioned to bounce back from the ongoing negative impact on the global economy – therein lies the ‘Social’ opportunity.
