Foundations for the future
"I am very proud this year of
the way we have listened to our stakeholders and developed a
group-wide approach to responsible business which lays the
foundations for a sustainable future as a company and as an
investor. This approach is designed to ensure we actively address
the issues that matter most to our stakeholders and will help us
realise our vision of becoming our customers' most trusted
partner."
Don Schneider
Group Human Resources Director and Chairman
of the Responsible Business Committee
Responsible Business highlights from 2010
- First full year of operation of the Responsible Business
Committee which oversaw:
- Responsible Business Policy rolled out across the Group
- Responsible Investment taskforce set up
- Conducted stakeholder research into responsible business
issues
- £13.6 million invested in our local communities focusing on
financial education, enterprise development and sustainable
community development. For example:
- £4.6m through the Masisizane Fund including micro-finance
- £2.7m spent through the five Old Mutual Foundations.
Responsible Business is central to our corporate strategy
Being a responsible business lies at the heart of building
trust, an issue that has become ever more important for any
financial services company since the recent financial crisis. In
order to obtain their trust, our stakeholders must believe that we
are taking our responsibilities as a business seriously, and are
actively managing the most important issues we face from a social,
environmental and ethical perspective. Our approach to responsible
business is therefore a vital enabler of our corporate vision of
becoming our customers' most trusted partner.
Developing our approach in 2010
During 2010, we have laid the foundations for the future of
responsible business at Old Mutual.
We conducted research with our stakeholders, who included:
- customers
- shareholders
- employees
- industry experts
- non-governmental organisations
- corporate responsibility experts
- the media.
We used this research to identify and explore which issues our
stakeholders felt were most important for a financial services
company to address. And we have used the findings of this research
to develop a group-wide approach to responsible business. We will
roll this out in 2011 to ensure that we are addressing these
priority issues in a systematic, structured and strategic way. The
diagram showing our approach to responsible business shows the nine
'material issue' areas, identified in our stakeholder research,
which we discuss in the following sections. We believe this
approach leaves us well placed to build on the progress made by
individual business units in recent years and to ensure we all work
together to deliver responsible business consistently across all
our operations in the future.
Metrics and more
We want to be accountable when it comes to responsible business.
So we are working to develop a series of key metrics and
performance indicators. We believe it is vital to have these
quantifiable markers of our approach, but we also believe that
responsible business is much more than this. It is how all of our
employees approach every decision they make on a day-to-day basis.
It is the way we communicate with our customers. The way we ensure
that we understand them and their needs. And how we make sure they
understand what we are doing and why we are doing it.
Looking forward
In the following pages we set out details of the progress we
have made on each of these issues. We also set out our plans for
the future and outline the key initiatives planned for 2011. Our
goal is to be able to report back, a year from now, on all that has
been achieved. And for this ongoing activity to begin to come
together to tell a bigger story about us as a business, and our
progress towards building people's trust in us to help them achieve
their lifetime financial goals.
Don Schneider
Group Human Resources Director
