We talk about doing business with sustainability in mind and how looking to the future means, at the same time, working on the harmony of its three main factors – the environment, the economy and society – and inspiring people through an environment that encourages talent and quality of life.
Francesco Malaguti:
Professor Zamagni, thank you for being here with us and for devoting this time to Camst, a cooperative that you know very well, that you have studied, and about which you even helped write a book. Next year Camst turns 80: 80 years of history of a cooperative that started with 16 people and has been able to stay on the market over time, so able to evolve, to change and to do what was necessary to be chosen every day by clients, in an increasingly complicated market that is, shall we say, increasingly stingy with added value. I’ll ask you a very direct question. In your view, what are the challenges for businesses when it comes to sustainability?
Stefano Zamagni:
Thank you, thank you for the invitation, which I was happy to accept. The word sustainability is old: it was coined in 1713 by a German scholar called von Carlowitz, so it is not true
what many people say, that sustainability is an issue of our own times. When we talk about sustainability we must always remember that it has three dimensions: environmental sustainability, which everyone understands; economic sustainability; and social sustainability. So where is the problem? These three dimensions of sustainability give rise to what is called the fundamental political trilemma. Why? Because to this day there is no credible proposal for keeping the three dimensions in harmony. The cooperative form of enterprise is the one best placed to resolve the trilemma, because the cooperative has both the social and the economic dimension in its DNA. So for a cooperative there is no trilemma, there is a dilemma: the economic and social dimensions must be reconciled with the environmental one. That is why today successful cooperatives – and of course those of a certain size, like Camst – manage to do things that so-called capitalist companies cannot.
Francesco Malaguti:
It is central that businesses today truly have a responsibility, one that cooperatives have always felt on their shoulders, but which has now become a concern for everyone. Let’s say that since the UN Global Goals came out in 2015, all companies have started doing interesting projects on those 17 themes. But cooperation has to do something more, because people’s sense of belonging within the cooperative
was central for years, because there was this need for work, the need to feel part of an important community like the cooperative was. But this sense of belonging has
changed, it is changing. A challenge we see as very important is building this relationship of trust between the company, which is central to people’s lives, and the people themselves. So, in a non-speculative way, finding new ways for young people, who have a different mindset from those who joined the cooperative after the war, to feel fulfilled within a company – in this case a cooperative. What do you think?
Stefano Zamagni:
This is the issue of issues. Today we need to devote more attention, and therefore more resources, to the motivational dimension. Today a cooperative does not only pursue the entirely legitimate goal of creating jobs and generating added value – things we all know, which are perfectly legitimate and must be done – but it has two additional tasks. The first is to create civil friendship: establishing relationships of trust means reweaving or re-establishing the threads that, for one reason or another, have been cut or have worn thin. In companies where the Aristotelian principle of civil friendship is put into practice, productivity and efficiency also increase. The other component that helps to revive the motivational dimension is democracy. I don’t just produce this or that, generate that income or that added value: I contribute to strengthening democracy in my country. And this is a very powerful force that young people in particular feel.
Francesco Malaguti:
We asked our people, because by now everything has changed – the market has changed, everything has changed, including how people think about the company. We carried out a workplace climate survey and they asked us for more communication, more transparency, and to be involved in new ways. So we created an app called “People”, with which we constantly communicate what we are doing – the positive things but also the less positive ones. We did something more: since the board of directors is made up of employees, not managers, who truly represent the local areas, we created a new category of roles we called “ambassadors”, who go around talking, telling, explaining and listening, and bring people’s concerns, needs and requests to the company. At the same time they spread a bit of culture, a bit of business culture, in the sense that sometimes the distance between us is too great and people quickly jump to conclusions. Fortunately, many young people have also joined, and we are trying to explain to them, and ask them too, what the company means.
Stefano Zamagni:
Human beings need to work, because through work they express their life potential and achieve their human flourishing. This dimension corresponds to the
concept of decent work. What is the point? The concept of fair work is now accepted – it isn’t always applied in practice, but today it is hard to find anyone who says work doesn’t have to be fair; then it isn’t done, but that is another matter. Yet nobody ever talks about decent work, and decent work is work that completes people’s life plans. So if a company organises its production process in such a way that this happens, it achieves exactly that completeness of the life plan, and
then people become passionate, there is no need to preach, because they see that the place where they spend two thirds of their adult lives is, as they say, a place that brings happiness. That is why, at this moment in history, the cooperative has a further mission in addition to what I said before: to show that it is possible to operate in a market economy, in a phase called globalisation and financialisation of the economy, without betraying the company’s own vocation.
Francesco Malaguti:
Professor, thank you for your time and for your insights. We invite you next year to Camst’s 80th anniversary celebrations, so I will be in touch very soon.
Stefano Zamagni:
Thank you. Thank you, and all the very best for your work in every sense.
