SPEAKING OUT
Ignacio R. Bunye
The recently concluded 4th Ayala Integrated Corporate Governance, Risk Management and Sustainability Summit focused on “Mindset Shifts for a Sustainable and Equitable Future.”
Attended by almost 600 directors, managers and employees across the Ayala group, the virtual summit was also attended by observers from the Securities and Exchange Commission and the Institute of Corporate Director.
The participants heard from Speakers Gail Whiteman, executive director , Climate Basecamp; Rajeev Peshawaria, CEO, Stewardship Asia Center; Lois Guthrie, senior technical advisor, IFRS Foundation; and Mayor Alfredo Coro II, mayor, Municipality of Del Carmen, Siargao Group of Islands.
The participants also drew additional insights from Ayala Chairman Jaime Augusto Zobel de Ayala, (who gave the opening remarks), Ayala President and CEO Cezar P. Consing, Solomon N. Hermosura, corporate secretary, chief legal officer, and compliance officer; Alberto M. de Larrazabal, CFO, chief risk officer and chief sustainability officer; Francisco Romero Milan, Strategic adviser for Human Resources; Chua Sock Koong, Ayala director; Riza Mantaring, Ayala and ALI director and Jaime Urquijo, BPI and ACEX director, who moderated the Q&A sessions.
Key takeaways from the half-day summit:
“Our sustainability journey requires a transformation of culture, of systems, and processes, and demands courageous imagination and active participation from all of us. I hope that we can all do work together in ensuring that these important mindset shifts take place and lead to a sustainable and equitable future – for our sake and for the sake of future generations.” – Jaime Augusto Zobel de Ayala “We are a 200-year old company, we’re the oldest business house in the Philippines. We have the advantage of having an ownership group that’s very enlightened with a very, very long term view.” – Cezar P. Consing
“There are testaments that Ayala’s mindset has shifted and is continually shifting for a sustainable and equitable future (…) But we are never contented. We will not stop making sure we have the right mindset and we are doing our part in ushering the new era of corporate social responsibility.” – Solomon M. Hermosura
“This laid out the many ongoing challenges that we all face as we craft our ESG agenda moving forward. (…) As a backdrop, recent years have exposed the inherent shortcomings in the global economic progress that we all have experienced in the last decade. The inequitable distribution of economic gains that has led to so much social dissatisfaction, the disregard of our environment in our relentless pursuit of economic gain, the fragile geopolitical foundations that have underpinned global economic prosperity, to name a few.” – Alberto M. De Larrazabal
“Internally in Ayala, we are having exactly the same discussion. Now that we have a very clear strategy on how to tackle “E” (environment) and how to move forward, how do we make sure that we don’t forget the “S” (social) and that we continue working on the “G” (governance)? – Francisco Romero Milan
On whether there is an argument for company boards to address initiatives at reducing vulnerability in society , instead of focusing on simply reducing carbon emissions. “I think that’s a great strategic question There might even be a third strategy that is somewhere in between the two. Clearly, everybody has to reduce emissions (…) At the same time, you need to have a resilient system that you operate in. The idea of saying, “Where can we build resilience into the societies in which we operate” is an important one.” Gail Whiteman
“There are companies that actually create rewards and compensation systems that measure behavior against purpose and values – and pay and promote based on that. No system of human performance measurement is perfect, and yet, you have to find the least perfect of them all in which you can measure each employee’s behavior according to stated values and contribution to purpose and find a way to link that. There are many ways to do that.” Rajeevv Peshawaria
On the absence of specific industry metrics for measuring performance. “This is a point that has come up and I think it’s something that we’ll have to develop. We’d be very interested in hearing from Ayala on how this has been approached by you and what you like to see in terms of guidance to consolidating these.” Lois Guthrie
On the most important lessons that we should take from the experience of the Municipality o Del Carmen, Siargao. “Behaviors. (Del Carmenons) have to constantly and consistently appreciate and recognize the impact of the programs that we are doing in their lives, family and community. The challenges keep changing every day, and thus the leadership of Del Carmen – that includes me and everybody else – would also need to be adaptive in responding to the issues.” Mayor Alfredo Coro II