Covid has made it necessary to resort, suddenly and exponentially, to teleworking. In some countries, primarily the United States, there will be no turning back: if until 2020 at the center of job interviews there was the balance between office and private life, between face-to-face and remote tasks, today these “mixed ”Are taken for granted. Interest has shifted elsewhere. «The most frequent and pressing questions asked by candidates concern ESG policies – explains Maurizio Dallocchio, professor of Corporate Finance at Bocconi and of post graduate courses at the university’s SDA school -. I believe that sometimes young people who have just graduated or mastered have even clearer ideas and visions on these issues than some business leaders, in all sectors, including fashion and luxury, if only for a generational question. They are willing to offer their curriculum, talent and passion only to those who have a holistic vision, we could say, of the role of the economy and finance in society and in the world ».
“A challenge that requires technical tools, imagination and creativity”
Esg stands for environment, social e governance , an acronym that has a broader meaning than “simple” social and environmental sustainability and has been used long before we started talking about attention to the environment and people. Instead of waiting for aspiring collaborators to come to the interviews determined to have exhaustive answers on ESG issues, Kering has decided to take the lead: the French luxury group – second in the world only to LVMH – has chosen Bocconi to launch its challenge ( challenge) to students of two SDA courses and a master of science. “It is a challenge that requires technical tools, such as those provided by Bocconi, and imagination and creativity – underlines Marie-Claire Daveu, Kering chief sustainability officer and institutional affairs -. We ask the students to understand what the impact of ESG performance is on the share price and on the valuation of the company, with a focus on our sector, the high range ». In times of artificial intelligence it is even more important to combine the visionary ability of people with data analysis (big or small, we could say).
Investors’ interest in sustainability measurement tools is growing
«The project stems from the awareness of Kering and Bocconi that the ESG-equity performance issue is increasingly important – agree Daveu and Dallocchio -. Investors are asking for increasingly sophisticated instruments and ad hoc stock market indices, which really tell the story of a company’s ESG policies. But numbers always tell only part of the story, so we challenge students to find new ways to explain and evaluate sustainability and governance “.
The Kering Challenge has just started and the participation of the students – who will form small working groups that will be assigned a specific theme – was on a voluntary basis. “We hoped that the initiative was well received, but the requests far exceeded expectations,” says Marie-Claire Daveu. Collaborations with the London College of fashion, the Institut Français de la mode and l’Hec, the Paris School of management had had similar success. “The opening of the partnership with Bocconi to students of the master of science is very interesting – adds Daveu -, because every training course, from financial to scientific ones, can make ideas blossom”.
Kering’s commitment
The challenge of saving our planet and building fairer societies affects us all, as people, companies and countries. In Kering, awareness is so rooted and coherent because it comes from the top, concludes Daveu: “CEO François-Henri Pinault is the first to be deeply convinced of the importance of placing sustainable development at the center of our strategy, not only for ethical purposes. , but because it is extremely logical from a business point of view. The same goes for issues such as diversity and inclusion, working conditions with our suppliers and governance. “