Peter Hellmonds: CSR and the triple bottom line

First of all, Peter, can you tell us about the role you play at Nokia Siemens Networks? What sort of people do you work with internally and externally?

With my team of two and our Corporate Affairs colleagues in several countries, we communicate our company’s position with respect to CSR to stakeholders inside and outside of the company.

Let me remind you: we are a young company, but the Nokia/Siemens heritage runs deep. Since the merger, my team and I have identified the best practices shared by both of our parent companies, and as a starting point, these similarities, these shared best practices, represent our heritage. Our approach has been not to break completely with the past, but to create our own new identity from the best aspects of our lineage, with our specific focus as an infrastructure supplier in the ICT sector.

Much of what my team has been doing since the merger is to communicate to the various stakeholders how this new company is different from its parent companies and how it is similar. One difference is our audience – both Nokia and Siemens are perceived to be consumer brands, and this new company, Nokia Siemens Networks, focuses primarily on large corporate customers in communications. This is one difference, but not the only one.

Having a different audience affects the way we formulate our CSR approach. When Nokia does something good for the community, then a consumer might say, “That was a kind gesture. Next time I buy a phone I will consider a Nokia.” But if this new company, Nokia Siemens Networks, does something good then consumers will probably not go out and purchase a new base station.

A good CSR policy should always have a positive effect on the company’s bottom line. Otherwise, in my opinion, it should be changed. Let me explain what I mean by that.

The above could be interpreted to imply that the opinions of the average consumer would not matter to us. While it may be true that we do not sell any additional base station or network management solution to a consumer, the communities in which we work and live are very important to us, and through our customers, the consumer really does matter most of all; if a company such as ours does not have its house in order, the punishment (again from our customers) would be swift and severe. With this in mind, another one of my preoccupations during these first two years of Nokia Siemens Networks has been to ensure that we have a system in place that helps us keep track of our ethical, environmental, and socially responsible management. I am not responsible for putting the system in place, but to make sure that the people who are responsible for it know about it and talk about it, both at the corporate level and in the factories.

This work has been very important in reducing the risk to our reputation, and it’s also something that our customers value very highly. People within our organization now understand that good CSR can help a company’s bottom line, even if that company focuses primarily on B2B. It’s another tool we can use to help us become the first-choice supplier for our customers.

Last year, for instance, we were selected Outstanding Performer of the Year by Vodafone, and they judged us in seven categories. One of these was CSR, and our score in CSR helped raise our overall score. This is tangible evidence that CSR matters to our customers, and can benefit our bottom line with the world’s largest operator.

But any company hoping to do this must first get its house in order, then do good things, and then talk about it. Not the other way around, because that strategy could prove disastrous for the company’s credibility.

There is a phrase that people use these days – triple bottom line. Can you tell us about your vision for Nokia Siemens Networks and the opportunities that CSR has to improve its triple bottom line?

Let me first tell you what the phrase triple bottom line is currently understood to mean. Everyone understands what you mean by the financial bottom line. You have to make a profit, pay taxes, and so on. Now, with global warming in particular raising environmental awareness, companies are trying to improve energy efficiency as well, and it turns out this is not only good for the environment but good for business. So, for instance, our Flexi base stations save energy (money) and reduce a network’s carbon footprint so that’s a double bottom line for our customers. The third bottom line has a social dimension to it: you need to respect the laws, pay employees well, give them a safe working environment and ensure a good work-life balance. Providing all of these things makes you an employer of choice.

Additionally, with respect to the social dimension, companies like ours can work with our customers on community programs – we have done this in India, for instance, with one of our customers to improve the quality of life for a group of school children. This is another way to improve the social bottom line.

The point is, if you simply focus on the price, in monetary terms, on delivery time, specifications and features of your products and services, that’s just one kind of dialogue, but there are other issues as well, things that our customers care about, we can increase our customer relationship by working together for such social causes.

With respect to connectivity and the social impact of connectivity – which as you know is enormous – sometimes I think our customers don’t quite realize the financial opportunities in targeting low-income, rural populations because they need to re-think their business models. They understand the benefit to society of connectivity, but can’t identify the financial benefit; incentivizing local entrepreneurs to help generate sales is one thing they can do to generate income from rural connectivity.

 Can you tell us about how your company works with government regulators and NGOs to improve connectivity?

Peter Hellmonds

Peter is Head of CSR at Nokia Siemens Networks.

Prior to this, he was Vice President of Public and International Affairs at Siemens Communications, part of Siemens AG in Munich. In 1977, Peter began his first career as an apprentice and sales manager in the electricity generation sector. After eight years in business, he went on to study international relations at renowned diplomacy schools.

Peter is a graduate of the School of Foreign Service at Georgetown University, and holds advanced degrees from both the School of Advanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University and the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs at Princeton University. After that, he joined the World Bank in 1992 as a consultant in ICT Policy and Strategy, and moved back to the private sector in 1994.