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Codes, clubs and disclosures – Richemont’s sustainability journey — Transcript

by Deloitte Switzerland · 6,215 words · 1,156 segments · language en · Watch on YouTube

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0:00[Music]
0:06welcome thank you for joining us today
0:09can you just to start off tell me your
0:12name and your role
0:14well thank you so thanks for letting me
0:17uh take part in such an important
0:19interview i'm matthew kilgariff
0:22and i work at the richmond group it's
0:24the swiss listed luxury goods group
0:26my role there i'm the corporate social
0:29responsibility director
0:32and since when have you been in this
0:33role
0:34in this role
0:36four years
0:37and with rishman more than 20 years okay
0:40and what in your
0:42professional history prepared you for
0:45this role
0:46a very good question
0:49i'll go back to why i joined rishman
0:52more than 20 years ago
0:54i was a finance professional
0:57and i was looking for
0:58a
1:00a safe place to be in switzerland i had
1:02a swiss girlfriend
1:04ten years later i was asked to take a
1:06new role
1:07secretary general so i retrained
1:1210 years after that i was asked to take
1:14the sustainability agenda full-time it
1:17had been my hobby job
1:19and i retrained again
1:21so you asked me how did i prepare for
1:24this
1:25i think
1:26to take a professional approach to each
1:28challenge and to retrain get a
1:31qualification and then use it to
1:34give myself the the competence and the
1:36confidence to do a good job for such a
1:39large company
1:41and why did you decide to take on this
1:43role what about sustainability interests
1:46you
1:47strange question what
1:49what doesn't interest me about
1:51sustainability
1:52so i live on planet earth
1:55for a while now and i see i see things
1:58getting better in some regards and
2:00getting worse in other regards so i'm
2:02interested to
2:04understand why is that and what can i do
2:06with my small role in a small sector
2:09what can i do
2:10to accentuate the positive
2:14i think four years ago though
2:16a sustainability role wasn't very common
2:19so what specifically why did richmond
2:23decide that they wanted to have somebody
2:26focused on sustainability
2:28it's a really good question i i was
2:29concerned that a job that i managed to
2:32do on fridays was suddenly my monday to
2:34friday roll
2:36and i was asked by the board to do that
2:39and i thought is this foresight on the
2:41part of the board
2:43are they seeing the future more clearly
2:45than me
2:46or have they just seen enough of me at
2:48the boardroom table is it time to have a
2:50new face
2:52and some younger blood and it may be
2:53both of those
2:55so i said fine i'm looking forward to
2:56this
2:58but my first
3:00my first action will be to find a course
3:03to skill to bring me the skills that i
3:06already had in my previous roles
3:08as as a chartered accountant and as a
3:11chartered secretary
3:13so you started
3:14sustainability as a hobby job
3:17on a friday
3:18so what
3:20what pushed you to do that so what was
3:22your hobby on a friday related to
3:24sustainability uh
3:26i've structured
3:29richmond sustainability work around
3:32codes clubs and disclosures
3:35and the codes could be
3:38environmental code or travel code or
3:41human rights code the clubs are pushing
3:44richmond to become a member of clubs
3:48like global compact
3:50or clubs like the responsible jewellery
3:52council which is a certification scheme
3:54and there are many other clubs which are
3:56sometimes
3:57specific to a country or a particular
3:59material
4:00and because of my own professional
4:02background
4:03i have a very strong belief in
4:05certification
4:07being a member of a club is one thing
4:09but if you if you really have to work
4:11hard to stay a member of that club
4:13then
4:15then you really commit and you have
4:16third party audits and so on so i really
4:19believe in that work because that's my
4:20own professional
4:22my own professional career has been
4:23around that that kind of
4:26strict understanding of
4:28the meaning of words the meaning of
4:30systems the meaning of numbers
4:33you mentioned the un global compact why
4:36did you decide that richmond should
4:38partner with uh global compact
4:41i i looked at different clubs and global
4:44compact struck me as the
4:47the right one for an international
4:50or a multinational company to be in
4:52because it was the only
4:54the only club that
4:56had uh that was born across all
4:59territories of the world
5:01and had a relatively neutral approach so
5:05a watchmaker
5:06or a farmer or a pharmaceutical company
5:10could all join on equal terms
5:13and share many of the common problems
5:15uh my supply chain is not just watch
5:17components
5:19it's food and water and and colleges
5:22where people learn how to do things
5:24and paper and
5:26to have a
5:28an
5:29a too segregated
5:31club membership
5:33would
5:34would be fine for for industry topics
5:37but not fine for the whole of the
5:38company
5:39and i thought united nations global
5:41compact would provide that common ground
5:44for
5:45us to join forces with others
5:47so i serve on the on the board of the
5:50global compact in switzerland with
5:52credit suisse
5:53with nestle and with some smaller
5:56companies in the chemicals or or other
5:58industries as well
6:00and that that's a neutral platform where
6:02we share
6:03we share the same goals and that's the
6:05same story globally so richmond in the
6:08uk is participating with global compact
6:10uk
6:11and in france with global compact in
6:13france and in china and so on
6:18in terms of partnerships so
6:20clubs as you said are belonging to these
6:23you know associations that allow
6:26companies to come together on equal
6:27footing
6:28now
6:30why are partnerships important to
6:33further the sustainability agenda
6:36the essence of partnerships and partners
6:39are
6:40if you can do something on your own you
6:41don't really need a partner if you
6:43understand
6:45if you understand really what you're
6:46trying to do needs external
6:49long-term relations
6:51then you partner
6:52and a real partner is someone long after
6:55the project has finished and the need
6:56for that partner
6:58has ended you continue being partners
7:01so that's the sort of partnerships that
7:03that i like
7:05and global compact again is that kind of
7:08partnership
7:09it is not it's not good for a year or
7:12two years it should be good for
7:16forever
7:17really
7:18as long as there's rishman
7:20um richmond's about 30 years old global
7:23compact is about 20 years old and we've
7:25been together for nearly 10 years okay
7:28and i hope long after i've
7:30stepped down
7:32the partnership will continue because
7:33it's it's not about me
7:35it's about the partnership
7:38moving back to your role so what do you
7:40do in your day-to-day as head of
7:43sustainability at richmond
7:45well i mentioned i think
7:47codes clubs and disclosure yes that's my
7:50that's my frame for understanding
7:52what i do and what i can achieve
7:55so i develop codes and policy that are
7:57used across the whole of the group
7:59and richmond includes big
8:02big houses like cartier
8:04or or the netapote
8:07e-commerce business and then smaller
8:09businesses like jejello
8:11my my my the watch i'm wearing today
8:16and many others so i i establish codes
8:19and codes of conduct that will
8:22promote responsible business practices
8:25i encourage the companies to use the
8:27clubs that matter most to them
8:31and then i bring that together in in
8:33disclosures so
8:35reporting to all my stakeholders at
8:37least once per year
8:39on what progress we're making and those
8:41disclosures can be
8:43progress against richmond's own
8:45local targets that are specific to us
8:48for example setting science-based
8:50targets for decarbonisation
8:53or more generic topics that
8:56investors like to like to read about
8:59like what is our what is our mix by age
9:02or by gender or other dimensions
9:04which are also important to us but we we
9:07find it's
9:08it's demanded of us to also report
9:11on those standard topics so what i'm
9:14disclosing is what do we do as a group
9:18and those down those two channels the
9:19generic
9:21and then the specific and on the
9:22specific we talk about our own
9:24targets who's responsible for what what
9:27progress have we made
9:29in our in our transformational plan we
9:31have a five-year
9:32transformational plan
9:35this is part of my code work and
9:37disclosure work is establishing the
9:39governance within this big corporation
9:41with 35 000
9:43employees
9:44having
9:45a light touch system that will enable me
9:48to identify progress and problems and
9:52solutions
9:54and
9:54what does that look like after five
9:56years
9:58you mean at the end of exactly at the
10:00end of the five years everyone talks
10:01about 2030 but now you've given yourself
10:04five years so when did that five years
10:07start and where do you hope to be in
10:09five years so it started around january
10:122020 okay
10:14with uh
10:16an approved document a whole whole way
10:18ahead we called it our movement for
10:21better luxury
10:23that was a play around the word movement
10:25because watches have a watch movement
10:27inside and many people still think of
10:29richmond as a watch business it's much
10:32more than that it's watches and jewelry
10:34and and many other things
10:36but people still think of richmond as
10:38watches especially here in switzerland
10:41uh
10:43so the movement for better luxury we
10:44called it better luxury because we
10:46weren't ready yet in our own minds to
10:48call it sustainable luxury that's that's
10:51further down the road that's
10:55positive positive impacts that sort of
10:57thing what we wanted to get to by 2025
11:01was something where we could say yep
11:02this is better luxury this is better for
11:04everyone involved employees
11:07customers supply chain partners
11:10better across the board so movement for
11:12better luxury
11:14by 2025
11:16i hope we can do one of those uh before
11:18and after pictures that you see when um
11:21i don't know uh
11:23someone someone started with a body they
11:25weren't really that pleased with but it
11:27was okay it seemed to work and then
11:28after there we are this is the okay the
11:31the body that they really wanted
11:33maybe not taller but certainly a happier
11:36body and a better luxury that's that's
11:38where we're going to go so exactly what
11:40it looked like
11:41will be revealed in the same way that a
11:44fitness program or a diet change will
11:46show
11:46will show in
11:49the radiance really of the radiance of
11:51the face the person knows they've got
11:53where what they've achieved their goals
11:55and we have
11:57kpis for each of our each of our
11:59commitments
12:00clear clear
12:02lists projects who owns it what's the
12:04target what's the measurement and that's
12:06part of the governance that i've brought
12:09using my old professions
12:11finance and governance i brought that to
12:14sustainability at rishman i'm not from
12:16marketing and i'm not from human
12:18resources
12:20i'm from finance and governance and
12:22those are the tools that i bring to my
12:25leading my leading role at ritual
12:28i think that that's really important
12:29because you know esg often times has an
12:32image problem and you know one of the
12:35one of the issues is that you know
12:36people have these lofty goals that they
12:39want to achieve and these lofty things
12:41that they say but they don't really
12:42quantify
12:44you know the the progress that they're
12:45making so your finance role in this
12:48whole aspect of kpis and quantification
12:51i think that will uh
12:52that will serve you quite well i i've
12:54not had many conversations about cost
12:57but i think it's going to come
13:00when i was preparing the
13:03the science-based targets
13:05process
13:06for
13:07rishman
13:08and persuading people to sign up to the
13:10group commitments so that we would have
13:12a
13:13holistic commitment for the whole group
13:16i used cost as a as a warning signal
13:20okay i said
13:21i suspect within a few years this is
13:24well before glasgow i suspect there will
13:26be a global tax on carbon
13:29and i suspect it will not be a couple of
13:32bucks it will be
13:33more than that and so there is a
13:36a predictable cost if we do nothing and
13:39our footprint doesn't change
13:42using our footprint and the price
13:44per ton of what i what i anticipate will
13:47come because it's already being used
13:49by many other companies
13:51the cost will be
13:53big
13:54so let's do something about that now so
13:56that we don't have the big cost right we
13:59can feel better about it this sort of
14:01radiant before and after as well yeah
14:03but here's the cost what i haven't done
14:05yet is to start pricing and doing
14:08discounted cash flows for some of the
14:10other
14:11right things that we want to achieve
14:13what will be the cost of the investment
14:15what is the opportunity cost and so on
14:18this is to come because it's coming
14:20because a lot of companies still frame
14:22you know
14:23the sustainability journey as as a cost
14:26as opposed to an opportunity oh it's
14:28definitely an opportunity okay and and
14:30and richmond as a as a wealthy
14:32business
14:34you know it's a high margin business
14:37we we have the resources to do this
14:40and the the products that we make as
14:42luxury goods makers
14:44by by definition they are not necessary
14:47they are not food or water or shelter
14:50they are luxury they are the highest
14:52aspirational things
14:54beautiful jewelry
14:55uh beautiful watches beautiful clothes
14:58and we try to make things which are as
15:00timeless
15:01as possible
15:02but you know if there was a problem
15:04tomorrow and people stopped buying no
15:05one would weep for luxury except the
15:08luxury industry we would miss it we know
15:10it's going to come back because it's
15:12human nature
15:13but
15:14we as as an industry we need to be
15:16exemplary because no one really needs us
15:20people need to shelter they need those
15:22other things they don't need
15:24very high-end jewelry they don't need
15:28exquisite watches
15:29they want it but they don't need it
15:33so i guess that would that would
15:35make me question you know if it's
15:37something that is not needed
15:40why does why does richmond even even
15:42care to go down the sustainability route
15:44you know it's something that they don't
15:46necessarily as you said people don't
15:48necessarily need luxury goods so
15:51why
15:52why would you hold yourself to that
15:54standard
15:55i have three
15:57three stakeholder groups that all
15:59expect us to do it
16:02uh investors and there's a generational
16:04change taking place amongst our investor
16:06base
16:07as as as children inherit the
16:10investments of their parents and start
16:12to challenge
16:13what did mum and dad buy what did grand
16:15grandma and grandma buy and if that's my
16:17inheritance do i want to keep
16:20this or do i want to change it
16:22so we have an investor stakeholder group
16:25and i'll come back to that we have our
16:27own colleagues 35 000 colleagues
16:30who want to be proud of what they're
16:31doing and not feeling a little awkward
16:33and there's a few industries who are not
16:37feeling good about what they do
16:40and then our customers of course
16:42our customers
16:43historically have just expected us to do
16:45the right thing
16:47and there was a
16:48a quiet agreement they expect us to do
16:51it and we quietly do it but they don't
16:53ask and we don't tell we just did it
16:55with certification
16:57uh
16:58always trying to find the green a gold
17:00option that sort of thing
17:02but if i come back to the investor topic
17:04we have a controlling shareholder at
17:06rishma
17:08with
17:08more than 50 percent of the vote
17:11and and his family
17:13have been involved in the world wildlife
17:15fund from day zero and continue to be
17:19involved in those things
17:22they've they have a diversified
17:24portfolio richmond is part of it
17:27and
17:29if we can get the next 50 years right as
17:32well then richmond will have a good
17:34future
17:35so being family controlled but publicly
17:38listed gives us all the advantages and
17:39disadvantages you can think of mandatory
17:42disclosure on the one side
17:44and patient capital
17:46on the inside
17:48that enables us to really think slow
17:52and take
17:54the
17:54um the capital allocation decisions
17:57which will
17:58put us in the right place for the future
18:01for those shareholders the patient
18:02shareholders the family controller
18:05controlled shareholders
18:06rather than the day traders
18:08today traders probably aren't so
18:10interested in sustainability
18:13i would be surprised it's a it's a
18:15discussion around horizons our horizons
18:17are in the sort of 5 25 50-year horizon
18:21a day trader i think is shorter
18:2424 hours perhaps yes
18:27you just spoke about the future are you
18:29optimistic about the future
18:31i am okay i am especially after
18:34after the glasgow uh outcomes okay um
18:38we've seen a number of these cop
18:40meetings some some have been
18:42ecstatically happy like the paris
18:43agreement
18:45uh and some have been
18:47disappointing
18:48to to use diplomatic languages
18:51uh but the
18:53the glasgow meeting for me was a good
18:54result there was
18:57plenty of good things came out of it
18:59compromises were found
19:01solutions were explored and the the
19:04whole ratchet
19:06system that was
19:08embedded in the paris agreement
19:10seems to be working so i'm not i'm not
19:13worried
19:14about carbon
19:16this is a man-made problem
19:18man-made solutions
19:19not that difficult counting counting
19:22atoms we're quite good at that
19:24not difficult
19:25nature is next
19:27more difficult kunming that's going on
19:31but i'm overall positive about the
19:33future
19:34humans have
19:36understood
19:37the the pickle
19:39they put themselves in and exactly how
19:41to get out of that pickle can't be too
19:44difficult
19:46okay
19:47so we we know the water is
19:49mixing metaphors now but we know the
19:51water is hot
19:52it's time to either get out of the water
19:54or change the temperature of the water
19:56okay we're going to change the
19:57temperature of the water okay so you
19:59were optimistic after cops so what do
20:01you think is needed for boulder progress
20:07even bolder uh
20:09well so cop cop resulted in
20:12and pledges and declarations and things
20:15like that so what is needed to take
20:17those words into action
20:21it's transition finance
20:24if today your energy structure
20:26infrastructure is based on
20:29black or brown
20:30input
20:32to move that from black and brown to
20:33green or blue
20:35that's a transition there's a cost who
20:37pays
20:38these aren't really difficult questions
20:40they're timing questions
20:42we know what the end we know what the
20:43end result looks like the arguments have
20:45been around dates
20:47which decade will it be finished country
20:49by country
20:50i'm quite positive everyone's agreed now
20:53on the problem they've agreed on the
20:54solutions
20:58if we don't put our money there then
21:00goodness me what do
21:01what what better place could there be
21:04for our money than a safe future
21:07you know it's like
21:08fire insurance
21:10for your home
21:11you never want to make a claim
21:13you you're happy to pay every year for
21:15the fire insurance you never want to
21:17make a fire claim
21:19and so that's that's really where the
21:20world is is is going we want we have to
21:22pay a little more insurance
21:24and not burn the house down okay
21:26so you are optimistic about 2030 do you
21:29think 2030 is achievable i do okay i do
21:33i'm wearing today the the sdg pin
21:38i'm optimistic
21:40uh when i see the
21:44the changes in the world not just the
21:45negative things we read about in the
21:47news but the the long list of positive
21:49things uh in asia especially in latin
21:52america
21:53the reduction in poverty living
21:55standards education health it's all very
21:58very positive
21:59africa is more much more mixed and
22:02disappointing but that can be
22:04uh there's many reasons for it but for
22:06most of the world india china the uh the
22:10the progress made over the last decade
22:12has been stunning
22:14it's come at a price for nature and some
22:17other
22:18um
22:19geochemical pathways but
22:22these these are these are
22:25mechanical problems
22:26they are
22:27about which fertilizer do you use and
22:29how
22:30well you can change you can change this
22:33which kind of energy do you use and how
22:35these can be adapted and adjusted there
22:37are transitions
22:39we know the time scales and we know most
22:42of the how the only the only part of all
22:44of this that's blurry for most of the
22:45world is
22:47uh direct air capture of carbon that
22:50seems to be the only part where there's
22:52not yet much consensus
22:56but i'm seeing the world moving now to
22:58serious discussions again about nuclear
23:00rolling out a nuclear
23:02fleet for energy
23:04after after the accidents of the past
23:06which is frozen capital
23:08now capital is coming back to that
23:10that's that blue green
23:12energy story
23:14all of this is a long way away from
23:15watchmaking of course or jewelry making
23:18we have wondered we have wonder but i'm
23:20very positive about the 2013 uh horizon
23:23because
23:25these are the the goals
23:27the world has set together
23:29uh they
23:31they the 2030 will come and will go
23:34something else will take its place
23:36but i'm positive about where we will be
23:38the the rate of change in the last
23:41decade as i say has been
23:43phenomenal
23:44and there's a consensus to to bring
23:46those benefits to an even wider
23:48population but to do it in a
23:51less intrusive way
23:53to to work
23:54on co-existing with nature rather than
23:56fighting nature
23:59and what role does richmond play in that
24:02or what role does richmond see itself
24:05playing in this
24:07we have
24:09a number of roles to play at an industry
24:12level
24:14i'm leading a sdg
24:17task force
24:19that's
24:20as an industry level we have the
24:21responsible jewelry council with 1
24:25600 corporate members
24:28dedicated to certifying their
24:31their practices and the supply chain of
24:33gold diamonds and other precious
24:35materials that go into our products
24:37and i'm leading the task force dedicated
24:41to turning that industry
24:43firepower
24:45into something that's good for the sdgs
24:48and good for environment social and
24:50governance so we're working on that now
24:52we're about one year into that project
24:55we uh interestingly we're being advised
24:58by georg kell who set up the global
25:01compact 20 years ago he also set up the
25:04principles for responsible investment
25:07and many other things
25:08so he's he's one of the uh
25:11a living treasure for sustainability and
25:14he's been kind enough to be
25:15the advisor for this this cross-industry
25:19group
25:20and then of course global compact is
25:21much broader
25:23richmond can play a useful role
25:26in in that i i go and talk to whole
25:29trade associations in switzerland and
25:31say would you like to partner with us
25:33to bring your members
25:35onto the same path as global compact
25:37which is aligning corporate goals with
25:40the united nations and the united
25:42nations has the sdgs
25:46how
25:47has how is the industry so fashion
25:50luxury watchmaking so how are they
25:52contributing to
25:54a more sustainable society
25:57i look at that in two ways we have a
26:01changing our
26:03operating model and changing our
26:05business
26:06model
26:08the operating model can focus on which
26:10materials do we buy to make our our
26:13things
26:14what sort of buildings what sort of
26:16logistics
26:17this is quite a granular approach to say
26:21if we're not comfortable with let's say
26:24logistics we're not comfortable with
26:25sending things by plane
26:27what do we need to change to send things
26:29by ship instead so
26:32catalogues for example
26:34so we can we can work on the
26:36operating model one topic at a time
26:40looking at the
26:41the environmental and social
26:43um portrait of each
26:46of each part of our business and then
26:48select the companies who who who we
26:52consider to use best practice because
26:54they're certified
26:55so that's on the on the operating model
26:58and we can try our best to be exemplary
27:01in that
27:03and we have lots of tools for that at a
27:05much higher level
27:07there's the business model
27:10today our business is fundament our own
27:12business is fundamentally linear we take
27:15materials we make something and we sell
27:17it
27:18in the future the person who buys it
27:20let's say it's you
27:22you may keep that object for a very long
27:25time 50 years and then your your
27:27children may inherit it from you
27:29is that linear or is it circular i'm not
27:32sure but we're doing a lot at rishma to
27:35enable a circular economy where
27:38let's say you you buy a watch from one
27:40of the richmond maisons or even another
27:43and
27:4510 years from now you may decide it's
27:47time to trade up
27:49and we have now
27:51ways of doing that we've bought
27:53businesses which specialize in circular
27:55economy which is mostly around trust
27:58there is no destruction of the watch
28:00but you will have trust to sell it at a
28:02fair price
28:04use the credit to buy something else
28:06perhaps pre-owned or perhaps new it's up
28:08to you
28:09and it's not
28:10specific to richmond names and brands
28:14it could be any of our peers
28:16and so the the carbon intensity of our
28:18whole business will begin to change as
28:20we amplify that circular business model
28:23for watches
28:24probably for jewelry
28:26and already for clothing and handbags as
28:29well through our e-commerce business
28:32netapote
28:34they've just done an agreement with
28:36reflaunt
28:38which is a specialist platform within
28:40the platform to enable circular activity
28:43so you asked me what's richmond doing
28:45to to shape that future
28:48we are preferring on the operating model
28:51we are preferring suppliers
28:53who get it who understand what we're
28:54trying to do
28:56sometimes they're not always pleased
28:58that we have more questions that's life
29:01and then looking at our future opera a
29:03business model
29:04what's the source of our revenue
29:06where do we create jobs how do we train
29:09people for that future
29:12i think
29:13normally the the the industry that you
29:15work in their their you know they see
29:18their counterparts as you know
29:19competition but for achieving sdgs or to
29:23become more sustainable there has to be
29:25a nature of collaboration so how how are
29:28you collaborating within the industry
29:30you know to see people as you know not
29:32competitors but you know as
29:34collaborators to you know move things
29:36forward in the industry
29:38we
29:39have i'd say two two avenues that are
29:42industry level rather than richmond or
29:45or just cartier
29:47uh
29:48the list of initiatives at the company
29:50level is long
29:53at the richmond level we work closely
29:56with the responsible jewellery council
29:58this is the 1600 members
30:01around
30:02good operating models and the
30:04sustainable development called goals
30:07agenda
30:09so rjc is one avenue and the other is
30:12the fundacion
30:14for high watchmaking foundation
30:19they've been a little disrupted by covid
30:22of course with no no geneva watchfare
30:24but it's coming back in march we hope
30:27and they are putting sustainability more
30:30and more into
30:32the offering of that
30:34watchfare and what the members
30:36of that for of that
30:38um non-partisan fundamental it's about
30:41watchmaking in switzerland and the
30:43culture and the values
30:44and they're bringing sustainability
30:47truly into the into the core of their
30:50offer to their members as well so
30:52richmond's working with a certification
30:54scheme rjc
30:56and with a promotion scheme
31:01now through this entire interview you've
31:03been very optimistic and positive about
31:05what is achievable
31:07is there anything that frustrates you
31:10downtown traffic
31:13don't understand why people
31:15sit especially in geneva down anywhere
31:17downtown traffic i don't get it i'm
31:19right i'm too green to really understand
31:22the tipping point at which people will
31:24stop repeating
31:27a peculiar behavior
31:29and i see that with myself around food
31:33oh and i see it with other people
31:36stuck in traffic in downtown geneva
31:38don't understand it okay so human nature
31:41is what it is sometimes we recognize our
31:44our own folly and still we don't we
31:47don't change
31:48but in terms of achieving sustainability
31:50initiatives sdgs there's nothing that
31:53frustrates you you think that
31:56i
31:58i don't know if it frustrates me or if i
32:00just need to go through the process it's
32:03hesitancy of course we hear the word
32:05hesitancy a lot with vaccination
32:07hesitancy is a very human
32:10a very human condition
32:11it's the the fear of the unknown making
32:13a leap
32:14and trusting where you will land
32:17so with a lot of the sustainability
32:19topics the decarbonisation decisions or
32:22starting to to create
32:26a forward-looking agenda for the whole
32:28industry around the sustainable
32:29development goals
32:31those are new
32:33unknown things and i see a lot of
32:36hesitancy within
32:38parts of the industry particularly with
32:41smaller companies who think oh this is
32:42more administration this is more demands
32:45from our clients
32:46whether the clients are
32:48end customers or business to business
32:51so i see the hesitancy
32:53i know my role is
32:56as partly as an educator
32:58to explain the context and partly as a
33:01persuader to say
33:03you can hesitate all you like
33:06for a few years
33:07and then you need to
33:08stop don't keep hesitating please you're
33:11not helping either of us
33:14speaking of persuasion so one of the
33:16things is how is the chief
33:18sustainability officer or head of
33:20sustainability how is this role
33:22different than other roles within an
33:24organization and and what skills are
33:27needed
33:29so how's it different
33:32first of all it's new
33:34and it's untested and unproven
33:37and strangely enough everyone thinks
33:39they're an expert
33:42i've worked for a long time in finance
33:44and governance and the only people who
33:46thought they were an expert were the
33:48experts in sustainability
33:50everyone has an opinion
33:52everyone wants to tell me about what
33:54they did or didn't do at the weekend
33:56with plastic or other things
33:59or how guilty they feel about going on
34:00holiday and i and i think well
34:05i need to do some bigger things here
34:08so it's it's the novelty of the of the
34:11topic
34:12uh the lack of training the lack of
34:14qualifications is a is a difficult
34:17area for me to address and i'm working
34:18on that i've established a csr faculty
34:21within richmond we've partnered with the
34:23university of cambridge to enable
34:26my colleagues to use their courses
34:30in other ways that it's that it's a
34:32little difficult is the
34:35the reporting lines are very
34:36heterogeneous i report to the finance
34:39director of the richmond group he's my
34:41boss
34:43in cartier the the head of
34:45sustainability might be
34:47reporting to the chief executive
34:50in another house to the marketing chief
34:53or the human resources
34:55and
34:56people ask me does it matter
34:58and i say i don't know let's find out
35:01let's see let's let's let's test the
35:03limits and see if the governance and the
35:05powers are right or not
35:08how i've set things up at the
35:09headquarters is the cfo chairs
35:12my sustainability committee of
35:14management
35:16and i have representatives from
35:17different specialist functions human
35:19resources
35:20supply chain and so on and we work on in
35:23a collegial basis to
35:26work on those those codes those clubs
35:29and those disclosures that i spoke of
35:31earlier and i explain that to my
35:33colleagues elsewhere in the group and
35:34say why not try and do the same in that
35:36way you have an ex-co
35:38member in the chair
35:41and someone at his or her right hand
35:43who does most of the work so the cfo
35:46that richmond chairs the management
35:48committee
35:49and i do the rest i run the agenda and
35:52so on
35:53sometimes at meetings he'll say
35:56good morning everyone good to see you
35:58all matthew take over and then for the
36:01next three hours
36:02i'll i'll run the show but it ensures
36:04that we have a good flow
36:06going up to the x-co
36:08for
36:09any issues
36:11and also the exco concept
36:13the
36:14the agenda in the more general sense are
36:17we going fast are we going slow
36:19that sort of thing
36:21i spoke to you earlier about how i had
36:23retrained a number of times in my own
36:25career
36:27and i'm looking
36:29to use the university of cambridge for
36:32partnering on my csr faculty
36:35we also have a learning and development
36:37function within richmond we're large
36:39enough to have those
36:40uh
36:41that sort of knowledge management and
36:43training programs
36:44and we're beginning to discuss
36:47how how do we want to go
36:49on that on that spectrum from
36:52voluntary to mandatory
36:54where do we want to put sustainability
36:56know-how
36:57and it's a very big topic
36:59so do we want to train people
37:01specifically on
37:03carbon topics or human rights topics
37:06and if so voluntary mandatory
37:08we
37:09uh we i started in in august this year a
37:14one-year engagement program for 35 000
37:17people we called it it's based on the
37:18movement for better luxury and we called
37:20it the 12 movements so each month
37:23there's a particular focus on
37:26one topic environment or people and so
37:29on
37:30and so far so good we're only a few
37:32months into it but we're seeing
37:35my my internal communication colleagues
37:37tell me we are
37:39on a maximum scale of zero to a hundred
37:42we're at 88 so far so we're pleased
37:45we're pleased
37:47what
37:48does success look like or what what
37:51how will you gauge
37:53success either in your role
37:55and at richmond
37:57success for richmond will be the
37:59achievement of our 2025 plan the
38:03movement for better luxury part one
38:06let's call it we have
38:08kpis for all of our commitments and
38:11ownership
38:12let's see did we achieve
38:14what we set out to do we track it every
38:17six months so most of the most of the
38:20signals are green today but the harder
38:21parts are yet to come
38:23so we can say
38:25how many green flags did we reach
38:28by 2025 that success at the richmond
38:31group
38:32level
38:34at the personal level
38:36i think if i can stay the course it's
38:38it's it's very intense
38:41i spend a long week at work and on top i
38:44do a lot of other voluntary things
38:46including global compact
38:49i think the success will be if i am
38:53still on my feet in five years
38:55and still enjoying what i'm doing still
38:57still finding it
38:59intellectually professionally and
39:03rewarding for myself
39:05and still using some of the old trades
39:08that i've learned
39:09and some new ones i'm learning a lot in
39:12the last year about the importance of
39:14communication in leadership which for my
39:17own personal history was not an issue i
39:19used to be
39:20in finance and governance and
39:23communication there was
39:25not really an issue
39:27you prepare your report you publish it
39:30you're done
39:31you maybe tell a couple of people it's
39:32out
39:33but now sustainability because everyone
39:36thinks they're an expert
39:38i need to communicate much more and keep
39:40the guy the guide rails on what are we
39:43doing and why and what are we not doing
39:45and why
39:47and going even a level deeper than
39:49success so what would you like your
39:51legacy to be
39:54the movement for better luxury okay
39:57that was very poignant
39:59anything else that you would like me to
40:01ask you that i didn't
40:04um i'd like to
40:06see
40:08the professional services firms
40:13treating sustainability as a shared
40:16problem
40:17rather than a business opportunity as as
40:20a firm
40:21so that might involve
40:24setting up
40:26a pool of secondments or something like
40:28that but really this is good for
40:30switzerland and good for the world
40:32it shouldn't really be a pricing and
40:34negotiation story so it could be that
40:36there's a way to create a foundation
40:38together or something
40:40radically different
40:42that would enable people to move around
40:44in this topic and feel more comfortable
40:47with the complexity of the topic
40:50and then take that knowledge back to
40:51their regular work but with a different
40:53mindset it's not about monday to friday
40:56and it's not about getting paid it's
40:58something
41:00far deeper than that coexisting with
41:02nature how do we do that right it's
41:04difficult
41:05we've done a bad job so far we have
41:08so we need to change that
41:10and it's not going to be through a
41:12one-month consultancy
41:15something much bigger and much more
41:16ambitious so the challenge is there for
41:19for deloitte and and all the other
41:22um partners in switzerland whether it's
41:25a
41:26professional services firm
41:28banking
41:29watchmakers
41:31to to really come together and find
41:35a new a new way of working together
41:39taking that long-term view as opposed to
41:42extremely long you know business
41:43planning is
41:44usually unless you're in the building
41:47business it's usually of maximum five
41:50years that gets different when you start
41:52to talk about training and education you
41:54start to look about return on investment
41:56over a five to ten year period
41:58sustainability begins at ten years and
42:00goes out much further so
42:03that means that return on investment is
42:05the wrong kind of language right
42:07something else
42:09is needed so it's sort of a
42:10collaborative ecosystem where we're all
42:12working together towards the greater
42:15good collaborative ecosystem is is a
42:17lovely term thank you for that okay
42:19good you've understood me i have
42:21understood you well thank you matthew so
42:24much for your time and for sharing your
42:26thoughts on your role as the head of
42:29sustainability at richmond we wish you
42:31all the best
42:32in your role and we look forward to
42:34seeing your success
42:36and rishman's success as well thank you
42:38thanks for inviting me today
42:40thank you
42:42[Music]
42:49you

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