CorD Special Edition: Corporate Social Responsibility 2017/2018

CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY SERBIA 2017/18

BE RESPONSIBLE FOR THE BENEFIT OF SOCIETY!

INTERVIEW

Tax Breaks Would Encourage Donations For 15 years already, the Chamber of Commerce & Industry of Serbia, in public and among its members, has promoted the key principles and values of social responsibility, while the National Award for Corporate Social Responsibility was first established in 2007

DUŠAN STOKIĆ Director of the CCIS Centre for Environmental Protection, Standards and Technical Regulations

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xperience shows that the drivers of social responsibility in Serbia are often larger companies whose business policies and practises incorporate the basic principles of social responsibility. Still, the concept of the Chamber of Commerce & Industry of Serbia’s (CCIS) National Award for Corporate Social Responsibility equally encourages small and large enterprises to give their contribution to society. Tax breaks would additionally encourage this kind of activity.

• What do you consider as the CCIS’s main accomplishments in the CSR field since this award was first presented?

- One of the key achievements is the fact that, from year to year, we have

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continuity of interest among companies wanting to register for the first time, but also those who have participated numerous times, as they still want to evaluate their operations and compare themselves with others from the aspect of social responsibility. In the six cycles of the Award over the past 10 years, a total of around 350 organisations have participated. These companies are the best emissaries of the principles of social responsibility, both among their partners and suppliers, and with the general public in the broadest sense.

• To what extent has unique the methodology introduced by the CCIS contributed to expanding the engagement of companies in the field of CSR? - It is very important to highlight the fact that the National Award is based on strict rules and procedures based on three basic principles: 1) equality of all participants, regardless of the size, ownership type and location of the organisation; 2) objectivity of the person verifying results

and uniformity of criteria, and 3) the secrecy and confidentiality of statistics and information. It is precisely by insisting on clear methodology, well-known criteria and the comprehensive evaluating of all key CSR issues that the CCIS has built trust and recognition through this award, such that new companies appear year after year, especially among micro, small and medium-sized enterprises, that increasingly understand the importance of their role in the community within which they operate.

• Your questionnaire covers the five basic pillars of CSR: employees, environment, market, property and community. Which areas are given the most importance by companies that apply for the CCIS Award?

- According to the methodology we apply for the National Award, equal value is given to the issues of health and safety of employees, equality and labour rights, and the balance between life and work, then the quality and safety of products, adequate pricing

policies, ethical advertising, the fight against corruption and bribery, followed by financial power, the diversity of management bodies and the availability and accessibility of statistics and information. However, it is also simultaneously important to consider the organisation’s attitude towards the rational consumption of natural resources and savings in energy, water and raw materials, eco-innovations, as well as the care of vulnerable groups like children, the elderly and people with disabilities, as well as support for the youngest, the most talented and the most in need.

We have so far had the most projects in the area of assistance to the local community, and that has been through support for education, scholarships for talented individuals, people with special needs, as well as in the field of environmental protection, through education and raising awareness, but also specific activities and campaigns for recycling, cleaning, gentrifying and regulating public spaces.

• The Council for Corporate Social Responsibility was established in 2016 as a consultative body comprising representatives of all stakeholders in the society. What are your expectations of this kind of composition of the Council?

-The CSR Council of the CCIS was established in July 2016, and its composition includes 16 companies and organisations that are recognised for their engagement and action in the field of socially responsible operations. The key tasks of the CSR Council are: promoting socially responsible ways of doing business in the economy, launching initiatives for improving tax policy and stimulating donations for the benefit of the public, in order to improve conditions for the development of corporate philanthropy and donation, then support to the presenting of awards in this domain - The National CSR Award, the CSR Index, VIRTUS, and the development and improvement of the area of social entrepreneurship. Specifically, the

CSR Council initiated a dialogue with the state on the introduction of incentives for general-useful purposes. Domestic legislation only envisages tax deductions for donations by companies that are calculated according to a company’s total annual gains. However, in practise, although the largest part of donations

It is extremely important for examples of good practise, equally as bad ones, to be exchanged and shared with others, in order for each organisation to find the optimal model of its CSR policy and practise is directed towards public institutions, companies have huge problems utilising this mechanism and accessing incentives.

• To what extent has the attitude of companies towards corporate social responsibility changed since 2007?

- This attitude evolves over time and companies adapt to new concepts, guidelines and standards. Considering that practises, experiences and ideas for new CSR projects are constantly exchanged, companies continually review their CSR policies and priorities.

• To what extent have companies managed to maintain their commitment to CSR during these times of general austerity and other market challenges?

- Social responsibility is a voluntary category, so from a narrow business perspective it is completely natural that, during times of austerity, everything that does not contribute directly to profits and successful operations is placed on the back burner. However, it is a mistake to think that only the financially strong can be socially responsible. Social responsibility is still often wrongly equated with philanthropy and corporate donations, which is a rather narrow observation. A voluntary action which employees participate in and which results in something useful and necessary for any target group in the local community can be a good example.

• Does a company’s size impact on its attitude towards social engagements and, if so, to what extent?

- The “large” should influence the “small” with its positive examples, influencing all its partners, suppliers and users by educating them on the importance of applying basic social responsibility principles. However, both "large" and "small", each in accordance with their own resources and capabilities, can implement important social responsibility projects, but the extent to which they are successful must be evaluated according to the level of importance of solving specific problems in the local community and contributing to the environment and quality of life, and not only according to the amount of funds invested.

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• What are the key global trends in CSR today?

- Among today’s organisations, both in Serbia and elsewhere, new business models are increasingly being implemented that have a common goal - SUSTAINABILITY AND SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY. International Standard ISO 26000: 2010 - Guidelines on Corporate Responsibility - inspired the adoption of an entire array of new standards and guidelines on sustainability. Just some examples include the standard ISO 20400 - Sustainable Procurement, which encompasses the United Nations’ Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights.

Then there’s the latest standard, ISO 37001: 2016 - Anti-bribery management systems, which provides a chance for organisations to contribute proactively to the problem of bribery, both through application of the anti-bribery management system and through the dedication of management to establishing a culture of integrity, transparency, openness and coherence. A new concept that has emerged in recent years is the ‘circular economy’, which attracts the attention of both creators of strategies and sustainability policies at the international and national levels, as well as the institutions responsible for transposing the key principles of this concept into laws, technical regulations and standards.

The British Standards Institute this year published the BS 8001 standard, which helps organisations better manage resources by applying circular economy principles to achieve financial/economic benefits, social benefits and environmental benefits.

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• To what extent do domestic companies succeed in keeping pace with these trends?

- There are around 20 companies in Serbia today that report on their sustainable operations according to principles and standards that are internationally recognised. However, there is also an entire range of SMEs that follow and

Companies can also, with minimal investment, initiate projects and activities that have social responsibility at their essence learn from them. Moreover, there are dozens of good examples and success stories that apply some principles of the circular economy. Even start-ups are appearing that develop eco-innovations and solutions for "smart" cities.

• How much do domestic companies recognise the advantage of networking in international associations like the United Nations Global Compact?

- The UN Global Compact exists in 162 countries and has over 97,000 members. The Global Compact is a

framework for companies to comply in their activities with ten universal principles in the fields of human rights, labour, environmental protection and anti-corruption. The Global Compact has existed in Serbia since 2007 and has 115 members at the local level, 57 of which are companies. Viewed regionally, in terms of numbers of members, the Network in Serbia is one of the largest.

• What good CSR practises would you single out?

- I would not single out any specific example of good practise, although there have been many. But if we want to define a good CSR project, then I would say that is a project that has the full support of company management, involves employees, the use of a company’s own products and services, which is a priority for the target group for which it is intended, and which is simultaneously connected to the company’s core business. A good CSR project is the product of cooperation and discussion with the local community, allowing employees to show innovativeness and creativity, and involving several different partners in its realisation.

• What are the CCIS’s further plans when it comes to promoting CSR? - The CCIS will continue to promote principles and good practise of social responsibility, primarily among its members – companies, but also among the general public at the broadest level.

It does this, and will continue to do so, via the National Award for CSR, the activities of the CSR Council, the UN Global Compact Network, the organising of public gatherings, seminars and debates, as well as through active participation in creating a better business environment and applying contemporary business concepts and models that promote sustainable development and social responsibility. ▪

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CORPORATE IVANA TODOROVIĆ, HEAD OF EXTERNAL COMMUNICATIONS, SOCIETE GENERALE SRBIJA

Support To Entrepreneurship And Innovations Societe Generale Srbija marks a significant jubilee this year – 40 years of doing business in Serbia. During the previous decades, besides the development of its own operations, the bank has been dedicated and contributed to the community in which it operates.

Speaking about the key values in terms of corporate social responsibility that are led by this bank, which is one of the leaders on the domestic financial market, is Ivana Todorović, head of external communications at Societe Generale Srbija

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esponsibility, dedication, innovation and team spirit are the values with which we manage every aspect of our business. They are embedded in our business policy regarding employees, clients and the environment, and through the granting of added value to the local community. Our corporate social responsibility strategy rests on four pillars of support to the local community. These are support to entrepreneurship, innovations, culture and vulnerable sectors of the population.

• How significant is the role of the corporate sector when it comes to developing CSR and do you see some new trends in this area?

- The development of a society is not possible without close cooperation between all stakeholders, and the role of the corporate sector is very significant, but not only due to its financial support, because socially responsible initiatives also offer added value to the local community that they target. Concepts like mentoring, training, competition, promotions among the general public and networking and expanding networks of partners will become ever more important.

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Another trend is certainly networking among partners from different sectors. Just as different industries come together in business, so social responsibility concepts will develop in this direction. I consider by networking we can provide a bigger contribution to society and create a greater influence.

When it comes to trends, the results of the last Annual Corporate Social Responsibility Questionnaire, conducted by the Forum for Responsible Business, are encouraging and show that in the five years that this survey has been conducted investments in CSR activities have increased 2.5-fold, while significant growth has also been recorded in the number of volunteer hours, projects dedicated to corporate volunteering and resources invested in environmental protection and employee development.

This shows that the corporate sector is advancing markedly when it comes to socially responsible practises.

We are very proud that Societe Generale Srbija has been included since 2016 on the list of the Responsible Business Index – the first national platform for assessing corporate social responsibility, which enables objective comparisons of the effects and impacts companies have on society through their operations.

• In the last two years you have been turned towards stimulating entrepreneurship. Technological entrepreneurship in particular has been in your focus, especially start-ups that require support the most at the start of their development.

What have your results in this field been like to date?

- We wanted to provide our contribution to empowering technological entrepreneurship in Serbia and we supported ICT Hub, the centre for technological entrepreneurship and innovation. We are pleased that our cooperation has exceeded the scope of purely financial support and that we have created a long-term partnership with benefits for all parties involved, because we recognised that there are various ways in which we can cooperate.

As a corporation, we started developing a start-up mindset - the way and methodology that start-ups use in their work, as well as their completely different stance and view of business.

The start-up environment encourages us to launch into a project courageously, to be flexible and agile, so the bank's employees – through various activities, using knowhow, tools, methodologies and the energy of technological start-ups – are encouraged to innovate. The result was that we recognised new market segments, created new products and improved our services and processes.

We have organised various events together, such as two fintech hackathons and the Open Innovation Challenge, which rewarded teams with the best ideas applicable in the development of the future of banking.

Moreover, cooperation opened the door for the bank to new partners from the start-up ecosystem, which are developing innovative products and services for users in an increasingly developed digital environment.

Start-ups have also taught us that there is no innovation without abandoning one's comfort zone and accepting failure as an integral part of advancing in business. We decided to work together to change awareness of this important topic, in order for us to help present and future entrepreneurs to commit and to gain additional courage and energy in their endeavours.

• You launched the Generator – a platform intended to support innovative entrepreneurship.

How did this project originate?

- In the year when we are celebrating 40 years of doing business in Serbia, we wanted to celebrate this jubilee

by looking to the future, creating a system of support for innovations that can grow and develop in the years ahead.

On the other hand, a need arose for us to strategically unify everything we've done in the field of innovation during the last couple of

SCENE FROM THE FIRST HACKATHON

The Generator platform, which we launched through a competition to select 40 entrepreneurial innovations that are innovative, viable and sustainable, attracted applications from 780 projects, which we consider a great success and yet more proof that the entrepreneurial spirit certainly exists years. Thus we devised the Generator platform, which we launched through a competition to select 40 entrepreneurial innovations that are innovative, viable and sustainable. The competition was supported by our partners Vip mobile, Maxi, KupujemProdajem and ICT Hub. Some 780 projects submitted applications for the competition, which we consider a great success and yet more proof that the entrepreneurial spirit certainly exists. That's why we believe the valuable prizes in this competition for the best innovation according to the opinion of an expert jury, the public

OPEN INNOVATION CHALLENGE

award and partner award, as well as networking among innovators and promoting their projects in public, will provide a strong “tailwind” for all 40 of the selected innovations.

• What are your plans and what will be in your focus during 2018 when it comes to CSR? Are you preparing new initiatives?

- We see the Generator as a long-term platform that will exist in the future as a place where initiatives and events contributing to the development of innovation and entrepreneurship will be promoted. The slogan “Priključi se” [get involved] is an invitation for all those who want to delve into entrepreneurial waters or expand their existing business to follow our activities, whether they want to connect with us or some of our partners, to be participants in some of our events, such as hackathons and other gatherings focused on innovation, or to be part of events and conferences that promote digital operations and entrepreneurship.

We want to thereby provide our support to empowering different ecosystems and to encourage the development of innovation and entrepreneurship. ▪ CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY

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CORPORATE MILOŠ PAVLOVIĆ, DEAN OF THE FACULTY OF DRAMATIC ARTS, BELGRADE UNIVERSITY

The Mona Lisa Was Also Made To Order “Airport City gave us complete freedom in creating a corporate film that students of the Faculty of Dramatic Arts will film for this company,” says Miloš Pavlović, Dean of the Faculty of Dramatic Arts, speaking to CorD

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hat is the correlation between business and the freedom of artistic expression? This question, unless you are a benefactor, actually remains without an answer, i.e. it sounds nonsensical in itself, if not placed in a particular context. Even though benefactors, as we know of them from the history of art, have long since been consigned to legend, they can even appear during this time of algorithms, corporations and profits incidents, and are “threatening” to become a rule, at least in one case. Specifically, one casual conversation between Miloš Pavlović, Dean of the Belgrade Faculty of Dramatic Arts, and Marina Deleon, communications advisor for Airport City Belgrade, grew into a serious cooperation project between this prestigious 70-year-old arts faculty and a company that is the pioneer of the “City within the City” business concept in Serbia.

“Airport City needed a corporate film, and Marina and I came up with the idea to – instead of paying an expensive agency that would record the film “by the book” – leave this job to students of the Faculty of Dramatic Arts,” says Pavlović speaking to CorD. - We generally provide schooling for directors, producers, editors, cameramen and actors in both bachelor and master studies. We have

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the Copywriting subject in bachelor studies and teach them to create campaigns. Without any dilemma, the Faculty of Dramatic Arts has the intellectual, creative and artistic potential to satisfy the criteria of a project of this kind.

Our capabilities and Airport City’s needs came together. As far as I know, this is the first time that a company has given full creative freedom to students to express themselves artistically.

• When you say that they give you freedom, what do you mean specifically – considering that it’s difficult to reconcile the corporate and artistic ways of thinking?

- You’re mistaken, and I’ll explain why. I sent the first emails to students of master’s studies on media and advertising and the interest was huge. Then we arranged a visit to Airport City, where its CEO Adir El

Marina Deleon, ACB Communications Advisor:

“The most important instruction to the Faculty of Dramatic Arts team was to freely express the visual code of their generation. We believe in their creativity and I know we’ll all be proud in the end. The shared act of giving is also important for the ACB team”

Al led us through the whole project , telling us about how he sees the development of the company, its mission and vision, and then finally telling us “Now it’s open, it’s up to you”. He gave us the complete freedom to create the film in the way we think best.

I have a lot of experience in advertising, both in the country and abroad, and I have to say that it’s rare to come across such an approach. They usually ask you to work within some strict frameworks “by the book”, as it is imagined by management and corporate bureaucracy. But this is something completely different.

• And why would a young artist studying at your college be inspired by the tasking of making a corporate film?

- And to answer with rhetorical questions - was it inspiring for Leonardo da Vinci to paint the Mona Lisa as an ordered portrait or for Michelangelo to paint the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel to order? John Ford made all his films according to ordered scenarios. We are professionals and we move within frameworks that are given to us, and here we don’t even have them. I’ll use a metaphor. If the frame within which you are doing something, recording a corporate film for example, are coasts, then the filmmakers represent a powerful river flowing between those coasts.

of Education and the Government of Serbia, especially the Prime Minister, as her agenda includes innovation, technological development and digitisation.

• Would the possible centre at your faculty also be the largest production and postproduction centre in Serbia?

- I will give you the example of New Zealand, which became a powerful post-production force that earns huge money after the shooting of the Lord of the Rings franchise, precisely in postproduction. They hadn’t previously dealt with this business at all, but now their state and economy benefit greatly from that. We already have certain capacities at the Faculty – laboratories for sound, digital arts and theatrical and performing arts. Thanks to professor Ivana Vujić, • How will this project unfold in particular?

- We did an internal competition that created interest among students of directing and production, and even dramatists, alongside students who deal with advertising, media and marketing. So, it is necessary to develop ideas for the film and for the bearers of those ideas to gather together the teams they need to bring the film to a conclusion. We encourage with points for teams formed by students from various departments and subjects within the Faculty of Dramatic Arts. They also received a budgeting framework, so students are now in a position to create the project from start to finish, at both artistic and budgetary levels. We will select the best work by the end of December, while filming and the beginning of the project depend on the ideas themselves, but also on weather conditions. I would add that I have already seen some concepts and there are very creative but also unexpected works.

The most difficult part of the job will be selecting a winner.

• How unusual is it for a profitable company that has no reason to be interested in art, or to have any expectations from art, to cooperate with an art college in this way?

- It didn’t used to be unusual long ago.

But what we are currently trying to do at

the Faculty of Dramatic Arts is for our cooperation with Airport City not to be forgotten, given that we’re recording a corporate film, but rather for it to mark the beginning of a new era. Specifically, the idea is to form a creative development centre at the Faculty and, instead of sending students to various agencies as fresh reinforcements, to engage them at the faculty to develop – alongside the regular curriculum – their professional and artistic capacities. I envisage that Centre having several directions, from advertising, digital media and video games, and then to deal with digital and new forms of performing arts. I think this could also be interesting to the Ministry

Marina Deleon, ACB Communications Advisor:

“In the case of Airport City, CSR has never been merely about corporate obligations or PR. We have never chosen the most popular activity or most visible in the media, rather we’ve considered how our help can have the best effect” who leads this third area, Belgrade will next year host the World Congress of the Federation of Theatre Researchers. That means a 1,000 people from which our city will have multiple benefits. Imagine that we have a Centre and are developing the area of sphere photography, how much that would help court institutions and the prosecutor’s office, or VR, to help, say, students with disabilities who could have a 3D education in their home. Or to engage Spielberg to give us a lecture for 300 students who would sit in a hall in Belgrade and have the impression that they are in the same space with him. Let me note that the digital era, despite having many drawbacks, simultaneously has great advantages, and I think we should take the best from it and adapt it to ourselves and our own needs. ▪ CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY

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CORPORATE JASNA UZELAC BRAUNOVIĆ, HEAD OF MEDIA RELATIONS & SUSTAINABILITY, UNICREDIT BANK, SERBIA

Responsible Approach

To All CSR Activities ics as inclusion and financial education, or philanthropic activities in support of social inclusion. We believe strongly that when communities are able to offer a diverse range of opportunities they are the best facilitators for the development and growth of their members and businesses.

UniCredit plays a major role in a complex value chain, the inputs of which – financial, human, social and environmental capital – have an impact on our ability to contribute to the economy and society as a whole.

These capitals support our business model and present added value to the quality of the products and services we provide

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SR is a question of prestige in the business of companies that care about their reputation. UniCredit bases its own business philosophy and social responsibility on a value defined as INTEGRITY. • What does integrity mean in terms of CSR? - By definition, integrity in terms of CSR can be described as voluntary and consistent adherence to a set of human characteristics and values that are applied to all facets of business operations. UniCredit Group’s value system is based on integrity as a condition of sustainability, which makes it possible to transform profit into value for our people, customers, investors, local communities and the whole of the society with which the corporation strives to be on good terms. For us, integrity means identifying with a set of strong and shared

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values, which must influence our daily behaviour and help create a perceived reputation on the market. For us, being sustainable in the long term means “to do our job well”. To do our job well means working according to the values identified and applying them in our daily behaviour.

• Every company has the primary goal of generating profit. Why have you decided that corporate social responsibility is an integral part of your business philosophy?

- Given our pivotal position in the value chain, we take care to carefully consider the impacts of our operations - we are always conscious of the major role we play in the economies of the local communities where we operate. We adopt a responsible approach in all our activities, whether they are typical banking operations or corporate citizenship initiatives focused on such top-

• Social responsibility is a fairly broad concept. UniCredit Bank has decided to invest in the local communities where it operates, support youth, vulnerable sectors of the population, culture and the youngest in sports. Which criteria form the basis for you to select priorities in this area?

- We changed our CSR Strategy two years ago from only philanthropic to predominantly employee engagement. Why did we do that? First of all because human capital is the main asset of UniCredit Bank. In accordance with that, we realised that we can provide added value to the society that can be used in the long term – the knowledge and expertise of our employees. Moreover, we wanted to involve employees in everything we do for local communities, in order to raise their awareness about the importance of being a responsible citizen.

We have to say that the results of changing the bank’s orientation have been fantastic. We have managed to engage almost 50% of employees in different activities.

UniCredit Bank joined activities implemented by the organisation Junior Achievements in Serbia. In the last two years, over 60 employees participated as mentors and jurors in more than 10 "Business Challenge” competitions and helped nearly 300 high school students to develop business plans.

One of our colleagues was declared ‘Best Mentor’ for the entire 2016 edition of the competition. Additionally, we also organised volunteering activities involving the arranging of the yards of various schools

in four regions of our branch network. The results of our teamwork can be seen in schools in Pirot, Novi Pazar, Zrenjanin and the Gerontological Centre in Belgrade.

With these initiatives, we not only showed our commitment to local communities, but also additionally reinforced our team spirit, which undoubtedly improved relations among us and influenced the achieving of a better business performance.

There is also another initiative we are very proud of and which we have been conducting for almost 10 years, and that is the humanitarian initiative “Old doll for a new smile”. During December we invite our employees and their kids to pack their used toys and clothes and send them to children living with mental disabilities who are cared for in foster homes. In this way we engage entire families in sharing in the joy of giving.

Moreover, we also included families in our CSR activities this spring – we invited them to participate at the Humanitarian Fun Run during the Belgrade Marathon. Thanks to their high involvement, UniCredit Bank was able to donate significant financial resources to BelHospice.

We are also proud of the eight years of continuous support provided by UniCredit Bank to traditional events with a cultural character and significant importance for local communities, such as the Days of Bora Stanković, Days of Zoran Radmilović and Days of Mokranjac events.

There are also various UniCredit Group initiatives that we support at the local level, such as the Gift Matching Programme – the biggest initiative of the UniCredit Founda-

tion, which encourages employees in their charitable commitments and matches their donations by doubling them.

• Which project would you consider particularly important in terms of its effect on the company, but also from the perspective of your company?

- Since 2012, UniCredit Bank and UniCredit Foundation have been supporting the development of social entrepreneurship in Serbia though the competition ‘Idea for a Better Tomorrow’. We have so far granted over €100,000 to 16 ideas for products that can improve the image of Serbia in the region and worldwide. This year we launched the third edition, within which we

The proof that we are on the right track and shouldn’t change our CSR strategy is provided by our employees, who are already contacting us and proposing different volunteering activities for the next year have already selected the seven best ideas that will receive grants in the coming period totalling €40,000 and that will participate in the mentorship programme, in order

to ensure they become successful and sustainable businesses.

When we look at the results enabled by the first two editions, there are 40 representatives of social enterprises involved in skills development programmes, 35 new jobs created, which had a positive impact on more than 200 family members and at least 800 people from local communities who benefitted as clients and/or suppliers.

In addition, UniCredit Bank continuously supports beneficiaries from all editions. For example, we provide them with catering for various events, buy their products as New Year’s presents for our clients, as well as presenting their business ideas as best practice examples on the local market to both our colleagues from the Group and our clients.

• With the end of 2017 fast approaching, what specific CSR plans do you have for 2018?

- As mentioned before, we are strongly committed to the development of local communities at various levels, thus also in 2018 we will continue to implement different activities that can contribute to improving living conditions in local communities, while at the same time we will work on additionally engaging employees in projects of broader social significance.

The proof that we are on the right track and shouldn’t change our CSR strategy is provided by our employees, who are already contacting us and proposing different volunteering activities for the next year. ▪ CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY

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CORPORATE GORAN JANKOVIĆ, DIRECTOR, INMOLD PLAST D.O.O. (LTD.)

Caring For Others Instead Of A Hobby “We are turned towards young people and through dual education we create an advantage for the future in relation to the competition,” says Inmold Plast Director Goran Janković

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lthough it is in the category of small and micro enterprises, Inmold Plast, a family company known for the production of tools for injecting plastics and non-ferrous metals and IML robots, is very committed to socially responsible operations, which is why it was declared a Leader of Social Responsibility by the Chamber of Commerce & Industry of Serbia. Asked why such a small company would “give up” part of its profits and devote them to some public interest, director Goran Janković is precise in his response: “I am a resident of Serbia and Požega. For our country to be better everyone must strive to give part of themselves to it”.

- I don’t have a spare country and don’t want one. I live in Serbia and, although I travel a lot, I always come back. Here I’ve achieved everything I’m proud of and that fulfils me, starting from school, to the job I do and love. I’ve created a company here that I can take pride in. My wife and I have four children, for whom Serbia is their homeland where they are growing up and slowly becoming serious businesspeople. These are all reasons why I return part of everything I’ve achieved to the environment and surroundings where I’ve achieved all of this, through socially responsible operations.

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• Inmold this year received a prestigious award from Chamber of Commerce & Industry of Serbia, CCIS, as one of the leaders of social responsibility. Which specific principles form the basis of your business strategy for CSR? - We are committed to environmental protection; we take care of the health of our employees, as well as safety in the workplace and preventative measures to avoid injuries. We are also particularly dedicated to investing in the education and professional devel-

I consider socially responsible operations as a way of repaying my debt to my country and my city opment of all employees, to improve their existing knowledge and skills. As the company is turned towards young people, our doors are always open to young people wanting to familiarise themselves with our activities, production processes and working methods.

We also provide school pupils and students with scholarships and enable them to gain practical work experience in our company. We are also turned towards sports and culture, so

we sponsor sporting events, help writers and painters, and are also involved in donations to religious events, both in our region and throughout Serbia.

• The CCIS Award was explained as being awarded, among other things, due to the fact that you’ve been successfully conducting a dual education programme for four years for more than 60 pupils, and that this job implies complete dedication every day. How do you even form the boundary between social responsibility and business, which must ultimately be the priority for any firm to survive on the market?

- In order for us to create experts it is necessary for us to invest in education and I consider this a very important job. Instead of having a hobby, I take care of the students who are having work experience practise with us. Dual education contributes to raising the expertise of students and increases their ability to start working immediately after finishing school. At the company we have a team dealing with that and this is our advantage, because we create and educate our experts in advance, and that gives us an advantage over the competition for the future. ▪

APATINSKA BREWERY CORPORATE

“Beer Print” For The Welfare Of The Community The most important words at Molson Coors are “BEER PRINT”. At this global brewer, of which the Apatinska Brewery is a member, they believe that every time a beer is picked up there is a beer print left behind. Wherever they brew and sell beer, they leave an imprint on the communities, environment and business, and through its socially responsible projects and partnerships in Serbia, Apatinska brewery is making sure it’s a positive one

ZERO WASTE TO LANDFILL BY 2025 Did you know that the goal of Molson Coors is to achieve zero waste to landfill at all of their major manufacturing facilities by 2025? All members of the group are actively engaged in this task and are responsible for managing waste responsibly and recycling.

The campaign ‘You recycle too’ was launched in 2008 in order to raise public awareness about the importance of recycling and the posibilities of reusable packaging in the long run.

Through educational activities and cooperation with the Faculty of Applied Arts, the brewery animates consumers and visitors at festivals, combining art and recycling. Numerous exhibitions of artworks made from recycled plastic bottles and cans have been realised to date, while this year saw the presenting of the first sunshade made from 800 PET bottles, four metres tall and weighing more than a tonne.

Under the framework of the campaign “Cap for handicap” another "personal record" of the brewery was broken in 2017. Through the participation of consumers in prize games, the company has collected more than 2,350,000 bottle caps, and through the engagement of its employees has collected more than 500kg of caps. Strong support was also secured through a partnership

with the Gomex, which led to the collecting of more than a tonne of plastic bottle caps in just three months.

ONE-HORNED DEER At the beginning of this year, the Paralympic Committee of Serbia and Apatinska Brewery presented the platform www. sampionisvakidan.rs for people with disabilities. Inspiring events held in towns and cities throughout Serbia encouraged local communities to launch candidacies

for their projects that participated in the final competition of ideas, with the brewery rewarding three of the best projects that will enable athletes with disabilities to engage in sports more successfully.

The projects to be implemented in 2018 are those “Move yourself and Train” of the “Pora” Athletic Club from Užice, “In the sun

and the rain, we will train together”, on behalf of the Takovo Athletic Club from Gornji Milanovac, and “Support to international tournaments in wheelchair basketball” of the Singidunum Basketball Club.

DECADE OF THE CAMPAIGN “WHEN I DRINK I DON’T DRIVE” If you’ve had a drink, call a taxi, call on a friend, wait for a bus or walk. This is the message that the company has sent to drivers throughout Serbia for ten years, via its partnership with the Traffic Police Directorate of the Ministry of Interior and the campaign “When I drink I don’t drive”.

Since its launch, the campaign has toured a large number of cities and festivals around the country, in order to promote responsible consumption of alcohol and relay the risks of driving under the influence of alcohol. In order to help ensure even more efficient traffic control, the brewery has so far donated over 100 of the latest model alcometers to the Traffic Police Directorate.

Within the framework of the “School of safe driving for young drivers” at the NAVAK centre this year, safety training was organised for a hundred high school graduates from Apatin and Sombor. Adult high school pupils who have a driver’s license underwent the training and learned to recognise the dangers of driving. ▪ CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY

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CORPORATE EUROBANK SRBIJA

Long Tradition And Great Experience In CSR

Already for a full decade, Eurobank has been implementing its social responsibility programme in Serbia, targetting the most vulnerable sectors of society. In March 2006, when Eurobank first positioned itself among the leading banks on the Serbian market, a comprehensive corporate social responsibility programme was formed, under the title “We're investing in European values“

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ore than €4.5 million has been invested in this programme to date, in continuous support of staff: education, ecology, equality, culture and health.

Eurobank is the first financial company in Serbia to be awarded a certificate of socially responsible operations by the National Alliance for Local Economic Development (NALED). This recognition is confirmation that the bank operates in accordance with the highest standards of CSR, and do so in five certified areas: corporate governance, market, local community, environment and working environment.

The certification of companies that operate according to responsible principles is very important in Serbia today, as it allows actual contributions of companies to the local community to be measured for

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the first time. The CSR certificate represents a guarantee for clients and business partners that a company operates fully in accordance with the law, domestic and international standards and principles of social responsibility.

In addition to this, Eurobank is a five-

Eurobank is the first financial company in Serbia to be awarded a certificate of socially responsible operations by the National Alliance for Local Economic Development (NALED). It is also a five-time winner of the VIRTUS Award for its long-standing and dedicated work on inclusion and the integration of the most diverse parts of society

time winner of the VIRTUS Award and a genuine example of a company that stands out in its long-standing and dedicated work on inclusion and the integration of the most diverse parts of society, as well as dedication through investing in the most important social aspects, such as education, health, environment, culture and art .

One of the trademark projects of Eurobank is the Big Heart, which the bank has now been conducting, together with the Ana and Vlade Divac Foundation, for seven years, making childhood better for children in nurseries and primary schools throughout Serbia. Under the auspices of the Big Heart humanitarian project, 42 nurseries and primary schools throughout Serbia have been upgraded, with more than 15,000 children receiving better conditions for playing, learning and growing up, thanks to the 22,000 users of this unique humanitarian MasterCard card. The card with a big heart - MasterCard “Big Heart” - is a standard credit card, but its ultimate goal is to improve conditions for a carefree childhood in Serbia. Citizens who opt for this card do not have any additional costs, but by using it they contribute to an important humanitarian goal – the reconstruction of schools and playgrounds, as well as the introduction of libraries into preschools and schools throughout Serbia.

Together with our long-standing partners from the Ana and Vlade Divac Foundation, in 2017 Eurobank succeeded in helping to restore or improve conditions for a better childhood in several important institutions in Serbia. We started the year with renovation of the playground at the “Mila Jeftović” Nursery in Belgrade, then we bought new hospital beds for the Clinic for Maxillofacial Surgery in Belgrade, helped install heating for pupils at the “14th October” School for the children with disabilities in Niš, while we also renovated the playgrounds of the nurseries “Neven” in Pirot and “Snežana” in Šabac. ▪

SUSTAINABILITY REPORTING

Key Issues For Further Developing Corporate Communications

Due to the obvious changes in the natural environment, (e.g. climate change and its consequences) material effects of the global ‘lifestyle’ on the environment and a lot of social problems, there has been an increasing awareness in a lot of countries that the natural environment and its resources, as well as society at whole, are the major elements that are crucially necessary for the future of mankind

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his awareness has led on one hand to regulatory activities of national and supra-national institutions and on the other to a change in the public concern about environmental and social issues. As a consequence, the concept of ‘sustainable development’ of societies was globally accepted as a core of national and international policy at the end of last century.

This more or less global commitment and conviction has – besides other aspects – also drawn very much attention to the impact of companies' activities on the environment and society and has led to the concept that the performance of a company should not only be measured according to its financial but also environmental and social performance, meaning the positive and negative impacts on the social and natural environment.

Sustainability reporting is a very important part of today's external cor-

porate reporting. Adequate inclusion of sustainability issues in company's reports (firstly, as a part of annual reports, then environmental, sustainability and, as of recently, integrated reports) is one of the key issues for further development of corporate

For Serbia, this reporting area will become especially important at the time when accession negotiations to the EU regarding this chapter are open communications with stakeholders.

That has caused the development of a large number of sustainability reporting guidelines, among which guidelines established by the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) are the most significant, globally accepted and used one (GRI, 2016). The growing importance

of sustainability reporting nowadays has been demonstrated by a number of studies conducted by audit firms such as KPMG and Ernst & Young. For Serbia, this reporting area will become especially important at the time when accession negotiations to the EU regarding this chapter are open. Sustainability reporting is relatively new for Serbian companies, and most companies are still trying to find their interest in this area and to become familiar with the sustainability reporting guidelines, reporting methods, significance of assurance etc. In order to determine the achieved level of sustainability reporting by Serbian companies, an empirical research, which part of the results will be presented in this paper, was conducted for the first time on the territory of Serbia. ▪ From “Sustainability Reporting - A Challenge for Serbian companies”, by Maja Stojanović-Blab, Daniel Blab, Dejan Spasić (epub.uni-regensburg.de)

CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY

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PROFILE

The Future’s CHRO Is CEO’s Strategic Partner It was two months ago that I found myself in a new role, which was familiar at first, albeit from a different perspective, as I transitioned from being an advisor to becoming an executive.

Nevertheless, both my education and my career thus far have taught me that the first step towards success is to embrace change and learn from every possible opportunity

MILICA JOVIĆ CHRO, NELT

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here is no training anywhere in the world that produces readymade CHROs. However, I do believe that a CHRO’s role is one of the few functions for which natural predisposition balances technical knowledge that could be learned along the way.

With the increasing globalisation of business, the importance of HR function is rising.

Under the mantra of maintaining revenue and profit, industry leaders are becoming behemoths that feed on constant growth and must be on an endless quest into the unknown, whether it be a venture into a new line of business or an expansion into a new location. To succeed, businesses must have the ability to deploy the right people to the right places as swiftly and promptly as possible. Agility, a capability renowned in modern business, is becoming unvaryingly applicable to both financial and human capital.

The journey which CHROs embark on nowadays in many ways resembles the transition from the accountants of the 1980s to the CFOs of the 2000s. The business community is starting to realise that it is people that generate value, not businesses. As a consequence, human resources are becoming as paramount as financial resources, and the CHRO is becoming an equally important strategic counterpart, akin to the CFO. The most vital task of the CHRO is to identify means to use human capital in order

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to create or unlock value. In order for the CHRO to become a visionary and a strategist, the whole HR function must move a step beyond transactional and administrative tasks. Internally, HR must transform its mindset from being a cost centre to acting as a value creator. It should not succumb to the standard constraints of budgeting processes by sheer inertia. We, as a company, have recognised this need and started to transfer some traditional HR responsibilities to a separate unit that will provide key services to the business under the umbrella of a shared service centre.

The CEO has great responsibility in enabling the CHRO to act as a partner. He should equally leverage both the CFO and CHRO, in order to comprehend the connection between business performance and organisation. Ultimately, financial results are delivered by the people who produce them.

The journey which CHROs embark on nowadays in many ways resembles the transition from the accountants of the 1980s to the CFOs of the 2000s Vice versa, the CHRO must draw from his courage and integrity to support the business lifeline. He should be empowered to allocate the right talent to the right opportunities, in the same manner as financial investors deploy material resources.

A CHRO has to lead the process of not only nurturing and assigning talent, but also

identifying the most important roles that are critical to business performance and sustainability, and linking them with right talents. This two-way process is becoming known in the HR community as the principle of “linking talent to value”, which provides understanding of the link between people and the potential for value creation.

Academic research has shown that capital reallocation is truly rewarded only when coupled with flexibility of business’s human capital, and a CHRO should be mandated to recommend the reassignment of talent to positions that will generate additional value.

Today’s organisations are just starting to embrace the concept of human capital flexibility. We still seldom encourage our colleagues to step outside of their comfort zone. We tend to reward top talents by allowing them to climb the organisational hierarchy, a process which overshadows other aspects of the organisation.

In order to enable our organisation to adopt human capital flexibility, we became pioneers in the field of organisational health in our region. We focused our efforts on connecting all our employees to the purpose of their work. By building a framework to encourage and reward certain behaviour embedded in our values, we encourage our employees to actively contribute to the achievement of sustainable long-term growth. We support our employees in their daily work by clearly communicating our goals, how we achieve them, how we can improve and achieve more, and what impact we are creating. By so doing, we are preparing our key resource, our people, for another 25 years of sustainable growth. 