Vivendi

Alain Lempereur, Professor at ESSEC Business School and co-author of Méthode de négociation
(SDR 2007-2008)

Vivendi: Giving sustainable development a human face

« Sustainable development is an important issue for all companies, but each company must see it in terms of its own core competencies. For industrial companies, the paths are clear. They include the carbon balance, recycling, the use of renewable energy sources, etc. This “down-to-earth” approach – with an objective concern for the physical environment and its permanence – stimulates the renewal of reflection and the scrutinizing of day-to-day practices for all companies. However, a purely tangible approach to sustainable development is too restrictive.
For service companies, responsibility also lies with people and their relations with one another. Sustainable development means more than preserving forests and streams, the ozone layer and raw materials; it also means respect for human dignity, sharing knowledge, equal opportunity, gender parity, protecting the young, mutual understanding, dialogue, understanding between cultures, and much more. It is a project for society – in the global and the entrepreneurial sense –, one in which men and women protect their planet and strengthen their humanity for future generations.
Aware of that broader responsibility, Vivendi is inventing its own theory of sustainable development and determining how communication and digital entertainment can contribute to it in all its business areas. Beyond the momentum Jean-Bernard Lévy has been creating since 2003, involvement and innovation on the part of all the group’s employees and managers is also necessary to see to it that bringing people together digitally is a daily concern. And so, for example, thanks to the work of SFR’s technical teams, a disabled person can find out whether a certain mountain site is accessible to her or him just by using a cell phone. A Canal+ documentary devoted to the role of seniors in society will bring us closer to our elderly. Content that is dangerous for our children will be subjected to parental control.
The “sustainable development” mentality specific to Vivendi requires an intangible but very real dynamic aimed at making the virtual environment a safer place, fighting the scattering and isolation of people, and seeking new paths for communicating, discussing, and helping one another. The task is a tough one – but so rewarding! »