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Creating Shared Value Explained

We believe we can do business in ways that both deliver long-term shareholder value and benefit society. We call this approach Creating Shared Value (CSV).

Creating Shared Value begins with the understanding that for our business to prosper over the long term, the communities we serve must also prosper. It explains how businesses can create competitive advantage, which in turn will deliver better returns for shareholders, through actions that substantially address a social or environmental challenge. Specifically, business will thrive and society will benefit if business can:

  • Develop products and services that meet societal needs in developed and developing countries
  • Use resources more efficiently across the entire value chain, and
  • Improve the conditions for local economic and social development.

 As a company, we are best positioned to create shared value in three areas:

  • Nutrition: By providing nutritious products that deliver real health benefits to our consumers and by making our products more affordable and accessible through innovation and partnerships.
  • Water: By advocating for the protection of scarce water resources and by using water more efficiently in our manufacturing and distribution processes in ways that also benefit others in our supply chain.
  • Rural Development: By supporting farmer development in rural areas where the raw materials we need are grown, securing our continued access to quality inputs and strengthening our customer base.

In the past, corporate investment in community and environmental initiatives were often seen as ‘obligations’ or simply philanthropy: added costs that had to be borne to minimise operational risks and protect reputation. Creating Shared Value redefines many of these obligations as opportunities to strengthen the business long-term – adding value for shareholders and our stakeholders.

Creating Shared Value builds on our commitment to compliance and sustainability, both of which are important ways of mitigating risks to our business, protecting our reputation and, in the case of sustainability, reducing costs. Creating Shared Value is ultimately about ensuring our competitiveness and commercial success in the long term.

Our commitment to Creating Shared Value marks us out as a company that systematically takes action to produce value for the business, consumers, employees and suppliers, as well as their families and communities.

Creating Shared Value
Nutrition, water, rural development

 

Sustainability
Protect the future
Compliance
Laws, business principles, codes of conduct