“Peace and Sustainable Development” - Dr. Nelson Díaz Cáceres

Good morning to all, thank you very much for the invitation. I want to give a special greeting to Dr. William Soto Santiago, an honor to meet you, to deputy Tadeo Rojas, to Gabriela Lara, of course, to engineer Ivan; and to Raquel who has been a good part of my being here this moment with you, and a great part of this event.

Let's look at a presentation.

I start by telling you: I would have wanted to have very specific criteria to be able to tell you what happened to that SDO 16 (Sustainable Development Objective), and from that I had thought about some management indicators. The SDO 16 of peace of our country that was taken to the polls by means of a plebiscite, and therefore, democratically (because I have to raise it like this), the Colombian people decided that “no” after fifty-three years of conflict. Without a partisan theme, without a theme of sectarian color, without a theme of religious development. it was an issue of strong nature and character in framing and seeing processes for peace (obviously) combined with a theme of economic development, combined with a political development theme, combined with an investment theme, not only in the public sphere but also in the private, and obviously of credibility.

I would have very much liked for my country...whom I have known to be in a civil war for many years, that my parents knew, that my son knows, and that future generations will live, would have seen it from another totally different perspective.

But when I unify the theme of peace and sustainable development, it would seem, and I can tell you this, up until about 4 or 5 years ago they did not combine; then I assumed that I could go for an instance without thinking about the development of local vision, I could have thought that peace had nothing to do with Corporate Social Responsibility, I could have thought that peace does not have an ethical connotation (I could think that way); and even entrepreneurship, if I can take it from Latin America, I had it as a concept from that point of view.

When I have... I will point out some indicators to understand how the whole concept is today, and to see today, the reality of what we are going to work on today. If I look at social indicators, for example, in Latin America, and when they ask me a specific question of how the Latin American population is prepared to protest...and see, the concepts are not even specifically for new development, the concepts are not framed - as Dr. Soto mentioned - on some issues of equity, the concepts are not framed on what current employers of Latin America are posing through the negotiating tables that have to do with a characteristic that is known as happiness, sometimes ethereal for many of us, but as such is established.

When there is (this is the corresponding part of the subject...) And if I wanted to see in the subject of population - last night we had a welcoming, and in the end, I was left thinking about the characteristics. We speak of a globalized world, we speak of a capitalist world...; the concept of education, which was about the time of the 1980s in countries like Colombia, we were still talking about some issues of a world of youth who called themselves communists, specifically, but if I look at the relationship today, our children would have no choice but a capitalist world; We could not have seen it from another point of view.

I want to go back to the relationship with my country, and some talked about the subject, that castrochavismo was going to be incorporated again, and that, I think, was sent to collect a long time ago.

When I look at the subject of the Millennium Development Goals, when I look at the issue of diplomacy, when I look at that relationship with the specific characteristics of peace, I would have to see that there has been an exponential growth of population of the planet after the Industrial Revolution (we could so determine). Then Manchester, countries: England, United States, will have a growth accordingly. But when I see it from another point of view, I would find that in a progressive vision (about 2040) what we are going to have is a decrease in population on the planet.

This means that we would have more resources, if I take the specific fractal environmental. If I take it to that fractal environmental, supposedly with more resources, because we would have a population of no more than nine billion inhabitants, because there would be a country - a planet (pardon) totally sustainable.

Today we consume planet and a half. What awaits the future generations that follow us?

The current problem of Latin America, I would only like to touch one very specific (for the case that we are thinking of): that of Paraguay, with the topic of unemployment; and look at that Colombian case, where we took it back to the polls (I told them this Sunday), that we saw that it had to do specifically with living in a country in peace. And they are also giving us a characteristic: they may not have peace but they may have a country as such, in unemployment.

If I look at it, there is an iceberg of conflict, correct? The great adviser on the topic of the Chamber of Commerce of Bogotá in Colombia, makes an approach to negotiable issues (I return and I unify it). When I unify it... that is why I started my exposition by making the statement that surely years ago I did not see social responsibility specifically connected with the development of peace. Today this has more than blended! That is, how can we have scenarios of social responsibility on a planet that has no peace?

So, there are two types of topics. One, the positions and interests of each of the stakeholders, groups, members of the conflict; and the other, the corresponding part of the non-negotiable needs, which has been a case in point and an example of all countries. In a special way today, I want to take up the topic of Latin America.

If I look at it from that point of view (and I apologize for having made the text and speech about the conflict to look at the contrast), a good part of our relationship would be based on a single typology: how to negotiate.

I give the very specific example of the case of Latin America: in the last distribution of assistencialism for the collaborators in companies of Latin America, it was found that there is a topic of labor presentism; the labor presentism reaches up to 70%.  I spend all day in my organization, I share with my colleagues, I emanate projects, but I did absolutely nothing at all; but I'm there. And then we have looked at the disposition to not be able to accomplish, to have family problems, to have social, public inconveniences, anything we could possibly see, but where is the subject of productivity?

I state and give my first conclusion: “What is not measured, is not managed”. In SR, in sustainable development, it is necessary to have management indicators to be able to make comparative analysis and measurements.

Where is the center of the whole issue that has to do with social responsibility? Educate. And how do I educate? Educate for peace.

I return to the topic of my country. There about 15 years ago we were talking about post-conflict: signed in two occasions, taken to be endorsed at the polls; but I do not know how far the post conflict reigned to live in the reality of Latin America itself. A reality where 50 million children are hungry from causes that could be completely controlled by states.

Then I intervene, and I already have the concept of the academia, I already have the vision of the State, I already have the vision of the business sector, and - very important - the development of the sectors as such: civil society. Some actors (look at them, there they are highlighted, I could have also seen it this way). When I think of it in SR, I would be saying that the basis of Social Responsibility - and in good concept - is the legal issue. Being legal does not make me socially responsible, it is the basis of what I can have. Within this, I would have to highlight some actors in the process, right? And those actors for the whole of America have to do specifically with government, or the media, or with social movements, non-governmental organizations that play a fundamental role, and of course, civil society, which watches over public policy as that of the State.

Peace processes are compared so that we could have..., and situations that at this moment have turned some of our countries, no longer with a specifically pariah vision but with a vision of progress. The Salvadoran case, the Guatemalan case, yes, if I want to take it to the European continent...; with a very strong background: the democratization of the country, the issue of self-government, sharing, equitable vision of land, democratization of each entity for a future and, obviously, sustainable development.

In this comparative process, we could have several themes: the social inequalities so framed, the role of emerging economies in countries such as Latin America, the same religious situation, the climate issue (which is happening at the moment in Africa ), the cultural situation, of which Dr. Soto made a reference that seems very important to me: from that cultural development the best results are obtained.

How do I improve the conditions of peace in any country in Latin America? With culture.

It is a good thing that today, the event began with a transversal theme of a cultural activity. This is giving us a very specific focus: what is behind the concept of the human being for the very development of future generations; and obviously the core business of the university which I work for (Universidad EAN - Bogotá, Colombia), has to do with the business sector.

So our approach, although it may be focused on the reality of what is happening with social optics, of what is happening with the Colombian citizen, we directly affect the role from the vision of human rights with the entrepreneur. Then we become a key player. States no longer own the world economy; the owners of the world economy are the companies; those who are willing to change, are definitely the companies.

The university, the education, is an educating entity; but I have a second conclusion: a company has an educating entity from the point of view of culture, communication, corporate governance.

What period of time is up-to-date within my organization? And what period of time do I spend each day with my family?

From this, then we would have a great question that was the only one that I wanted to leave: how to restore 6.5 million deprived acres in our country; which is a land issue, right? What will happen in our country again? Unfortunately, I have to make the comment so that I can see it from the point of view of peace. We did not have, or the state did not have a Plan B; and without that plan B we start over, right? I hope it will not be another 53 years, where I can no longer be nor telling my grandchildren the situation of what is going to happen; but rather as combined with a world that becomes socially sustainable.

Sometimes - and very respectfully - environmentalists think that only the technical issue has a development; the financiers then make an approach of what Friedman could pose: how to generate resources from new finances. And many of those who work on the specifically social issue, are making an approach to: how to develop communities to obtain resources.

Here is a tripartite combination; engaging those three fractals, engaging those triple lines of results, brings me what? Better citizens. With better citizens: better society; with better society: better company; with a better company: better planet; and with a better planet: sustainable peace.

Sustainability addressed from the front, that is, that is economically viable, I want to say to the businessmen I have sitting here: it is very valid in today's world. Business is to obtain resources, business is to improve the conditions of my stakeholders, business is to win, enterprises must be sustainable.

The world must be thinking from that point of view of sustainability; obviously, engaging two other topics: socially responsible with its stakeholders: good wages, good work, good mitigation, and with an impact or reaction to all the environmental challenges.

What have we been told? A planet that is ending, a planet where not to live; But if I show it from another point of view, specifically what we do not have a human being to live on the planet. I had said 1.5, I'm already in error; We are about 1.7of the planet; what could we expect by 2030, when the Sustainable Development Objectives are completed (!)

I want to take this by thinking about the issues that we are going to work on today, thinking about a panel in which I will be with some prominent Paraguayan characters; and it is to see how these 17 Sustainable Development Objectives from the Millennium Development Goals were routed. I just want to take one.

For the case... When the Millennium Development Goals (which started until 2015, drafted by large countries), the very specific question was to reduce hunger, to return to zero hunger, exactly; today we could have it over there in SDO 1, which groups the characteristics of what must do with people.

When I do the analysis, obviously I take the Colombian case - I do not want to take the Paraguayan case; when I take the Colombian case, I say: Colombia complied, but when I see the subject of compliance, I find that in the countryside, in the rural area, in the devastated area, in the local area, in the area where peace must begin... because peace, like sustainability, is local. Peace is not global, sustainability is not global, they are local, they start from there, they start from themselves; then we come through. How do we fulfill it? Because we unite with the cities. Then the average comes out perfect and dropped my theory in which I was posing that what is not measured is not managed; But for countries like the United States, from that point of view we will find that the population has increased in weight.

What do the Sustainable Development Goals propose? (I do not want to stop because we will have Dr. Fatima in an excellent conference making this approach) And is that for the vision of the United States I would have to speak specifically about the subject of obesity; but in the case for Colombia (and forgive me for the audacity), our children are dying of hunger in one of the peninsulas of the country, there it would change; the scenario would be fortuitous and improving the world’s reality.

A paradigm shift: we maintain the triple line of results (Dr. Soto included a fourth, which I combine very much in terms of the social environment). I think culture and politics go hand in hand with everyone (and we do not do it), and obviously, if I take it from this point of view, I would be talking about the famous 5P of the Sustainable Development Goals, where everything permeates PEACE; the entrepreneur is going to compromise either with people, or with planet, prosperity, peace, with alliances [1], with any of these; but from that, it develops a central theme: peace, and lasting peace.

This is going to be a very specific topic of a model that I have finished creating during research, and that we are already applying it with entrepreneurs.

When I want to talk about sustainability I make a base, and the basis has to be ethics; but when I talk about ethics I have to think about education; and for the case, for example, of the Gini coefficient in Latin America, this is surpassing the 0.70%. Imagine the indicators! Latin America (!).

Then, how could we have a complete peace when there is not a specific reality in education, and much less the crisis of major ethical issues. I wanted to take the example - so to speak, the colloquial and that many of us know - the Walmart case when the small shops disappear.

What does ethics produce for me? What does ethics seek for me? Some topics of organizational trust. I ask myself, and excuse me, why do I trust and deliver the keys to my house to someone? Why do I give resources to someone I do not know to give them to someone else? Why do I have to talk about equity issues? Why are we talking about emerging market economies? Behind that, what is it? An ethical dilemma, a development of ethics; and from ethics, because it obviously gives me the following position, and it has to do with sustainability.

Talk to me about investors, tell me about internal interest groups, tell me about external stakeholders, tell me about the triple bottom line, tell me about accountability, tell me about sustainability reports, tell me about the implementation of the Development Goals, let's embrace ISO 26000, any of the strategic parameters.

Let's take the Compass guide, which is what is giving us the referents of the Sustainable Development Goals, but look for some alternative to improve the conditions of our stakeholders.

If I look at it here, then it would become the central theme of which you saw (with great pride, I had him as a professor in my doctorate), Dr. Bernardo Kliksberg, father of modern management, father of Corporate Social Responsibility, now an advisor to Pope Francis (a very strong duality); then we could be - what is happening is a relationship between religions, here we have it, advisor specifically of the United Nations, and looking under a fundamental precept: how to develop balance in contemporary organizations? How to get the results? Who's left with the question and who's left with the task? Sadly, to each of our entrepreneurs.

From that other point of view, we would have to think of the following margin: what would come from social management to the sustainable world.

I’ll make it short: during the 20th century, what happened during the first and second World War: the Holocaust after the second; the paradigmatic changes, the geopolitical changes in the European structure, the prevailing situation of countries like North America or the Southern Cone; that same development made some changes, changes in Chile, changes in Paraguay and Uruguay, with a connotation and a social vision of continuous improvement; and I think those are enough parameters to be able to establish that we have a very strong peace issue.

When I speak of government, I do not want to think about the issue of government as such of the state; I want to make a specific reference to the principles of the internal management of any company, operational performance, financial system, metrics, strategy.

A large company, such as Eco Imagination, has a very strong approach, and it has diminished the characteristic of environmental deterioration, but in the year 2015 it gained 18 billion pesos. Then I can be consistent with the environment and win in the possibilities that I have.

I know that many environmentalists are going to tell me: there is no other world. But I would like to ask (and forgive me for doing this ethical duality): What do we do without energy resources? Do we stop the world economy? Do we slow it down?

How do we see the issues of planning, projection, and identification of needs? How do we manage processes? How do we advance towards risk (which is what gives me social responsibility and sustainable development)? How do we manage the human resource? And obviously, the most valuable (and I believe that this morning we are doing it): How do we communicate effective to all our interest groups?

A model of corporate governance was created, which we apply to small and medium entrepreneurs in our country, where we specifically talked about the board of directors, administration, the issues of how management is; and from that, not only did we provided a reality, a diagnosis, but we also came up with a proposal and an improvement plan for the organizational strategy.

A central theme in all of our lives: the subject of transparency, the subject of communication, the subject of the legal basis; behind this, in the transparency, it again, becomes a mechanism with peace: the subject of violence and uprooting, the subject of the chaotic situation. We could raise that about 80 million people living with non-sanitary measures in Latin America, and today we could say that there is a very specific (very, very specific) topic, in what we could reference: drinking water.

In this transparency, because obviously I must know my interest groups, I must make a strategy with each of them, I must make different considerations; from which I ponder them, because obviously I communicate effectively; and I continue with some issues that have to do with business relationships.

Business relationships, I'll think about one. Before it was the organization with each interest group, now it's saying: have your suppliers work with your customers, have your suppliers work with your non-governmental organizations, have your suppliers work with the community. Then the changes, specifically the relationship the company had with the entrepreneur was changed. What are the requirements for the bottle, for the container, for the microphone? How to be less bad? I do not know if that would be the question, how to be and how to live in a sustainable world?

From the point of view of financial returns I have to think about the issue of growth for investors, and obviously lenders. Companies in Africa are sold in a million, every stock; But the same companies in Europe sell each stock by five million; But companies in Latin America, each share is sold in ten million pesos; if I looked at it in figures, ten million dollars (excuse me). So here, what is the reason? It is topic of the financial muscle.

A participation with the community: here we would have to create habits, organizational communication; here I would have to be thinking of a theme that we have defined as shared value. The clearest example: the international Starbucks, which since 1971 made a penetration in the planet, and by 2013, and by this time by 2015, has approximately nineteen thousand seven hundred stores producing coffee according to the needs of each country.

That does not improve conditions, that does not improve the rate of profitability, that does not improve social conditions? And what does that give me? Countries, as such, in peace.

Above this, then, a created model appears, where it is asked how it enters the organization, how it permeates within the whole organizational structure; and from the most important organizational structure: how does it return to society? Which is the interest of any of us, or the entrepreneur or the academic or the state.

And we would have to think about the most important thing: the intangible. How much is that part worth to me? And it has nothing to do with brands, it has nothing to do with patents, it does not have anything to do with it specifically; but it is the same development of the products and services that many have talked about, such as the so-called inclusive businesses, or the business bases of the pyramid where I work with society, and starting from working with society because I get the best results.

Many have joined them with organization’s topic of corporate volunteer issues, and by uniting them with those corporate volunteer issues in organizations, look at how I chain references and how I chain values for people who are very close to the heart of the company. Within that, obviously, a topic of intangibles, which would have to refer to relational capital, which would have to refer to trust, which would have to refer again to a theme of equity, of consciousness and of social development.

It would culminate with two items: employment tactics.

Do we have the necessary conditions for hiring? Do I contract mothers who are head of households, but I am thinking about the conditions that she has? It is worth clarifying, not only are mothers head of households, but they are also head of families. Then we could see it from that condition.

Do I have the right schedules? Have I stipulated? Have I looked at the guarantees? Have I appropriated?

So here the question I want to return to is that of the entrepreneur, to be able to develop and see that the conflict of organization is the conflict of daily life, and that conflict of daily life is what does not allow us a complete stability within our guarantees.

The relationship between the company and the employees, which goes beyond just my collaborators, but also has to do with my family, with education, it has to do with those who provide me as such within the community.

And finally, a planet, let's say, from the point of view of deterioration; if I think about it - I just want to take an indicator - one of the big winners has been Coca Cola FEMSA, and forgive me for making the reference, but the Colombian case had a very strong issue, and that was that through a spill and deterioration, they preferred to pay the 108,000 dollars for the spill instead of just apologizing to the community. And I know that apologizing to the community is not going to do everything, right? Or, the famous Volkswagen case last year.

I will end with this. So, if I look at it, the social becomes equitable, the environmental becomes bearable and the economic becomes viable; and this is where I make the clarification, and there it is written: we include the cultural theme. Where are we going? Towards sustainability and social development. Where is it framed? In each one of us.

Thank you very much, we have more topics, but I have to be respectful with our time.

 

[1] 1) Personas (People).

2) Prosperidad (Prosperity).

3) Paz (Peace).

4) Asociativismo (Partnership).