Industry leaders encourage the youth to do inclusive business
Big-time industry leaders in the country urged the top Business and Social Science students in Metro Manila to push for creating a business that would not just enable them to earn but also benefit the society.
The Creating Shared Value (CSV) Youth Forum 2014, which was held at the Asian Institute of Management (AIM) Conference Center in Makati, aims to deepen the students’ understanding on the concept of CSV as an important approach to creating inclusive business and encourage their commitment as future leaders in social development.
The Forum featured discussions on Creating Shared Value from actual practitioners in business and the academe made more interactive through the use of social media tools and an engaging learning simulation of CSV within sample value chains.
CSV is a business model where the creation of social benefits is considered strategic and a competitive advantage for growth and profit.
Speaking before the top 100 undergraduate Business and Social Science students were Senator Bam Aquino; Rafael “Rapa” Lopa, executive director of Philippine Business for Social Progress (PBSP); Francisco Roman Jr., executive director of AIM-RVR Center for Corporate Social Responsibility; Jaime Ayala, founder and CEO, Hybrid Social Solutions, Inc; and John Martin Miller, chairman and CEO of Nestlé Philippines.
Nestlé Philippines is one of the leading companies in the Philippines that are practicing CSV. One of their initiatives is the NESCAFE plan. The NESCAFE Plan is a global program by Nestle that promotes coffee farming as a more profitable and sustainable livelihood for many coffee-dependent communities. It has two programs in the Philippines: The Agronomy program and the Farmer Connect.
The Agronomy program aims to equip local farmers with the best available technologies and techniques to help them increase their harvest. The Farmer Connect, on the other hand, is a direct-buying system that encourages small farmers and small-scale intermediaries to sell their product directly to Nestle.
“We’ve opened the buying stations throughout the country. We have nine at the moment, and we have plans to open more so the farmer can then bring their crops to the buying stations. They would get paid on the day and on the world market price for coffee,” explained John Martin Miller, chairman and CEO of Nestle Philippines
In the Philippines, Nestle is the biggest buyer of Robusta coffee, which is the main ingredient needed to produce Nescafe. Now, 30 percent of its Robusta coffee comes from the local farmers. Nestle hopes to increase it to 75 percent by 2020.