Transformation experts encourage “jumping on this bandwagon” because the Covid-19 pandemic is accelerating the process.

Small and medium-sized companies in Spain face the great challenge of betting on social transformation to become "activists" of change and at the same time "drivers of the economy" in the new crisis context caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.

This was made clear at the First Conference on Social Transformation that was held this morning in Madrid by the La Caixa Foundation, Pimec (the association of small businesses in Catalonia), the Complutense University and Reale Seguros, whereby the masters of ceremony were the climber Jesús Calleja and Begoña Gómez, co-director of the Master's Degree in Social Transformation at the Complutense University of Madrid and wife of the President of the Government of Spain, Pedro Sánchez.

In fact, Gómez was one of the experts who insisted the most during the conference at the CaixaFórum in Madrid that SMEs have the opportunity to join the social transformation that many large companies and public administrations are already leading, with the added value that it can also represent "an opportunity for business".

Even if it is through small actions, she stressed that any positive change always produces a "butterfly effect" that allows "a small shift" to contribute to "an important social impact" or another type of impact. She also stated that any company that internalises this idea and includes it in its business plan will be able to "generate a double return in terms of conscience and pocket.".

All participants insisted on the idea that the social transformation promoted by the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) represents a "business opportunity", as well as a collective obligation to the planet and other people, as Ana Sáenz de Miera (from Ashoka) stressed, who believes that one of the keys to this process is “identifying” a need in society to which a solution can be offered.

To help companies measure their contribution to sustainability, the Rector of the Complutense University of Madrid, Joaquín Goyache, announced via video the creation of a Complutense Extraordinary Chair focused on the development of "tools for social transformation", together with the La Caixa Foundation. This is a training and support opportunity for small businesses so that they can join this trend and learn how to make the most of it economically for their businesses and their clients.

GENERATE POSITIVE IMPACTS

During a round table moderated by Isabel Garro, former Managing Director of the Spanish Global Compact Network and former adviser to the High Commissioner for the 2030 Agenda of the Government of Spain, four specialists on companies and social impact measurement explained the advantages for SMEs in following the path set by the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

The Vice President of Pimec, José María Torres, appealed to small and medium-sized companies to "integrate the social aspect" into their strategy to "generate positive impacts on society" that are measurable and that can be presented to clients as another wealth contribution element.

For this to be entirely possible, Torres took the opportunity to ask public administrations for conditions that would allow them to "compete on equal terms" with large companies, such as "adequate taxation", guarantees to eliminate late payments and mechanisms to facilitate participation in public procurement.

For his part, Alberto Barreiro, from Kaospilot, defended the idea that competitive social transformation is possible but requires companies to apply the "magic formula" of "redefining the business idea" to add new variables that look beyond immediate economic profitability and integrate “the impact they want to have on others”.

Barreiro stressed that SMEs have to "get on this bandwagon" and warned that the Covid-19 pandemic has "accelerated" this process because during lockdown people began to change the mentality of consumption to "reconsider" other questions such as what their "ultimate needs" are.

The way to measure this social contribution, as explained by José Luis Ruiz de Munain, from SpainNAB, is to assume the existence of a "new paradigm" and apply criteria that quantify the social impact of companies through Big Data and Artificial Intelligence, as "otherwise it will be very difficult to turn the transformation effort into a financial return."

Ruiz de Munain advised SMEs to create "alliances" with other actors to make this change a reality in a measurable way and pointed out that the current Covid-19 pandemic "forces us to go deeper" in terms of social transformation after having made notable strides in recent years in terms of governance and the green economy.

CHANGE IN CONSUMERS

From Banco Santander, Marta Aisa Blanco highlighted that the financial entity decided that one of its main aims will be to serve SMEs and also help them to "thrive" in the challenge of transformation to "generate long-term growth" and at the same time "solve the problems facing society” currently.

Aisa pointed out that the coronavirus crisis has caused "seven out of ten consumers" to declare that when the pandemic is over they will only consume products from companies "that made gestures of solidarity" in the worst moments of the pandemic, which represents a "very important change" in mentality that forces companies to pay attention to what is happening around them and get involved in solving problems.

By way of example, she reported that Banco Santander created a small department within its purchasing area at the worst moment of the pandemic to “put suppliers in contact” with others as they wanted to “help” manufacture health protection materials.

At another conference, Clara Arpa, owner of a family business in Zaragoza specialising in metallurgy with 79 employees, stated that social commitment is not at odds with profitability, as she attempted to demonstrate by explaining that everything that is now manufactured by Arpa is done “ with zero CO2 emissions” and savings of 18% on the electricity bill thanks to the replacement of conventional power with solar panels.

She announced that her next goal is to replace the fuel used in forklift trucks and other company vehicles with nitrogen. She warned that the planet's resources "are finite" and therefore moving towards "the circular economy" in the coming years is necessary. She acknowledged that it has cost "a lot to implement" these measures, but stressed that the main challenge is usually to get people "out of their comfort zone" so that they accept the changes in favour of social transformation.