“If we’re talking about community organizations, there’s none like United Way”. That’s how forceful the Global CEO Emeritus of Deloitte, Punit Renjen, was, who recently took part alongside United Way’s global president, Angela Williams, at the World Economic Forum in Davos.
Renjen argued in his presentation for the relevance of large companies in social change. He frames it clearly as a sound and fair way of doing business: “A business cannot thrive in a precarious community. A business does not succeed if the community around it doesn’t succeed. Companies want the best people, and for that we have to provide opportunities. Caring for local communities is an investment”.
According to Renjen, governments and social entities alone are not enough; companies must get involved in social improvement for change to be effective. Deloitte invests large amounts of money in social impact, taking great care to address the specific needs of each place; in India, women and girls; in China, abandoned children. But he made one surprising point: they’ve found that when financial resources are accompanied by direct involvement from their staff, the positive effect on vulnerable communities multiplies.
Angela Williams, United Way’s top global representative, supported his speech by explaining the importance of the concept of community, of neighborhood, as a microcosm that suffers the universal trauma of lack of opportunity, with specific manifestations depending on the place. Concrete problems for which specific solutions must be designed. United Way acts as a bridge among all the factors that can generate those solutions, and one of the most important is companies.
“Companies are made up of individuals,” confirmed the former Deloitte CEO, pointing out that the logical thing is to connect people with people so that whoever has the power to change can clearly see its direct effect on the people who need it.
You can watch the full conference in this video: