Amaury de Viviès (Davidson Luxembourg): ESG catalyst
Davidson Consulting stands out from the competition thanks to its strong corporate culture spelt out in the "Davidson Code" book, the 4th edition of which has just been published. This collection of good managerial and environmental practice runs through work conducted in Luxembourg, with digital transformation and work to enhance the client experience.
How do you integrate ESG into your company culture?
To understand why ESG is so important at Davidson, you have to look at our consulting business. We believe that to attract, retain and motivate the best experts in the market we must enable them to work on tasks that contribute to landmark projects in Luxembourg’s IT market, thus helping to strengthen our clients' IT departments. Having strong values in line with ESG considerations fosters effective, motivating team spirit. This is felt by our colleagues even when they are working in the offices of the companies we serve. This is why we attach great importance to the attitude shown by the talent we recruit, and we encourage all initiatives that share and reinforce our culture. This goes from day-to-day activity such as sorting company waste, though to the vehicles used by our consultants. There is also the social aspect. You often see football tables in companies, but too often they are mere decorative objects or trophies. In our company we encourage everything from informal games through to fiercely-fought afterwork tournaments. We find this builds connections between people working together on business projects. We provide all necessary support to allow everyone to contribute to the social side of life, within the company, when staff are with their families, or supporting their work with clubs and associations.
“Having strong values in line with ESG considerations fosters effective, motivating team spirit.”
How do your clients benefit from your ESG culture?
The days are gone when a client would hire a consultant without regard for their internal processes. For example, we invest heavily to train our consultants, and our clients appreciate that a few hours of absence translates into the deployment of enhanced skills, as well as improved general well-being. This investment is based on two assumptions: our fundamental drive to work better for our clients, and our desire to give our people confidence that we believe in their futures with us. We give our staff a career plan we believe will motivate them and enable them to grow.
As a result, we have a low rate of staff turnover, and this brings stability to our projects. As for our clients, increasingly they are asking us to integrate our people within their departments. When we enter into a relationship with an international group we are asked how we will implement and respect ESG rules. We do this by aligning ourselves from the bottom-up and by being a force on the market.
How what ESG developments do you foresee?
I can’t predict how regulations will change, but I know this is a structural shift, and we want to contribute our experience and be a driving force behind this movement in the coming years. This is a strategic issue for Davidson. In 2020, we became the first B-Corp certified IT consulting company in Europe. Today, we are changing our status to become a "mission-driven company". It’s as if we are building a house and want it to be comfortable and welcoming. Our continued growth gives us the means to invest in this area with great determination. Finally, there is a strong on-going growing trend of our customers asking us to help hem outsource entire service centres. This also strengthens the integration of our clients' culture with Davidson's, allowing us to broaden how we add value and further increase our attractiveness. As with green finance, ESG has already gone beyond the stage of hype to become not only an essential asset to competitiveness, but also giving a new social dimension to business life.