As Cattolica, we’re aware that the best part of a company’s operations is represented by the relations that it manages to trigger with the community of which it is part. Such a bond isn’t just limited to the people who work every day in one of our offices or branches, but it also involves the ways the work of each colleague is perceived to the outside world and impacts it. This view, focused also outside of ourselves, translates into the desire to grow together with our territory of reference and to read and interpret its needs and opportunities.

In an age in which the entire social construction and the behaviours that ensue appear to be founded on the denial of a sound system of values, I believe that the most compelling project is to reaffirm and reinforce a scenario truly anchored to a set of principles, validated by our history and our tradition.

Our foundations are solid, our by-laws are rooted in the Social Doctrine of the Church and from this derives the centrality that we, from both an ethical duty and a firm conviction, attribute to the individual and its qualities. These two aspects, if enhanced, can effectively determine the success of a company.

The core question concerns the thorough understanding and internalizing our roots even more, by grasping in full the relevance and the natural complexity of maintaining a company project unique of its kind. We know that it is also the natural consequence of the good work performed over the years, of a strengthening of our Company achieved through courageous choices that turned out to be successful. It is also thanks to these choices that the Company, today, can think of deploying a more complex and structured strategy of sustainability, capable of generating positive effects on multiple fronts where economic, social and environmental topics find themselves living together in balance, offering greater advantages than if they were considered individually.

There are corporate projects that turn out to take a place in history, as they get in touch with currents and tensions the circulate beyond any legal obligation, since they are more connected to a deeper way of being and understanding the world than to formal and legal obligations. They are disruptive examples that change the current balance, striving to affirm a new one. We can say with pride that we have chosen this path.

We are a cooperative company: social responsibility is inherent in our corporate model. This is what distinguishes us in the market. With our Fondazione, which I have the honour of chairing, we have undertaken a mutual challenge: the Fondazione follows its projects with entrepreneurial attitude while the Company feels the duty to manage its business with social responsibility. This is the secret of our being an enterprise. 

Paolo Bedoni

As Cattolica, we believe in courageous choices and in a transparent and loyal relationship with our stakeholders. Our long-term vision focuses on the innovation of products and solutions, at the same pace with the evolution of the corporate culture yet remaining faithful to our more genuine identity.

Thanks also to the definition of an ambitious but feasible sustainability strategy, we are trying to perform - wherever an opportunity arises - actions capable of creating positive effects and triggering further projects to the benefit of the Company.

We explore new opportunities without losing sight of the deep roots which make us different and recognisable in the eyes of those who have already chosen us and the ones who get in touch with our organisation.

We are aware that the quest for an increasing transparency of business is now a principle felt both in the economic community and, to an even greater extent, within civil society.

The expectations towards corporations are rising, and such a trend is even more relevant for the financial services industry, which can and must be in the forefront of supporting the changes of the economic, social and environmental world scenario.

We feel intensely the need to enhance our positive impact on the stakeholders of reference and to effectively communicate the results that we achieve.

We started last year by applying the new rules provided by the European Directive of Non-Financial Information and we have captured their implications to start the set-up of an adequate governance of the CSR Department. This Consolidated nonfinancial statement, the second to meet the new legislative requirements, expands and improves the previous work and aims to represent in detail the initiatives, goals and progress achieved as far as sustainability is concerned.

Last year I emphasized the importance of a long-term vision. I want to stress once again this idea, a central landmark of my entrepreneurial view: only a perspective that goes beyond the short term validates and makes the pursuit of significant goals possible, avoiding compromise solutions and façade commitments.

The increasing focus that the Group places on sustainability is also proven by the fact that, for the first time, a part of the variable remuneration of some top managers - including the Managing Director - is directly linked to the achievement of objectives focused on the corporate social responsibility.

My hope is that we achieve what a well-known scholar recommended, when he stated that “the CSR should not be conceived as one way to run a business among any other, but as the premise and the institutional frame within which to run a business”.

I believe that the acquisition of this mindset and this attitude is the ultimate goal which we must focus on with commitment and conviction.

Alberto Minali

Starting last year, Cattolica decided to undertake this evolutionary path, aware of the complexity of the goal yet committed to pursue it. The sustainability strategy must aspire to a real integration with the business model: a missed or just partial integration makes non-financial reporting barely effective and significant and the sustainability policies not very substantial.

There are still relatively few companies capable of embedding the philosophy of sustainability at every organisational level and along the whole value chain, to achieve a concrete effectiveness, which goes beyond the critical threshold of significance.

One of the objectives which we focus on most is making Cattolica a company able of having a positive impact on all the stakeholders, by contributing to their well-being thanks to an integrated business model.

It is neither a vague social and environmental sensitivity nor a form of old-style philanthropy: we want to work to the best of our abilities on all the drivers available. The understanding of these impacts can in turn reinforce our sustainability model for the coming years.

We are moving fast from a sustainability in real time to a design with a wider breath, which aspires to anticipate strategies and goals thanks to an increasing focus on the requests - old and new - which we are asked. The best companies have defined targets, they reflect on the best ways to understand and enhance their strengths and know how to identify the solutions to deploy at best policies and operating choices to the benefit of the stakeholders. We strive to be one of these companies and we are working hard in this direction.

Emanuela Vecchiet