“Only through our actions can we strengthen the compliance system to the benefit of our group’s business, reputation and image”. Poste Italiane’s Joint CEO and Head of Corporate Affairs, Giuseppe Lasco, opened the webinar dedicated to the Group’s new compliance programmes and, in particular, to the topics of integrated compliance and antitrust compliance.
Sustainability
Poste Italiane’s achievements in sustainability “are tangible”, Lasco emphasised. “We are currently at a very high level – if we think about where we were five years ago, we’ve come a long way. We realised,” he added, “that for a company like ours, business and rules must go hand in hand.”
Responsible investment
The value of reputation and sustainability “have become part of the company’s DNA,” continued Poste Italiane’s Joint CEO. Investors today are interested in companies with a high sustainability rate, which have 10% higher than average profitability. And on the pillars of sustainability, Lasco added, “Poste has built the lintel of the Group’s successes”. “Investors have recognised the soundness of our decisions,” Lasco continued, referring to the new record reached by company stock in recent days.
A leap forward
Poste has therefore made a huge leap forward in recent years, despite bureaucratic hurdles. The Joint CEO also recalled that the constant dialogue with institutions, stakeholders and supervising authorities has been fundamental. “To make this machine work,” Lasco commented, “we need all the players to be aware of the perimeter and the rules. We are a highly-structured business and in order to keep track of the control processes we need dynamic cross-compliance with respect to the range of contexts that are present in our Group”. Poste has built a structured and proactive compliance programme from which a culture of assessment has emerged. In terms of antitrust, this culture takes into account national and international best practices both in internal processes and in relations with the authorities.
Corporate culture
“Compliance with antitrust rules for every company must be an integral part of corporate culture – it is essential to be clear on the regulation and its implementation,” said Lasco, recalling that since the start of 2021 Poste has provided one million hours of training on topics such as anti-corruption, privacy, sustainability and safety at work. “Our colleagues and all of us have realised that in our cultural background there is not only the ability to do a job, but also cross-cultural education shaped on the pillars of our strategic sustainability plan.”
