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Welcome to the

Effective Stakeholder Engagement

Briefing

26th February 2009

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Agenda

8.00am Arrival & Registration


8.30am Welcome address : Anthony Hyde
8.35am British American Tobacco : Verity Lawson - Stakeholder Engagement as it relates to Sustainability Reporting
8.50am Q&A
8.55am England Marketing : Fiona Tarpey & Jan England - Stakeholder Engagement - why bother and how to do it
9.10am Q&A
9.15am Bureau Veritas : Murray Sayce - Stakeholders & Assurance
9.30am Q&A
9.35am Summary and close : Anthony Hyde
10.00am Departure

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British American Tobacco

Verity Lawson

Stakeholder Engagement as it relates


to Sustainability Reporting

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Stakeholder
Engagement at
British American
Tobacco
Verity Lawson
Sustainability Reporting Manager
British American Tobacco
at a glance

World’s most international tobacco


group
 business in 180 countries, over
300 brands
 global market share approx.17%
 only international tobacco group
with a significant interest in
tobacco leaf growing
 over 53,000 employees
2007 financial performance
 £ 26bn gross turnover
 £ 2.9bn profit from operations
 £ 17bn tax contribution
WHY Does BAT carry out Dialogue?

Engagement is linked to Group Strategy


our Strategy
 “ To achieve leadership of the
tobacco industry through strategies
focused on growth, productivity and
responsibility ”.

Responsibility is fundamental to
our strategy for building long term
shareholder value

We cannot be responsible unless


we listen and act on the concerns
of our stakeholders.
Engagement – HOW we do it
Identifying our stakeholders
• Persons or organisations who are impacted by our actions
• Persons or organisations who’s actions can impact us.
• The bigger the potential impact, the more important the stakeholder.

Some of BAT’s key stakeholders are:

Anti-tobacco
Employees lobby
Investors
Governments

Retailers
Farmers Suppliers Scientists
…but we often have different global and local stakeholders
Engagement – HOW we do it
 Engaging stakeholders is often a challenge for a
tobacco company
Rigorous approach

 External expert guidance

 Stakeholder and issues mapping

 Independently facilitated dialogue

 AA1000 Series

 GRI Guidelines

 Independent assurance
Engagement – HOW we do it
Engagement requires a fundamental shift
in the way we conduct our business
Traditional Social Reporting

Decide Listen

Deliver Decide

Defend Deliver
The impact of dialogue on BAT

CSI GUIDELINES
Youth Smoking
Prevention

Snus launch May 2005

Social Responsibility in
Tobacco Production
Social reporting & dialogue allowed us to…

 Engage constructively with our stakeholders


 Understand their expectations in depth
 Ensure these expectations are given due consideration in our
decision making
 Demonstrate with actions that we are responsive to
stakeholders’ concerns and thereby gain their trust
 Provide a powerful incentive for stakeholders to support BAT
initiatives
 Gain recognition that we are a responsible tobacco company
So why did we need to change?
We made good progress, but:

 Plc reporting risked lagging behind best practice

 Reporting on process not performance

 Comprehensive approach to issues coverage no longer meets


stakeholder needs

 Social reporting adding limited value to the business group-wide

2007-2008
Used stakeholder dialogue to redefine our
reporting & issues…
Defining materiality
 Stage one: Mapping dialogue issues
 level of interest to stakeholders and;
 current or potential impact on company
 Stage two: Internal consultation
 Management board
 Function’ champions’
 Stage three: External consultation
 CSR experts
 Issue experts
 Stakeholder dialogue to review our conclusions
 Have we included the right issues?
 Is there anything missing?
 Feedback on the targets and plans
Low impact, Medium impact, High impact,
HIGH high concern high concern high concern
issues issues issues
MEDIUM
stakeholders

Low impact, Medium impact, High impact,


interest to
Level of

medium concern medium concern medium concern


issues issues issues

Low impact, Medium impact, High impact,


LOW

low concern low concern low concern


issues issues issues

LOW MEDIUM HIGH


Current or potential
impact on Company
BAT’s Sustainability Agenda
Harm reduction
 We will strive to bring commercially viable, consumer acceptable
reduced-risk products to market
Marketplace
 We will take a lead in upholding high standards of corporate conduct in
our marketplace
Supply chain
 We will work for positive social, environmental and economic impacts in
our supply chain
Environment
 We will actively address the impacts of our business on the natural
environment
People & culture
 We will work to ensure we have the right people in the right environment
to deliver our vision
Stakeholder dialogue
 Dialogue has provided a huge amount of benefit to the
business
 New ideas
 Opening doors
 Helping us listen and learn
 Highly valued across the Group

…but it wasn’t perfect


 Stakeholder fatigue
 Dialogue for reporting’s sake
 Asking the same questions and getting the same answers
Stakeholder dialogue
 Dialogue is our unique selling point!
 Independent facilitation
 Fully assured
 Demonstrating responsiveness

 What we need to do differently


 Based on business need, not reporting need
 Balance stakeholder expectations with business impact
 No more ‘shopping lists’ of expectations
 Use to guide reporting and inform activity, not dictate it
Objectives for dialogue…

 Creating a vision
 Gather expectations
 Still valid if an issue hasn’t been the subject of dialogue in the past

 How to achieve the vision?


 Develop targets and measures of success
 Get stakeholder feedback on a new approach
 Review strategies and activities
 To get advice and opinion in areas where we aren’t the experts

 ‘Sense check’
 Are we still heading in the right direction?
2007-2008 Dialogue Topics
2007
 Marketplace
 Supply chain
 People & culture
 CSR/Sustainability

2008
 Human rights
 Environment
 Illicit trade of tobacco products
 CSR/Sustainability
England Marketing

Fiona Tarpey & Jan England

Stakeholder Engagement
why bother and how to do it

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Stakeholder Engagement – Why bother? And how to do it.

26th February 2009


Who we are

Fiona Tarpey – Operations Director


Jan England – Managing Director

Independent Market Research Agency


Established in 1994
Based in Cambridgeshire
Extensive experience in agriculture,
environment and leisure sectors
Team of 11 very experienced researchers
MRS Company Partner
Investors in People

www.englandmarketing.co.uk
www.englandmarketing.co.uk
Why we can talk to you

» 15 years of experience in helping many companies undertake stakeholder research


» Knowledgeable and experienced team who share their learning and understand CSR
» Use tried and tested market research techniques to achieve effective results

www.englandmarketing.co.uk
www.englandmarketing.co.uk
Stakeholder Engagement

» What is it?

» A flamboyant term to describe talking to, listening to, meeting with and reporting
back to stakeholders

» Who are stakeholders?

» Stakeholders are those who have an interest in what you as a company are doing -
typically they are customers, employees, investors and neighbours

www.englandmarketing.co.uk
www.englandmarketing.co.uk
Why engage with Stakeholders?

» To understand the perceptions of your company

» To confirm how well you are regarded

» Gain feedback on how you are performing

» Benchmark performance year on year

» To build trust – especially in the current economic climate!

» To give value and meaning to your CSR activity

» To give you a better understanding of the future

» To elevate your organisation above the competition to ensure long term sustainability of
your activities

www.englandmarketing.co.uk
www.englandmarketing.co.uk
Why engage with stakeholders?

www.englandmarketing.co.uk
www.englandmarketing.co.uk
The process

1. Stakeholder mapping

2. Define a materiality index

3. Create a matrix

4. Undertake the engagement process

5. Analyse the results

6. Report back

7. Create a benchmark for future years

www.englandmarketing.co.uk
www.englandmarketing.co.uk
Stakeholder Mapping

Employees

Investors Customers

Media Suppliers

Academics NGOs
Government

www.englandmarketing.co.uk
www.englandmarketing.co.uk
Stakeholder Mapping

» What is their relative importance?

» How important are they to you?

» How important are your activities to them?

» Devise a scale……..

1 5 10

Low Medium High

www.englandmarketing.co.uk
www.englandmarketing.co.uk
Stakeholders

» Consider your approach.........

» What do you ask them?

» Do you ask their opinions ahead of developing your strategy or


after?

» Do you use their opinions to help inform your strategy?

www.englandmarketing.co.uk
www.englandmarketing.co.uk
Materiality – what are the issues?

Climate Change

Food Security
Water Supply

CO2 Flooding

Giving Biodiversity
Poverty

www.englandmarketing.co.uk
www.englandmarketing.co.uk
Materiality Index

» What is their relative importance?

» Devise a scale……..

1 5 10

Low medium high

www.englandmarketing.co.uk
www.englandmarketing.co.uk
Ranking by Importance

» Use a matrix to score importance of stakeholder group and


importance of material issues

» Highest score suggests the areas on which to focus

www.englandmarketing.co.uk
www.englandmarketing.co.uk
Matrix of Importance

Current Issue Stakeholder Group

Customers Employees Suppliers Investors Government NGOs Media Academics

Climate
Change
Water Supply

CO2

Food Security

Flooding

Biodiversity

Poverty

Giving

www.englandmarketing.co.uk
www.englandmarketing.co.uk
Matrix of Importance

Current Issue Stakeholder Group

Customers Employees Suppliers Investors Government NGOs Media Academics

Climate 18 18 16 18 19 15 15 15
Change
Water Supply 14 7 8 12 12 4 6 7

CO2 20 18 16 18 19 16 16 16
Food Security 2 4 2 8 2 3 2 2

Flooding 4 8 6 4 3 8 6 2

Biodiversity 10 9 8 6 4 4 8 10

Poverty 16 9 8 7 15 4 2 4

Giving 10 16 5 6 8 8 6 5

www.englandmarketing.co.uk
www.englandmarketing.co.uk
How to talk to Stakeholders

Use conventional market research techniques

Methodology based on characteristics of stakeholder group

» Face-to-face interviews
» Telephone interviews
» Online/postal/touch screen surveys
» Focus groups and workshops
» Stakeholder panels

Results

» Analysed using market research software


» Can be linked to a stakeholder management system
» Conventional statistical analysis combined with qualitative analysis

www.englandmarketing.co.uk
www.englandmarketing.co.uk
Who should do the stakeholder
engagement?
INTERNAL TEAM VS EXTERNAL RESEARCH TEAM

• Knowledge of the company • Skills in questionnaire design


• Independent and unbiased
• Knowledge of the issues • Respondents open and honest
with third party
• Knowledge of the stakeholders •Trained interviewers
•Familiarity with capture and
analysis of data
•Understanding of CSR issues
•Can benchmark against other
organisations

• Could be biased •Less knowledge of the company


• Lack interviewing skills
• Lack experience of analysis of
qualitative data

www.englandmarketing.co.uk
www.englandmarketing.co.uk
Why bother?

In summary……….

» Clearer picture of who your stakeholders are

» How important they are and why

» Focus for developing your strategy

www.englandmarketing.co.uk
www.englandmarketing.co.uk
Bureau Veritas

Murray Sayce

Stakeholders & Assurance

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26th February 2009
Stakeholders & Assurance

London
CR reporting – stakeholder engagement

• Getting involved in stakeholder engagement can


appear as tricky as hooking up with someone who
has just been through a messy divorce.

• The … baggage that is carried in those two words


is … enough to persuade most sustainability
managers to take up a monasticEngagement
life. is a pretentious catchall phrase
that covers:
“talking with”,
“meeting with”,
“listening to”, and
“informing”
… wrapped up in the notion of transparency

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CR reporting - best practice in assurance

► Challenge CR strategy and performance


 Governance and risk
 Doing the ‘right things’ and in the right way

► Focus on understanding / response to material issues


 Sector specific issues and ‘Hot topics’
 Confidence in robustness of systems and data

► Greater reassurance to stakeholders on management of priority


issues and enhanced credibility
 How stakeholder engagement/feedback is used
 Stakeholder panels/stakeholder perspectives

► Value protection to value creation



From business and CR perspective

Assurance process to promote performance improvement

► Strategic / forward looking



Overview of CR strategy and reporting

Identification of future vision and challenges

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CR reporting – stakeholder engagement

► Key to building trust and external credibility

► Stakeholders increasingly included in identifying issues

► Identifying and prioritising stakeholders + transparency over who is engaged

Of the G250
of which 65%
70
‘better
60 understand
50 s/holder
expectations’
40
%

%
30
20
10
0
feedback for

feedback IN
engagement

feedback
s/holder

strategy
s/holders
structured

informs

s/holder

reporting
identify

reporting
s/holder
s/holder

Stage further..:

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CR reporting – stakeholder engagement

• a principles-based, open source framework for quality


stakeholder engagement
• a robust basis for designing, implementing, evaluating
and assuring the quality of stakeholder engagement

Stage further..:
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External Review Committees & Expert Panels

….review, evaluate, scrutinise and recommend

• 3rd successive year to assess Sustainability Report and process


• express views as individuals, not on behalf of respective organisations
• 3 main questions:
• has the company selected the most important topics ?
• how well has report dealt with these topics / responded to stakeholders ?
• did Shell give sufficient information and access to do this ?

• to encourage innovation and leadership on sustainable development & CR :


• advising on key areas of strategy and performance

(objectives, targets, performance, policy, stakeholder relationships & governance)


• independent scrutiny of BT’s understanding of critical societal issues; and
• advising on new or significantly altered report content.

Stage further..:
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assurance – stakeholder inclusion

An approach used for assurance of GSK, 2007/8 – Access to Medicines

• Interviews with external stakeholders to evaluate Materiality and Responsiveness

• Has material information (around subject matter) been included ?

• Does the information help with informed opinions and decisions ?

• Is the Company responding to issues / concerns & adequately communicating this ?

• Is information clear, understandable, timely and accessible ?

• Stakeholder selection based on:

• Nature, activities & objectives of stakeholder (PPP, investor, NGO, research…)

• Area of concern (R&D, preferential pricing, voluntary licensing…)

• openness to collaboration / practicality of engagement. Preference also given to


groups/ bodies quoted in the
• Standing and credibility Report, to include in the
process elements of text
verification.

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assurance – stakeholder inclusion

• Private-Public Partnerships

• Responsible investors

• Governmental Organisations

• Non Governmental Organisations

And other groups were approached:

• Research bodies
• Industry groups and associations
• Patients’ and consumers’ groups /
associations
• Others

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GSK Case study – “what they said…”
• ‘GSK a leading organisation on vaccines…’
• ‘PPPs can be very positive if set up well…’

• ‘GSK understands relevance of business model in LDCs’


• ‘compares favourably to peers…’
• ‘[GSK] is at the frontline of R&D for DDW…’

• ‘positive response to tiered vaccine model…’


• ‘Tearing Down the Barriers is good approach…like idea of dual
branding…’
• ‘There is no global access policy or strategy obviously in place’
• ‘[GSK] keeps us well informed…’
• ‘Would like to see KPIs on % invested in R&D on DDW’
• ‘What is [GSK’s] real contribution to PPPs?’
• ‘Cheapest prices still may be very high’
• ‘Need to negotiate a model where …increased transparency
over price’
• ‘Need innovative approach to IP. Is tighter IP always
necessary?’
• ‘Need increased transparency on lobbying’
• ‘Feel aggressively marketed to as a buyer of product’

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assurance – outcomes Issues to manage together
Statement
Opinion: Feedback from indicates that GSK is performing well in
relation to vaccines; differential pricing; PPPs….
illustrates a partnership approach to healthcare and…
Provides information on direct impacts

Main benefits include:


• increased visibility amongst important and sometimes ‘difficult’ audiences
• enhanced and ‘unfiltered’ evaluation against AA1000 Principles
• direct sampling of external perceptions / feedback on subject specific CR activities
• through corroboration can accelerate the verification of factual information
• helps to form assurance conclusions AND to inform future reporting approach / content
• more robust forum to discuss issues of concern independently / anonymously
• enhanced process credibility, transparency and reputation recognition

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assurance – learnings Issues to manage together

• Willing participation and positive feedback


• Importance of cross-representation
• Independence of the process enables greater inclusivity
• Confidentiality and the offer of unanimity to gain buy-in

• Can build relationships with key s/holder groups


• Demonstrate commitment and alignment with the AA1000AS
• Need for ongoing communication to maintain levels of trust
• Planning time / adequate information to optimise interview process

Other considerations
• Can be done a scale to suit the assurance engagement
• Consider informal /confidential feedback process to reporting organisation

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Thank you for attending

Have a safe journey

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