VIVA: Vision and Values

At first glance it would seem that there are major conflicts of interest between a business and a foundation. While the former seeks to make money, the latter intends to invest it, though with no financial return. However, I began wondering if there actually exists such a deep gulf when it is the same individual's vision that gives rise to both, when both seek to add value to society, when both are based on efficiency and entrepreneurship, and when both seek to establish new modalities of partnership.

Initially, there were no formal institutional ties between AVINA and GrupoNueva. Yet, it is my hope that their future relationship will be a closer one and that we will find ways for them to work more closely together, motivating and supporting each other.

For me this is another step toward attaining my vision. That is why I have created a Trust called VIVA - which stands for vision and values - to which I donated the total equity capital of Nueva.

GrupoNueva and AVINA follow two different logics, business and social, respectively. Their features and temporal projections are also different. Business logic tends to be vertical and linear; it responds to a rapid temporal sequence. Social logic, on the other hand, is rather horizontal and interrelated, and is defined on the basis of long-term propositions.

While these two logics would initially appear incompatible, the fact is that they share many points of convergence. Chief among them is the purpose, common to both organizations, of helping forge a more sustainable society. VIVA Trust fosters understanding and mutual respect between both logics, finding synergies and strengthening mutual learning processes.

There will be no successful companies in failed societies. Therefore, it is incumbent upon both organizations, each in its field, to contribute to the sustainable development of society. For GrupoNueva, this means working profitably, even in an economically difficult environment, while fully assuming its social and environmental responsibility. AVINA, in turn, has to contribute to social development in a coherent and efficient fashion.

I see VIVA Trust as yet another step in my thinking about, writing about, and experimenting with relationships between business and society – a process I began while taking my business group out of asbestos, continued in establishing the WBCSD, and am pushing several steps further with VIVA Trust.

VIVA Trust inspires both organizations in their strategic orientation, monitoring their performance and efficiency and assuming the ‘owner's responsibility’. This means that the beneficiary of GrupoNueva's dividends is no longer I but VIVA Trust. The dividends generated by GrupoNueva are transferred to AVINA and other organizations through VIVA Trust for the purpose of investing them in the creation of a more sustainable society.

For GrupoNueva employees, this means that the profits realized no longer reward one stockholder but rather are reinvested in their own social environment, thus benefiting society directly and the company indirectly. I trust that this is an additional motivation for all employees. For AVINA, this means that its activities are financed with funds generated by the societies in which the foundation and its partners work, thus contributing to sustainable development. My goal is to create a virtuous circle where all will be winners.

We are just setting out in what could be a long journey. But I have already had some concrete results. A GrupoNueva executive in Ecuador partnered with AVINA to establish a foundation to help workers laid-off by many companies set up their own businesses. A GrupoNueva farm in Costa Rica is working with AVINA partners helping them restore a river basin. There is also business/foundation cooperation in the work being done with the Mapuche indigenous people in Chile and Argentina.

My Commitment

I will support the VIVA idea with my full personal commitment because I am convinced that our modern world needs innovative social development models. I trust these efforts will be successful and have a multiplier effect. VIVA TRUST might thus be able to motivate other business leaders to cooperate with the leaders and initiatives we support, or contribute in some other way toward forging a link between business and civil society that will offer promising new solutions.

My reflections on the various organizations that I have helped set up during my life give me great personal pleasure. However, I am not entirely satisfied. I feel that we will not attain sustainable human development until many more individuals and organizations are motivated by a vision of this sort of progress and come to value this goal. This conviction shall inspire and guide me for the rest of my life.