Using Success to Breed Success

Put simply and bluntly, the challenge for EDP has been "How can we use our success as a Health and Safety Consultancy firm to be a vehicle for benefiting people in the developing world?"

Fundamental Values

To understand the rationale behind our strategy, it is necessary to lay down some markers that have influenced our decision making:

1. All members of the EDP Board share a common concern for the dignity of every human being, regardless of colour, creed, ethnicity, or any other distinction. It is well expressed in the golden rule of “love your neighbour as yourself”, where ‘neighbour’ is totally inclusive. We are basically apolitical insofar that we do not favour any political ideology over any other. We are purely concerned about the welfare of societies and the lives of individuals who make up those societies.

2. With such a singular focus, our concern and activity can be described in a variety of ways and therefore we are flexible in how we pursue our objectives (one might express it as "all things to all men"). Our only constraint is that we aim for the highest ethical standards in all we do and say.

3. For EDP, Corporate Social Responsibility (or whatever name you choose for helping others) is more than an "add on" to the business. Certainly, that is where it started but it has grown in importance to the point where it is a major factor (if not the major factor) in business decisions. Consequently, we no longer view Health & Safety Consultancy and Corporate Social Responsibility as being distinct from each other. It would be more correct to see them as intimately intertwined and interdependent.

4. To be justifiable and sustainable, Corporate Social Responsibility, as practiced by the business, must be inclusive of our own employees and their families, our customers, suppliers, others with whom we work and our local society, in addition to any aspirations we have to influence regions that are further afield.



5. Whilst Corporate Social Responsibility and the dignity of all people could be expressed in a myriad different ways, various circumstances have come together that have pointed us in the direction we are currently pursuing. We believe it is more effective and efficient to build on the opportunities that are already available to us rather than expending time and energy creating alternative scenarios.
   
   Of particular significance in this respect are:

• We already have associations with a number of Asian countries where significant proportions of the population are struggling economically.

• A number of business opportunities have been presented to us that centre on Singapore – a city that we see as a business hub in the region. These include business contacts whose views on Corporate Social Responsibility are very closely aligned to our own.

• Within the business, we already have considerable experience of doing business in Singapore.

• We have an alliance with an organisation that is already working throughout Asia, is well versed in the cultures and languages of the area, already has a wide network of contacts and is driven by the same values as EDP.

Outline Growth Strategy

EDP Health, Safety and Environment Consultants Ltd now has a firm business foundation in the UK and Europe. It is from this foundation that we plan to establish an office in Singapore. The potential health and safety business opportunities in Singapore are such that the office could quickly be self supporting and generating sufficient income to fund expansion into other regions of Asia.

Once established, the Singapore office will work with our contacts in Singapore itself and in various other Asian countries to set up additional offices in major cities where there are business opportunities – primarily in health and safety, though not necessarily exclusively so.

The objective in each region is to set up a "presence on the ground" from where, alongside running and developing the primary business, we are able to instigate, mentor, support (which may involve financial investment) local entrepreneurial opportunities that we believe have the potential to positively impact local society.

There is no hard and fast policy in regard to the level of independence of businesses that are set up in this way. Each should be judged on its own merits, but starting from the default position that we would favour independence as far as this can be reconciled with our overall strategy for this programme.

The aim in each country is to create something that is self sustaining and self reproducing along the same pattern as the Singapore "bridgehead".

Although planning is still very much embryonic, we envisage some of the first offices being established in:

• Phnom Pen – Cambodia
• Kuala Lumpur – Malaysia
• Hong Kong – Special Administrative Region of China
• Beijing – Northern China
• Shanghai – Eastern China
• Bangalore – India

These locations are listed for purposes of illustration only. They could be replaced by many alternative potential locations or might be used as staging posts to other locations.

Our vision extends beyond these regions, but at present there are too many imponderables to make it worth our while translating our wider vision into an extended strategy.