Sustainability and agility

Our approach to agility

In our Code of Conduct, we have made two commitments relating to the corporate value ‘agility’, namely to:

• Constantly seeking agile, efficient and cost-effective solutions for our customers and partners.
• Making choices guided by innovation and a genuine desire to be different.

These days, every organisation operates in a VUCA world – a world characterised by volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity. This undeniably has consequences on our business model and requires qualities such as adaptability, resilience and agility.

Being agile means knowing how to react quickly and efficiently to change, while limiting the negative impacts. From this point of view, agility can appear to be the antithesis of sustainability.

So how can we make the most of agility in our approach to sustainability within an SME like ONE swiss bank?

Agility and sustainability: two complementary approaches

When a company embarks on a sustainability initiative, several prerequisites are essential:

• Have the support of top management.
• Being genuine and sincere.
• Involve internal and external stakeholders.
• Define a long-term strategy (at least 3 to 5 years).
• Successfully manage cultural change.

At ONE, these are the prerequisites that we have been considering since 2021, and which we strive to pursue in our day-to-day work. In 2021, we joined the Swiss Triple Impact programme from B Lab Switzerland and began completing the B Impact Assessment with a view to become a B Corp.

Three years later, we are still a member of the Swiss Triple Impact programme, and our commitments are being defined, while we hope to submit our application for B Corp certification by Summer 2025.

When you read all this, you might naturally ask yourself: why are these processes taking so long?

That’s where agility comes into its own. Sustainability has always been an important issue at ONE over the last three years, but we have had to face up to other challenges:

• Extrinsic factors: negative interest rates, inflation, war in Ukraine.
• Intrinsic factors: return to the ‘black financial figures’, mergers and acquisitions, delisting.

These challenges inevitably had an impact on the prioritisation of our actions, and demanded agility and responsiveness from our staff, particularly in the context of the merger with Banque Profil de Gestion and the acquisition of Falcon Private Wealth Ltd in Dubai. The sustainability approach was always active, but dormant to respond to the urgent needs of the moment and ensure the company’s long-term future and growth.

In addition, agility encourages autonomy, collaboration and employee involvement. Involving employees in defining and implementing a sustainable development strategy strengthens their sense of belonging and commitment, particularly by enabling them to put forward innovative ideas.

Agility and sustainability are indeed two complementary approaches, if you know how to be flexible, able to arbitrate and learn how to manage any frustrations. By combining them, SMEs can not only strengthen their competitiveness but also contribute to a more sustainable future.

Innovation is at the heart of our concerns

Innovation isn’t going to save the Planet, but it is nonetheless a subject that cannot be ignored, and AI is at the top of the list. This technology is now an integral part of the daily lives of our Asset Management department, and we even recently announced our partnership with the company atonra.

Although GAFAM have this year reported a staggering increase in their indirect greenhouse gas emissions (over 30%) and energy consumption linked to their developments in AI, the latter is of growing interest to customers, and we need to meet market’s expectations.

But this example illustrates the dilemma between innovation, agility and sustainability, what Loyco called ‘the magic trio’ at a conference hold in November 2023.

Offering profitable solutions to our customers also means understanding their investment expectations. In Switzerland, only 10 to 15% of customers claim to be ‘interested’ in sustainable investments, compared with 50% for sustainable savings solutions. These figures show that interest is still tentative but growing, and we need to consider those signs to continually adapt our offering by combining profitability and sustainability. Like any company, we sometimes test solutions that turn out to be ineffective, but we draw conclusions from them to optimise them.

As Isabelle Chappuis, an expert in the Futures of Work, said in her speech to Loyco: “Don’t get stuck in your past, use it to fuel your future.”