An interview with Nisrene Haddad, CSR director of Manutan

You have probably heard of Manutan, or maybe its predecessor in the Netherlands, Overtoom. The company is a European leader in the supply of industrial, commercial, and office equipment to businesses for over 50 years, active in over 17 countries. They are a living example of a company that uses its reach in the market to make a positive impact on the world we are living in. Prodware has serviced Manutan for a long time and we wanted to learn from the insights of Nisrene Haddad, the first Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) director of Manutan. We had the privilege of talking with her about her role and experiences to-date.

What are your first impressions of CSR at Manutan?

I joined Manutan in November 2021 as the CSR director and report to the CEO. Manutan already had a very ambitious and strong Corporate Social Responsible affinity. Everyone is either doing something or looking for ways to engage in making a positive impact, so it’s not new. I’m here to bring it all together and help prioritize so we can really accelerate on some key areas.

I’ve worked on CSR for more than 10 years now across different industries. In the early 2010s, CSR has been at the forefront at global companies, but it was a a challenge to build the business case for sustainability and in many cases, a project would not pass due to its longer-term payback. But Manutan does walk the talk. The leadership team is really committed to this topic.

Where did you start?

It was important to involve everyone because everyone had a stake in the topic. So, I gathered a CSR team at the Group level involving functional directors to regional leaders. During several workshops we brainstormed on the key CSR topics impacting us and our value chain and prioritized them to build the strategy. “What’s important for the customer, for our suppliers, for our employees and for the community we work in?” The process was very collaborative and resulted in an inclusive and complete strategy for Manutan. What’s helpful is that everyone now feels that they own it and are taking it back to their teams and to their regions to help execute.

Sustainability has been important to Manutan for many years. What sparked off the interest?

It’s a family-owned business with a personal desire from the founders and owners to integrate their unifying values into the company. There’s a strong focus on the development and well-being of employees. We have a diverse leadership team who are willing to give everyone their chance to make a difference, so you really feel empowered as a person to make decisions and to shape the culture. I think that’s what people feel when they join the organization.

How do you keep balance between making internal and external effort, do KPI’s reflect this balance properly?

One of the first things I saw that really made me feel that Manutan is on the right path is our KPIs. Manutan has six KPI’s that we use to steer the company at a high level. Two are finance based: turnover and EBITA performance. And the other four are very much focused on our value chain.

One is called “With love employees”. That measures the employee experience. The second is “With love suppliers”, to grade our supplier relationship and gather improvement points. There is a customer-oriented one of course, “With love customers” which measures customer’s satisfaction, using the NPS score. We’re now developing “With love planet” which focuses on measuring our impact on the planet. Everyone has a role to play. Manutan educates and involves all its ecosystem.

What would your advice be to companies who are still doubting whether sustainability is the route to go?

I think there’s a lot of evidence today that a purely economic business model is not working anymore. We’ve cornered ourselves when we measure our success only through economic growth. The business case that we built 50 years ago does not stand anymore today. Look around you, at the inflation, energy prices, the issues with plastic packaging and waste, climate change, resource depletion etc.  We need to move away from this system. We need to start rethinking our values, instead of purely growth.

You talk about responsible purchasing. How would you define that?

Buy less or differently. That is the essence of what we need to do. If you are buying an office chair and you can choose a chair for 100 euros that will last 3 years or a chair for 150 euros that will last for 10 years, learn to pay the 150 euros, and don’t buy again in three years.  Additionally, buy the product knowing you are going to recycle it, or even better, buy a refurbished or secondhand product! Manutan is launching circular economy services to help our customers in their own CSR policy such as renting, hire and sales of used products or second lease of life etc.

 Do more with less. This is the way forward. We just need to find ways.  Manutan must help and educate our customers. How can we use innovative solutions like digitization to inform the customer in real-time on the impact of the choices they are making?  At the same time, we must work with our suppliers to understand what’s available and what the alternatives are and continuously revisit our own purchasing habits as well. We have launched this year our eco-responsible product offering that will allow customers will to select products that either have an eco-label or contain at least 25% recycled content or is second hand.

Why are purchasing departments in the perfect position to make a serious contribution to a company’s CSR objectives?

I would call them the gatekeepers. At the end of the day, they are the ones who are commissioned and mandated to go out there and buy products. The purchaser must have the right objective and KPI to guide their decisions. If their objective is, ‘buy all of this for a fixed price’, they are going to be focused on price. If the objective is ‘start looking for more responsible suppliers’ CSR becomes part of the purchasing criteria and that reshuffles the whole purchasing. For example, imagine that the priorities are focus on a low carbon footprint and focus on circularity. So as a purchaser you must know whatever product you need to buy, you need to know what the carbon footprint is so that you can compare like for like and you need to understand how recyclable it is or whether it contains recycled material.  

How do you organize the communication around CSR within the company?

As earlier mentioned, we reply on our Group CSR team to animate and integrate our CSR objectives and priorities into their teams. For example, one of our objectives is to grow our share of eco-responsible offer in the portfolio, this means that we will need to engage and animate our colleagues from across impacted functions and the regions and provide them with the training and clear action plan on how to execute. We have also built a dedicated internal communication plan to make sure that the CSR policy is understood by each employee, at every level of the company.

In your whitepaper on CSR Purchasing, I noticed two different yet connected topics. What is ethical sourcing and how does it differ from responsible purchasing?

They’re closely linked. Ethical sourcing is being driven by regulatory compliance. The European Commission has proposed the new EU Supply Chain Law that is going to require transparency across the supply chain specifically for CSR. This means auditing the suppliers that you are doing business with and the supply chain of the product you’re buying on key CSR and ethical topics. Are human rights impacted? Is there indication of corruption? It is essential to ensure that health, safety, environment and human rights are respected throughout the supply chain. This far-reaching draft law still needs to pass the EU parliament sometime in 2023 or 2024. Unfortunately, we as purchasers have very limited vision into the supply chain. Our suppliers provide whatever information they can. We need ensure that by the time the product information gets to the customer there is a fair amount of due diligence that has taken place.

How do suppliers react when challenged by your purchasing people?

More than 50% of our suppliers today have very similar requests from other customers, so it’s not a new topic on their agenda. Some are on board and willing to work with us. And there are others that need convincing. Purchasing professionals know that they need to build a solid relationship with their suppliers and create a climate of mutual trust, to meet their needs in terms of cost, quality, innovation, etc. And this includes encouraging their social and environmental commitment!

What does the new CSRD reporting standard mean to Manutan?

We are listed on the French Stock Exchange, so we’ve had to comply with the French regulation on reporting non-financial data and there was a basic requirement to report CSR there. CSRD opens the opportunity to really expand on that topic and to communicate on our CSR strategy. Since I joined, we’ve been developing the strategy and aligning our KPIs, so a lot of the groundwork has been done. Once these reporting standards are made public, we need to conduct a gap assessment and work towards complying.

How can a company assess the maturity of their responsible purchasing services?

To control the CSR performance of your suppliers, you must evaluate it. Purchasing departments can carry out supplier audits or assessments internally or outsource this task to the experts in the field such as EcoVadis, Sedex, , SGS, etc. However, this approach has not yet been adopted by everyone.

How can a company establish a more responsible purchasing department?

First, it’s important to raise awareness. Training to gain a good understanding of the CSR principles – not just the carbon footprint and the circular economy, but also the social piece. Then understand how this can link to your own function.  This needs to come from the vision of the company. Then translate that into a practical way which you can incorporate into your purchasing habits. So, if the company is very much focused on social matters, try to identify social criteria that you can integrate into your vendor selection criteria. Pick a couple of those key topics and start discussing them with your suppliers and make sure they’re engaged. It must make sense otherwise it won’t be sustainable. So, find a way to make that change sustainable and feasible for your organization. Don’t shoot yourself in the foot by wanting to go from zero to one hundred in one day because that’s not going to work. It is a change process.