Big interview
decision making. Technology is especially useful here. One example is Bloomberg FXGO, which Danone uses to digitise its financial workflow, promoting collaboration across its treasury. Elsewhere, it’s worked to automate its accounts receivable operations. Between that and technologies crafted for specific products, including the gadget that helps verify the quality of Danone’s baby formula, and no wonder Henri Bruxelles, the company’s COO, recently proclaimed that his employer is “putting technology first with consumers and customers”.
Nifty feet
Above: The Activia brand sold $2.7bn worth of plant-based food and drink in 2020.
Below: Danone continues its mission to bring “health through food to as many people as possible”.
the perfect balance between having a positive impact on the planet while driving financial performance.” To put it another way, though Emmanuel Faber arguably failed in his ambitions to balance his job and his humanity, his spirit may yet live on. Nor is Alpro the only Danone brand to move in a similar direction. Since 2017, the company has promoted a range of sustainable projects on its North American dairy farms, encouraging biodiversity and boosting soil regeneration across 84,000 acres. Crucially, these environmental successes seem to have done little to dampen the division’s financial health, with Q4 2020 profits 3.6% higher than the equivalent period in 2019. Then there’s Activia, another Danone stalwart that in 2020 sold plant-based food and drink worth $2.7bn, all while promoting bioplastic cups and other environment-saving measures. With so much activity, it might be tempting to imagine that Esser is constantly firing off big ideas across his company. On the contrary, the CFO emphasises that potential areas of growth are subject to “very strong” discussions with internal stakeholders first. For any big company, especially one that’s been through the financial wars like Danone, that makes sense. And for this to happen, Esser adds, he works closely with colleagues across the company to develop a “common language” to compare KPIs and bolster
These transformations – encouraging collaboration, banishing silos – could equally be applied to Esser himself. If you’ve followed the collective journeys of CFOs over recent decades, that shouldn’t be surprising. As Esser says, the old days, where his breed were mere “guardians” of the financial temple, have since passed into history. Rather, he suggests, CFOs like him are now expected to hop between executive suites, shepherding company stakeholders towards common goals. In practice, he says, that means bringing transparency to the “holistic impact” of every decision Danone makes. Of course, that still means financial matters – but it also involves understanding “the non-financial impact of decisions on the environment, livelihoods, health”. Beyond the recent successes of avowedly sustainable brands like Activia, how might Esser start convincing truculent shareholders of the need to put “livelihoods and health” at the heart of his business? He could start by emphasising the advantages of this approach to Danone’s future. Quite apart from satisfying green- fingered consumers (“we need to walk the walk”), promoting sustainability puts the company on a stable footing more generally. Fair enough. Danone can put out all the marketing it wants, but on a planet without water, or one where temperatures make daily life impossible, humanity will clearly have bigger worries than the latest iteration of Alpro oat milk. For that reason, if nothing else, Esser is adamant that the tango between growth and sustainability will only get more intimate with time. “What I would love to confirm with you in five years,” he adds, “is that we are recognised as a role model in demonstrating that purpose-oriented business models deliver superior financial value”. And if Esser’s wrong, and he ends up the way of Emmanuel Faber and other sustainable growth advocates? At least he’ll still have football. Though his ego’s been bruised by Die Mannschaft’s premature exit from Euro 2020, the CFO says that he’s still a big fan – and has passed his passion on to his sons. “I spend a lot of time playing with them,” he says. “I really love it. It’s extremely energising for me being out in nature with friends and family, and taking that energy with me into the office.” Given the challenges Isaac Carasso’s heirs will face over the coming months and years, that’s probably just as well. ●
10 Finance Director Europe /
www.ns-businesshub.com
PHILIPPE MONTIGNY; DenisMArt/
Shutterstock.com
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