VELUX Group: Keeping Model Behaviour in Vogue
Originally published in Best Practice: Spring 2015 issue
It is the Group’s purpose to establish a number of Model Companies, which cooperate in an exemplary manner. By Model Company we mean a company working with products useful to society, which treats its customers, suppliers, employees of all categories and shareholders better than most other companies. A Model Company makes a profit, which can also finance growth and maintain financial independence.
This could sound like a rephrasing of the EU definition of CSR - Talking about creation of shared value for owners/shareholders and for other stakeholders and society at large, while minimising possible adverse impacts. Both describes the same notion – That companies shall create value for both company and society and behave responsibly towards all their stakeholders.
The above is however the Model Company Objective (MCO) of Danish company, the VELUX Group, famous for its skylight windows. It was first written down in 1965 and has only been modified once, in 1973, to add the final sentence. How is this proving relevant in 2015, 50 years after first written down?
