Hélène Lory-Delambre
What is, in your opinion, a responsible company?
Projecting to be a responsible company does not boil down to achieving business results only, but involves pursuing a triple ambition: economic, social and environmental! The term responsible derives from the Latin responsus, which means "one who must answer for their actions". It is therefore a company that is concerned about and acts on the environmental and social levers it is able to influence. I am convinced that a responsible company is stronger and better equipped to last over the long haul: looking after one's ecosystem is an earnest of longevity and long-term performance.
How would you describe the concept of good faith?
Demonstrating intellectual honesty implies acting "with awareness” and showing humility: to look oneself in the mirror and to contemplate one's qualities as well as one's flaws, to accept to challenge oneself, and not to hide behind dogmatic postures... this is essential to maintaining momentum for constant progress and having a "growth mindset”.
Could you give examples of the diversity and background of your new agents?
The agent model makes it possible to give a chance to all those that wish to float their company based on their expertise in one of our lines of business and their commercial record: contrary to what is observed on the job market, we have many "senior" agents who all have a part to play in this community and whose role in knowledge transfer is essential.
How does being independent of manufacturers and having a positive impact add value for customers?
Our customers expect us to provide them with timely and unbiased advice... this is made possible by our being "agnostic". This fosters customer confidence in Econocom, which is essential for long-term relationships. Indeed, our goal is to provide the right solution to customers, based on their expectations and not on the vested interests of other stakeholders.
What does having responsible governance mean to you when complex projects are involved?
This consists in systematically considering environmental and social parameters at every stage of a project: procurement, transport, roll-out, use and end of life of equipment. For example, we can display the environmental impact (in equivalent tons of greenhouse gas emissions) of the IT equipment selected by a customer in order to guide them towards the greenest one, encourage them to choose less polluting means of transport, such as the train, if longer delivery times are feasible, or even offer them an extended warranty to ensure repair of the equipment beyond the manufacturer's warranty.
On the social front, we work closely with the French employment agency Pôle Emploi to promote the integration of people, who have been out of work, in our repair center based in Ile-de-France. Being concerned about acting responsibly is also a source of innovation! In fact, the French teams at Econocom Products & Solutions have developed a tool (HubReg) to configure mobile terminals remotely, thus enabling direct delivery to our customer's site, without first going through a dedicated third-party site ... which reduces road transport.