[00:00:00] Speaker A: Hi everyone. Today we'll look at excellence in action at Spanish pharmaceutical company Ferrer, where building value and making the world a better place go hand in hand. I'm your host Bill Coffin and this is the Ethicast.
Ferrer is a global pharma company that covers every link in the value chain of medical and pharmaceutical products from research and development to distribution and marketing via purchasing and supply. Ferrer develops medicines, food supplements and sanitary and diagnostic products for hospitals, prescription products for clinical practices and Dermo cosmetics, anti lice, insect repellent and baby food products for the non prescription self care market. Ferrer has a direct presence in nearly 20 countries across Europe and the Americas and a global presence in most other nations through a network of its partners. But Ferrer is also a highly conscientious organization treating issues such as social justice, environmental sustainability and community connection as strategic initiatives. The company's dedication to a best in class corporate culture based on transparency and accountability, as well as a top notch ethics and compliance program was recognized by Ethisphere, which in January awarded Ferrer with the coveted compliance leader verification designation. Joining us today to talk about Ferrer's business integrity efforts is Ferrer's Chief Legal officer, Marel Casas. She joined the company in 2015 after holding legal and human resources management positions in various national and international pharmaceutical company. She's currently responsible for Ferreira's legal, industrial, property and ethics and compliance departments. Thank you so much for joining us. Welcome to the program.
[00:01:54] Speaker B: Thank you. Vil. I'm very glad to be here talking with you.
[00:01:58] Speaker A: When I visited your website, the first thing that I saw was your news that you had earned the CLV designation. Then I very quickly saw your links to your ethics and compliance program, your status as a B Corp, your, your commitment to social justice and more. Clearly, these things are all very important to Ferreira's identity or as an organization and the way that you do business. So how would you describe the impact or the value that your ethics and compliance team delivers as part of Ferrer's larger mission of Ferrer for Good?
[00:02:31] Speaker B: Well, well. Talking about Ferrer's purpose. Ferrer for Good is, well, very important for us always because it's truly the reason of our existence. And consequently, when you pursue to use your business to fight for social justice, the how we do business is integrated right into the heart of the company's strategy. So it's really paramount for us at Ferrer, we believe that we can only achieve our objectives with integrity, compliance and accountability.
We know that integrity must influence all of our decisions and our ethics, integrity and compliance system is really contributing directly to this how we do business. That's how we built this program.
We aim to go beyond compliance and are continually guided by ethics, integrity and responsibility.
The 1,800 employees that are now working in the company take our purpose into account when they make any business decision. This is the most important thing for us and this way of doing the things.
This has led us to become one of the first or the first Spanish pharmaceutical company to join the B Corp. Community.
And well, we have also received the ecobaddies Platinum certification, which endorses good practices in such areas as the environment, labor conditions, human rights, ethics and procurement. And we are very happy to have achieved this recognition. In addition, we also aim to lead by example with the way we do business. Not not only us, we want to do it in a certain way. We also want our stakeholders in and out of the group to make things in a certain way. So we have projects in place to spread the principles behind our purpose among all of them. And this, we think, will increase our impact and multiply our efforts to promote social justice and the common good, which is our final, most important goal.
[00:04:53] Speaker A: In the United States, there is a movement underway to discredit environmental, social and governance, or esg, as being something that prevents businesses from being successful. Now, Ferrer clearly embraces a different mindset. Can you share your thoughts on why your company's views on environmental and social sustainability are business advantages?
[00:05:17] Speaker B: Well, at Ferrer, we believe that business success must go hand in hand with creating a positive impact on both society and the planet. That's why we embarked on a transformation long ago that took us beyond traditional business practices, becoming an organization committed to driving real social change. We don't want only to say it in our website, for example, but truly make this impact real.
So this approach has not only strengthened our identity and purpose, but has also proven that sustainability and profitability can coexist without compromise. Our business model shows that it is possible to generate economic value while actively contributing to building a fairer and more sustainable world. To such an extent that in the last four years, Ferrer has donated over 40% of its profits to social and environmental initiatives, which is quite relevant.
[00:06:27] Speaker A: What is your strategic plan for your ethics and compliance program for the next 12 to 18 months?
[00:06:32] Speaker B: Well, we are very excited about the coming months, even more after achieving this new certification identification in Cluit. So we will continue to boost and foster this culture of ethics and compliance across the whole organization.
And we also want to keep rolling out this program throughout all the geographies in which we operate, which are in a lot of countries. Around the world and in all continents.
We and we are really excited about searching for and identifying new trends that could help us reinforce this. For example, all the aspects related to the new corporate sustainability reporting directive from the European Union and well, exploring a little bit more about the potential of ethical uses and implication of artificial intelligence, of course, which these days is always in the news.
[00:07:34] Speaker A: What advice or recommendations would you have for other organizations that are seeking to build a top level ethics and compliance program?
[00:07:43] Speaker B: Wow. We know we still have a long way to go, so we are no experts. There is still still a lot that we want to improve but we would be happy to share some of our learnings, our thoughts if that could be helpful.
First of all, I think that it's worth spending the time and effort to ensure the commitment of top management to the program, otherwise all our efforts would be mostly useless.
It's also very important to analyze and measure the state of the company and creating a program, an ethics and compliance program based on the real needs of the organization with realistic and achievable gods. It's also critical to prioritize. Not every initiative or action has the same impact, so we think it's important to take the time to identify the ones that can really add the greatest real value. Also, being up to date with the latest tendencies will help you come up with innovative strategies and effective actions to help reinforce the ethics and compliance program. And well, last but not least, having the right team is key. At Ferrer. We are very lucky to have experienced and talented professionals who push the organization towards an industry leading ethical culture. So that's essential for sure.
[00:09:21] Speaker A: How has your relationship with Ethisphere helped to advance your ethics compliance program and build value for Ferrer?
[00:09:29] Speaker B: Well, it has been extremely helpful for a number of reasons.
We have been able to analyze our current situation and identify many areas for improvement. Having a benchmark with other companies and learning about their best practices has allowed us to incorporate new perspectives.
Well also of course the expertise and professionalism of the Ethisphere team has allowed us to broaden our understanding of the ethics and compliance ecosystem and the outcomes of the process are precise and are really a good guide for us to take us to the next level. It's been really, really valuable for us and the extensive resources that this sphere puts at your disposal are fantastic. The various forums, the annual summit, the Business Ethics Leadership Alliance Overall, the impressive expertise of the Ethisphere team challenges us and pushes us to keep moving forward. We still have a long way to go even though we are really proud of what we have achieved so far, we are not fully satisfied yet. We have to keep on working only with the sum of all these contributions that we are making with our company and across society we will be able to achieve a better world and as our purpose states use business to fight for social justice.
[00:11:12] Speaker A: Well Miri Chel, thank you so much for joining us and for sharing your insights on your ethics and compliance efforts. This is a period of time where business integrity perhaps matters more than ever before. So it's really great to hear about companies like yours that are making such a serious effort to advance sustainability, to advance business integrity transparency across all fronts. So again, thank you for sharing your insights on that. And once again, congratulations on Ferrer's Compliance Leader Verification.
[00:11:42] Speaker B: Thank you very much Bill. It's been a pleasure for us as well.
[00:11:46] Speaker A: To learn more about Ferrer's Ethics and compliance program and its strategic pursuit of environmental, social and governance best practices, please visit www.ferrer.com. that's F-E-R-R-E-R.com and to learn more about the Compliance Leader Verification program, please visit ethisphere.com solutions this show is about showcasing excellence in action and the best thought leaders in the ethics and compliance community. If you would like to appear as a guest on the Ethicast to share a best practice success story or proof point on how business integrity builds value, we would love to hear from you. Drop us a line at the links in this episode's show. Notes I'm Bill Coffin and this has been the Ethicast. We hope you've enjoyed the show. For more content like this every week, please subscribe here on YouTube, Apple Podcasts or Spotify. And you can also get our free weekly
[email protected] ethicast and for even more free content, please visit the Ethisphere Resource center at ethisphere.com resources. Thank you so much for joining us. And until next time, remember, strong ethics is good business.
