Behind the deal: how C-level engagement, CSR and sustainability helped Colt land one of its largest contracts of all time

There’s more to the wellbeing of a company than the profit you reported last year. As a chief financial officer that might seem an odd statement—bear with me.

Things move so fast in today’s commercial world that you need one eye on tomorrow. Only then can you make sure that what you’re doing right now will secure your business in the future. This means looking at things differently, in the context of what’s happening around you. In my experience, this is complicated, fluid, and many-sided—but there are a few important things that have recently become clear to me.

Being better—by doing better

Your company has to be the kind of organisation that vendors, partners, and suppliers want to work with, not to mention somewhere people actually want to work while developing their careers. Moreover, you need to be a company that people want to buy from, not just for great products and services, but because it makes their life easier, too.

All of this adds up to a company that focuses on customer value through fulfilling work with an engaged ecosystem and respects its position in society. It’s a simple formula: do what you do well—and do good when and where you can.

Attracting the best talent creates a positive feedback loop of productivity

By being a supportive and inclusive place to work, you attract the right people—and they are your single best asset when it comes to enticing good customers. Good customers remain so when they’re properly looked after. All that brings success. And success is not just about profitability. Profitability helps you build a business, but it also allows you to be better.

The core of what we do at Colt is connecting people. That’s a powerful business enabler, but it can also be a powerful tool to level up society. We take that seriously—and so do I, personally.

As a CFO, I make sure our business runs as efficiently as it can, developing and growing through looking after our customers. At Colt, we see those values as something we can spread outside the business too.

"Two years ago,?sustainability and CSR?weren’t part of the customer?checklist, but we’re seeing a lot more around this. Both are good for?business."

And it isn’t just me or Colt saying this.

Your people need something to believe in

According to the Governance and Accountability Institute, 86% of Standard and Poor’s (S&P) 500 Index companies were publishing sustainability or corporate responsibility reports as far back as 2018. And it’s not hard to see why.

A multi-year study by the Kenexa High Performance Institute in London found that CSR-led companies have returns 19 times higher than those with a poor CSR rating. What’s more, the researchers found that CSR-oriented companies have significantly better standards of customer service. The study also linked higher CSR ratings with higher levels of employee engagement, arguing it improved a company’s ability to attract top talent. The researchers concluded that the next generation of employees seek employers who are focused on people and the planet alike. People want to work for and do business with companies they can believe in.

No less a source than multinational investment management corporation BlackRock has conducted research demonstrating that companies that forge strong bonds with their employees saw lower turnover and higher returns through the pandemic. The company’s CEO Larry Fink said companies that don’t adjust to this new reality and respond to their workers do so at their own peril.

That’s why we do what we do at Colt.

It’s time to change the conversation

When Colt engaged with another company that had the same attitude, we changed the conversation. The fibre running through the Channel Tunnel provides vital links, and huge opportunities for both sides. Many of the contracts for running services over the cables are expiring. Getlink manages infrastructure in the Channel Tunnel, and when Colt began conversations to run its IQ Network over tunnel fibres, a shared interest in CSR programmes emerged. Like me, their CFO leads their CSR?and?sustainability?programmes.

That changed everything.

Suddenly, we were more aligned than we would have guessed just from looking over a scoping document or memo. We both knew we were the kinds of companies that would see eye to eye.

Results for all

The resulting deal is one of Colt’s largest customer wins and supports every value we so strongly hold. Read the full detail of our partnership here, and find out more about our CSR here, and our ESG performance here.

Our CSR commitment and the culture that created it has allowed us to expand our capability by a transfer capacity of several Terabits per second per fibre pair, in a 25-year contract. And we know we are doing that with a company that values giving back to society as much as we do.

That is good business that secures us in a business sense, gives our employees something to be proud of and strive to deliver for, and positions Colt as a leader, in every sense.

Are you ready to ask what more you can do? Let me know what steps you have taken to communicate your values and find the right partners to match them.