Charles-Henri Filippi, Lead director of the Orange Board of Directors (2008-2020)
Prior to the enactment of France’s Action Plan for Business Growth and Transformation (PACTE) in 2019, Orange was already considering its contribution to society. Many of the Group’s stakeholders were pleased to see we were planning to define our purpose. Employees and customers alike maintain a strong attachment to Orange’s public service heritage and the tenets of trust, proximity, service quality and humanity in which its identity is rooted.
First as a member of the Audit Committee, then as Chairman of the Governance and Corporate Social and Environmental Responsibility Committee, and now as lead director of the Board of Directors, I have witnessed the Group’s profound transformation over the past decade. Orange has made a number of crucial strategic decisions – investing heavily in infrastructure and service quality, deploying new value-added activities and streamlining global operations – and thereby restored the Group to its position as a market leader, set it back on a growth trajectory and earned back the trust of its stakeholders. In this way, Orange was able to both reconnect with its culture and transform it significantly in response to major shifts in society, always with the same priority to place people at the heart of its business.
Orange as a group understands its history and role in society while remaining firmly focused on the future. We listen to our various audiences and maintain constant dialogue with all of our stakeholders. It was with all this in mind that we constructed the purpose. We opened the development process to all stakeholders, which saw an unprecedented level of participation. In this, my last year on the Board of Directors, it was with great interest that I took part in the process and was delighted to see everyone buy into a shared vision of what Orange stands for.
Our purpose sets out a number of universal responsibilities as well as those specific to the nature and role of our Group in society. It acts as our compass at a time when humanity is facing so many environmental, health, demographic, technological and economic challenges. During the current global health crisis, the unwavering efforts of the teams at Orange enable everyone to remain connected to families, loved ones, work and lives. It goes beyond words and formal statements to demonstrate the reality of our commitment.
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