Fifty-five years ago we were moving in a completely different scenario: few technological tools, little attention to sustainability, and a still underdeveloped concept of corporate reputation. Today, the reality is quite different: data travels very fast, companies are under the lens for every decision, and stakeholders demand clarity, now more than ever, including on environmental impacts and respect for workers’ rights.
Our business has gone through several evolutions: from the early days when we offered mainly business information, to the integration of investigative consulting services and advanced technology. The goal has never changed: to help companies minimize risk, which over time has expanded to include ethical, environmental, reputational and social issues.
Market transformations have revolutionized the concept of “corporate responsibility.” In the 1970s and 1980s, audits were primarily concerned with a company’s economic/financial soundness. Today, brands are also evaluated on their sustainability behavior, production processes and the way they manage their human capital.
The crucial shift came when we started integrating technology into our operations. There were still few digital resources, but we quickly saw the opportunity to make some controls automated and to offer clients not only in-depth results, but also predictive analytics. Years later, I can say that that insight has enabled us to come prepared in the age of the Internet and big data.
As companies have evolved, the perception of the importance of reputation has also changed. Until a few decades ago, few cared about how a company was viewed externally. Today, however, reputation is a key asset, almost like financial capital. We have become witnesses to the growth of this value, and have changed our approach to support companies in monitoring their image, reacting to potential crises, and improving transparency.
As awareness of these issues has increased, there has been a need to develop increasingly refined tools for verifying the transparency of parties involved in production and decision-making processes on a daily basis. Telejnform has expanded its scope from classical audits to intelligence methods based on global databases, document analysis, and, where possible, feedback from local nongovernmental organizations or unions.
Today, when a company asks us to analyze a potential partner, whether in Italy or abroad, we no longer limit ourselves to a formal check of financial statements or incorporation documents. We also investigate how workers are treated at that plant, whether complaints have surfaced about unfair working conditions or whether there have been instances of violations of union rights. This extensive approach serves to protect the client’s reputation and, indirectly, to improve labor standards in the countries where suppliers operate.
Another issue that has become increasingly important in recent years is the environment. Today, if a company wants to measure its sustainability, it can no longer limit itself to calculating internal emissions: it must also ask how much those of suppliers affect it.
And this is where we come in, for example in the transportation sector, with our audits, cross-referencing data on licenses, permits, vehicle performance and more, to provide clients with as complete a picture as possible of their overall environmental impact linked with that of their transportation providers.
A concrete example of this evolution is the ability to verify “in real time” the vehicles going to load goods on behalf of one of our clients. In the past, it was all rather cumbersome: we would check who a license plate was registered to, do some superficial research, and that was it. Today, however, we are able to associate each vehicle with a potential pollution profile, giving the company useful data to calculate the total environmental impact.
Today we are able to conduct environmental audits of companies. By doing what? For example, by examining the license plates of the vehicles that go to load goods, to find out what kind of vehicles they are and what impact they generate in terms of mileage. This allows, for our client, to choose the most sustainable suppliers or, at the very least, to have a clear picture of what emissions are produced along the supply chain.
So in our reports, we don’t just say, “This company is reliable or not,” but we provide specific data such as, “This supplier has these vehicles, with these emission levels; therefore, it will affect your sustainability report in a certain way.” This is huge progress compared to the situation a few years ago, when no one would have asked the question of how much a single truck pollutes.
The change in perspective does not only affect large international groups. Even medium-sized companies, which used to look only at immediate profitability, now require advanced verification tools. Those who manufacture machinery, for example, want to make sure they are not working with factories that systematically violate labor contracts or pollute groundwater or are linked to blacklisted, criminal-listed or sanctioned entities due to war or politically exposed persons.
In this scenario, our consultancy has evolved: we do not limit ourselves to data collection and investigations, but offer real decision support. Telejnform provides real guidelines, indicating which environmental or social parameters to monitor most carefully and suggesting strategies to maintain constant monitoring. Our role has become increasingly consultative, working alongside companies in building an ethical and sustainable supply chain.
Operationally, we have invested heavily in technology. Databases, OSINT (Open Source Intelligence) sources, and analysis algorithms enable us to quickly process huge amounts of information. However, we believe that the human factor remains crucial: there are cultural, social and political aspects that an algorithm cannot capture without the interpretation of experienced analysts.
This means that the real challenge is no longer just “discovering problems,” but preventing critical issues from emerging through a proactive approach. We advise companies to map and assess reputational risks on a par with financial risks. With continuous monitoring, it is possible to detect signs of exploitation or pollution before the situation becomes irretrievable.
The article How the world has changed: from corporate reputation to consulting comes from TheNewyorker.
