Ethical vision and economic equilibrium: a resolved “trade off”. The DE CECCO Group’s experience.

Over the past decades, the company’s main goal has increasingly shifted from the “simply” purpose of maximizing profits towards the creation of more stakeholder’s value. The new assumption is that the company should not be considered only as a technical and manufacturing profit centre, but a conscious and aware entity that takes part in the economic and social development. Indeed, the growing awareness about social and environmental issues at the global level has driven industrial corporate to adopt, over time, socially responsible behaviour in a sustainable development perspective. Therefore, the new trend is a Triple Bottom Line approach which consider beyond the company’s economic performance: it includes their contribution to generate an environmental quality and a social system, to create wellness in communities where it operates.Together with the traditional instruments of communication adopted by the company to inform third parties about the economic facts that characterize the management company - information for more quantitative outputs of taxation and current regulation - are placed alongside a multitude of other information mostly qualitative, aimed at providing a more comprehensive picture of business reality. Balanced sheet is a legal instrument that inform stakeholders about economic results by a quantitative standpoint. It is necessary to include qualitative information to obtain a more satisfactory framework. Therefore, this framework includes quantitative and qualitative information and it attempts to satisfy different stakeholder, in particular, they define social environmental aspects. According to the aforesaid logic, we chose to present a case history of a company with a brand known around the world: De Cecco Group which has delivered its first Social Report, “the number zero one”, enclosing a special tool called the 'balance surplus” Theoretically , this particular tool makes a link between two different management’s moments: in the first time company produces wealth and in the second moment, it shares it. The realization of this model required a careful analysis of the ways in which inputs are used in the transformation process, and quantitative influence of the business has been shared on the economies of users goods and services produced. The Social Report number zero represents a real conceptual framework. This document focuses specifically on four key issues: 1. value creation; 2. value distribution; 3. people caring; 4. attention, care and respect for the environment. At the conclusion of this work De Cecco Group asked an organization (specialized in the field of inspection, verification and certification of projects and more with reference to internal standards, legal or voluntary mandatory , national and international) to issue a report A report of compliance information or, if not, the incompatibility of these with reality. The outcome was largely positive.