Pressure on Brazilian companies to behave in a more socially
responsible manner rose a notch last month with the introduction of a
benchmarking tool that ranks them according to their business
practices.
The benchmark, developed by the Akatu Institute, a Brazilian consumer
organization, ranks companies according to 60 measures such as fair
working practices and responsible customer relations. Of the 100 firms
listed, top performers include CDN (public relations) and Grupo Abril
(publishing).
‘Our objective was not to compare companies against an ideal of
responsible business practice, but to have a comparison of indicators
based on best practice in Brazil today,’ said Helio Mattar, the
institute’s chief executive.
Akatu surveyed a total of 630 companies – including a number of
multinationals operating in Brazil – and also invited a panel of 600
consumers to rate which practices were most important to them. Those
they judged as priorities, such as fair pay and employee education,
were given more weighting in assessments.
