Corporate shared value: TIM’s strategic approach to sustainability

The new approach to sustainability adopted by TIM defines a different way to respond to the social needs expressed by stakeholders, as well as the economic ones of the Company, and to interpret the role of the business in society based on an awareness that there can be no long-term economic development unless it guarantees an improvement in social welfare and the protection of natural resources at the same time. The latter consideration is particularly relevant for TIM and the ICT sector in general, especially where digital technologies are concerned, as these are increasingly emerging as a key factor and enabler for the country’s economic and social growth.

The culmination of this process implemented by TIM is the integration of the sustainability approach conventionally adopted by the company as part of the overall corporate strategy, turning it into a vehicle for creating economic and social value.

TIM’s activities respond to the objective of providing the country with innovative infrastructure, IT skills, products, services and ICT solutions that meet the needs of society. Furthermore, the Company is strengthening this commitment through its active contribution to achieving the country’s digitisation objectives as defined in the Italian Digital Agenda, developed by the Italian government by transposing the directives set out by the EU in the European Digital Agenda.

A focus on innovation and investments in new infrastructures and technologies also characterizes TIM’s activities in Brazil, through its subsidiary TIM Brasil which, by investing in next generation infrastructure for broadband penetration, has played an important role in the digital inclusion process, responding to a strong social need in the country.

During 2015, in order to complete the move to Shared Value undertaken in 2014, the CSV department devised the TIM Corporate Shared Value Model, which was validated by PricewaterhouseCooper in 2016, as described at the beginning of this report. In fact, in addition to increasing the range of indicators to measure and record the risks and performance of the company, in order to allow more informed decisions to be taken, both internally and externally, the Company decided to validate its CSV reporting and measurement system, submitting the TIM Shared Value Model to validation by PricewaterhouseCooper Advisory S.p.A. (PwC), already the Group’s auditor. 

More generally, the TIM model identified three areas of action to respond to the country’s needs, through technologies, skills and specific projects. The three areas identified ar:

• digitisation, connectivity and social innovation;
• digital culture;
• environmental protection.

Considering in particular the close association between Corporate Shared Value and business, reflecting the over-arching nature of the CSV model, TIM defined a new enhanced structure by involving the company’s main departments and drawing up a CSV organisational procedure.

Stakeholder involvement, which includes listening to their requests, is one of the pillars of TIM’s sustainability model. The multi-stakeholder approach aims to garner their contributions for innovative activities and projects the Group could implement. This activity also takes place during the multi-stakeholder forum. The most relevant project suggestions are shared with the business departments and senior management and, if there is a convergence of interests, they find a commercial outlet.

This approach allows us to achieve major benefits, including:

• better risk management;
• high level of product and process innovation;
• better knowledge of the contexts in which the Group operates;
• scouting for the best market opportunities.

The development of the CSV strategy within the Company is constantly evolving and is principally based on the following drivers:

• updating the strategic areas of intervention;
• supplementing the strategic guidelines of the CSV in the business strategy guidelines;
• using social marketing guidelines to support the development of offers and services producing shared value;
• using CSV themes as positioning drivers in terms of both market and brand communication;
• monitoring the impact of CSV on the Group’s reputation.