Interview

Norberto Lovaglio
By Natalia Hopkins

Since December 1999, Norberto Lovaglio has been President DHL Argentina S.A. and, since 2002, he has been appointed Vice-President of DHL Express for the South-American region made up of seven countries: Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Ecuador, Paraguay, Perú and Uruguay.

In five years he has managed to radically change the organizational culture of the company encouraging a caring spirit in its people.

As a leader of DHL, he believes that promoting Corporate Social Responsibility actions is one of his functions. For that reason, he actively participates in different forums and organizations which encourage social commitment in both citizens and business communities, such as the Relations and Education Committee with the Community of the American Chamber of Commerce ( AMCHAM ) and the Social Ecumenical Forum.

Do you believe that communication is a strategic tool for the leaders of a company?

As time passed by I understood that the communication strategy is more important than the action itself. At the beginning I had the sensation that it created an idea, developed it correctly but something was missing. I could not see the idea reflected on the organization as I had played with it in my mind.

I felt as if I had organized a spectacular barbecue and had not told the fellow diners to come or the reason for the meeting. Little by little I understood that he communication strategy that every important decision must have is as important or even more important than the decision itself.

Have you implemented any communication strategy which has directly changed the way the company works?

When I arrived at DHL, first I thought that a cultural revolution had to be carried out in the organization, since the behavior codes where old-fashioned. The structure was “ by silo” as the organization where the communication is radial is now known. Communication occurred in cascade from the leader to each of the managers and, in turn, to their employees. That is, there was no cross communication and the exchange of opinions was infertile and obsequious.

We made a very big change as regards communication. We went from the idea of saying or communicating what the other wanted to listen to, to the idea of giving our opinions more openly, discussing a little in order to defend what each of us thinks.

There now exists a much more open culture which in some way has become a little riskier, since we should see that people do not get out of control.

How did these internal changes affect the external public?

What was going on in DHL started to be known everywhere, specially among the close contacts: customers, family, authorities. All these people started to perceive the change.

This cultural change came together with programmes for the families to come closer the company, first with the children and then with the parents. With this aim in mind, videos and games where used, apart from the integration meetings carried out regularly.

This year we also launched an internal school, the “DHL School”, where you can do foreign trade courses or learn how to prepare a CV. Many of the teachers are employees who voluntarily offered themselves as trainers.

In the beginning, the school started as a service for the employees who wanted professional training. Now we also include their families. Besides, we are making deals with nearby schools so that students of the neighborhood can take some courses.

But I believe that our biggest achievement was to motivate a group of volunteers of DHL to organize themselves and develop community actions with the support of the company. The group was really very strong and committed, totally heterogeneous with members of different levels of the organization. In the process of making the team, communication needs to improve management were detected and many tools were developed among which for instance we have the internal magazine “Adelante”. In 2003, more than 50 volunteers joined the team and they organized both a collection for charity and the transportation of donations for the victims of the floods in Santa Fe. At present, EOS teams, as the volunteers call themselves in all the region, are involved as coordinators in many Corporate Social Responsibility projects which are developed in DHL.

To what extent did the development of this DHL volunteers group depend on the boost of the company management?

I am convinced that the subject of Corporate Social Responsibility starts by the leader of the company. But, although the company can offer a favorable frame and atmosphere and - as it is our case – they have been included as one of the corporate values, the manager of the company can easily act dumb and overlook the subject.

I have a theory, I call it “Golf Index”. Company X (as it happens in many companies) allows you as a business strategy to play golf once a week, as well as devote part of your working hours to do activities related to CSR. I would like to do a simple calculation: the number of hours that managers devote to CSR by the number of hours they devote to golf. I am sure the result will be negative.

What happened here was that I started to push strongly from the beginning for the subject of CSR, and other seven or eight people of the company joined and multiplied the efforts and the energy. Right now it stands by itself, I hear about the results. EOS group, the volunteers, are the result of that too. The door to CSR must be opened, but once this is done, they fly by themselves.

I have heard that companies commit themselves to CSR by interest or virtuosity. In the first case, you put in the money and things are known. DHL is not interested in that, we get involved because we feel it, but when the actions are consistent and the commitment is constant the society gets to know. I have a conflict precisely in this subject, to what extent shall we inform about our CSR actions?

In these five years, can you say that you have accomplished a consistent CSR plan that allows you to plan objectives and measure results?

During the first years, we developed isolated actions in response to the community needs with a lot of energy but without a sense of integration.

Now we are beginning a stage of depuration and planning as regards CSR, especially in Argentina. In this sense, DHL, is reapplying in other countries some plans which were very good here. Mainly, we have focused on projects related to education and feeding, having in mind that "two years of malnutrition and lack of health care in a child mean that a future generation will not have any opportunities to develop”.

At present, we are carrying out a program common to the seven countries of the region and a local plan. That program was chosen based on the assessment of the best practice, reapplying it in the rest of the countries, shortening processes in this way. The selected project was “DHL School” and we are making progress in the implementation in many countries of the region.

Another project we are setting in motion is the one we are developing with the Food Bank. Although, because of the nature of our business, we cannot produce food, we can arrange the logistics and transport it, And that is what we are doing.

These actions have become so popular within the company that the international magazine of DHL, which reaches more than 226 countries, came to Argentina to make an interview on the CSR Plan we are implementing in the South Region.

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