Speech by President of the Republic Tarja Halonen at the European Foundation for Quality Management Forum in Helsinki on 9 October 2003

Ladies and Gentlemen,
Real success makers,

This year’s EFQM Forum focuses on the people that are the driving force in society and organisations under the heading: Inspired people drive success.

The winners of the European and Finnish quality awards have made high quality the core of their operations. Competence and dedication like this are now needed in both local and international markets more than they have ever been. Globalisation provides better opportunities, but it also demands more from those who take part in it.

I would like to say that you have a really good theme for your forum. I am personally convinced that creativity is a prerequisite for success as an entrepreneur. In a way, it is akin to art. Real success is founded on your commitment to and enthusiasm for what you are doing and the idea behind it, be it a product or a service.

Creativity needs freedom, but entrepreneurship involves cooperation as well. We need common rules also in economic life. We in Europe have been prepared even for closer cooperation for economic integration. At the same time with this economic integration, people are turning to culture in search of their identity both as individuals and as members of their community. The world’s countless cultures are a wealth in their own right, but they also have their importance in the economy and society in general.

I want to encourage you EFQM Forum participants to continue with this theme also after your forum has ended. Give people a chance to develop enthusiasm both in your companies and in the society at large. As a co-chair of the ILO’s World Commission on the Social Dimension of Globalisation, I have been working with many very different people in a search for ways of making globalisation more humane. After all, we are not just searching economic growth which is important as such; people and the globe must fare better.

I am pleased that this sense of shared responsibility has already manifested itself in many ways. At the summit on sustainable development in Johannesburg last year, the engagement of the business sector was an important step forward.

An increasing number of corporations make social responsibility an inherent part of doing business. Initiatives range from the adoption of codes of conduct to partnerships in social initiatives at community level. They are prompted by companies’ own ethical concerns as well as by demands from NGOs, trade unions, ethical investors and socially conscious consumers.

Voluntary initiatives are important for public trust and confidence in enterprises, and ultimately for quality and sustainability of business. Yet corporate social responsibility is always complementary to, not a substitute for government regulation of social policy.