Tree in the forest to express longevity, permanence and sustainability of Forum Family Office

Sustainability

What is sustainability?

In den letzten Jahren ist die Verwendung des Begriffs Nachhaltigkeit explodiert: Unternehmen sind in einem Wettlauf, sich als „nachhaltig“ darzustellen. Dabei wird vielfach Substanz durch Marketing ersetzt: Nachhaltigkeit als PR-Ziel.

In der FORUM-Familie definieren wir Nachhaltigkeit als eine Arbeitsweise, die darauf achtet, dass jegliche verwendeten Ressourcen nicht abgebaut bzw. erschöpft werden („Raubbau“), sondern die Möglichkeit haben, sich zu erneuern und sogar zu wachsen. Wir wollen also für das Empfangene/Verbrauchte „etwas zurückgeben“.  Dabei haben wir die zeitliche Perspektive von zwei bis drei Generationen, was uns als Family Office nahe liegt.

Wir konzentrieren uns beim nachhaltigen Wirtschaften auf die CO2 Nachhaltigkeit, die Nachhaltigkeit unserer Kundenbeziehungen und die Nachhaltigkeit im Bereich Mitarbeiter. Und selbstverständlich auch die Nachhaltigkeit beim Thema Unternehmensnachfolge in Familienunternehmen.

Picture of wind turbines for neutral CO2 emissions by FORUMS holdings

CO-2 Sustainability

All FORUM affiliates are working on projects to reduce their carbon footprint. The starting point is always the inventory, on the basis of which we derive goals and action plans. These points are on the agenda of almost all review meetings, and in the meantime the exchange between the holdings is also increasing significantly.

Our principle of decentralisation leaves the local entrepreneurs free to decide on the pace of CO2 reduction themselves. From our point of view as shareholders, complete CO2 neutrality by 2030 (including offsets) would be desirable.

Sustainability of our customer relationships

One of FORUM's central credos is the claim that sales should be generated with products or services that create the most comprehensible benefit possible for our customers. For example, our corporate customers spend money on software because digitalisation measurably reduces the effort required for processes, or because it helps them to better achieve their own goals.

Our goal is for all of our group's sales to be based on such "win : win" situations: our customers benefit by using our products, and in return they return part of their productivity gain to us as sales. The resulting profits are therefore good, sustainable profitsfor us.

Two firemen who evaluate and use the product as customers of a software participation
Two Forum employees who help each other with their work

Give employees a sense of purpose in their work

With our emphasis on sustainable sales based on comprehensible customer benefits, we give our employees the feeling that their company is doing something meaningful - it makes its customers more successful. We believe this is a central tenet of "Purpose" - the search of many employees for an employer where they can give something back to society. But "Purpose" at FORUM encompasses more, for example the training of many young people with a successful degree, the integration of refugees or the aid projects we talk about in the next paragraph.

"We look at our clients as investors. We work hard to make sure they get a good return on their investment in us."

- Autodesk GmbH

Continue to aid projects