Société Générale

Editorial

Frederic OUDEA

Chairman and Chief Executive Officer

After a year of unprecedented economic and financial turmoil, 2010 will be a year of rebound which will allow the Group to continue to support and develop our relationships not only with our clients but with society as a whole.

The Citizen Commitment Week 2010 is an excellent opportunity to demonstrate our sense of commitment. Last year, 37 entities of the Group participated in this solidarity challenge in partnership with their local charities. In France, 14 charitable associations supported by the Group’s Foundation for Solidarity and Talents & Partage have given our employees the chance to help them by taking part in concrete and diverse initiatives. We managed to offer globally over 21,000 hours of our employees time to community causes.

This year, a greater number of associations have signed up to the CCW. I am sure that together we will be able to take up this new challenge.

I am counting on you to demonstrate our sense of solidarity and by making the most of these initiatives give that extra bit of soul and generosity to the work we do on a daily basis.

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News

More than 26,000 hours on the counter!

Citizen Commitment Week has now ended: a total of more than 26,000 hours have been donated and more than € 350,000 has been collected during this 2010 edition, which was held from June 10-18.

Sports events and talks, collections of objects and cash donations, meal sales and renovation workshops… the initiatives of Société Générale employees in the 43 participating countries were as innumerable as they were varied.

Discover on this website all around the world CCW commitments!


Bike ride 2010 - Departure

Reports

Citizen Commitment Week 2010 : They did it!

 

Interviews

F. Oudéa conclusion

CCW 2010 in Brazil, Hong-Kong, Singapore and Russia

Paris to London bike ride

CCW 2010 in Macedonia, United States and Italy

D.Marquet

 

Reports 2009

Citizen Commitment Week 2009 : They did it!

> Dragon boat racers in UK

> Frédéric Oudéa at the toy donation event

> When design goes hand in hand with corporate citizenship

> Loïc Pinchart looks back at a Dream afternoon

> Trainee painters and organisers in Réunion

 

 

Edito

Après une année 2009 marquée par une crise économique et financière sans précédent, 2010 sera une année de rebond pour le Groupe. Dans ce contexte nous voulons continuer à aider et à soutenir non seulement nos clients mais aussi la société qui
nous entoure.

La Citizen Commitment Week 2010 est une excellente opportunité pour le Groupe de démontrer son engagement. L’an dernier, 37 pays dans lequel nous sommes implantés ont participé à cet élan solidaire en partenariat avec leurs associations locales. En France, 14 associations soutenues par la Fondation SociétéGénérale pour la Solidarité et Talents& Partage (Association des salariés et retraités du Groupe) ont permis à nos collaborateurs en France de s’impliquer concrètement auprès d’elles de manière diverses. Nous avons ainsi pu offrir globalement plus de 21 000 heures à des actions solidaires.

Cette année, un plus grand nombre d’associations ont répondu présents à notre appel dans tout le Groupe. Je suis sûr qu’ensemble, nous allons pouvoir relever ce nouveau défi.

Continuons de faire preuve de solidarité, et donnons, grâce à ces actions, un supplément d’âme au travail que nous faisons au quotidien.

Fréderic OUDEA

 

Citizen Commitment Week 2009 : they did it! Dragon boat racers in UK

"We knew we weren't going to do very well when we saw the size of some of the people in the other teams!"

Joshua Newman, senior developer for Societe General Securities Services UK, shares his race experience.

What kind of competition is the Dragon Boat Race you participated in?
It was a boat race in Canary Wharf between teams from different financial institutions e.g. Societe Generale, Citigroup etc. Its aim was to raise money for the Richard House Children’s hospice. There were eight teams, and 14 people per boat. Each race took us about half a kilometre along one of the large canals and then back again.

How did you find out about the race?
I was informed by a member of staff in our office who was going to take part but had to pull out at the last minute. She recruited me and my colleague. I was keen to get involved as it sounded like a good way to raise money for a worthwhile cause and it also sounded like good fun!

What was your overall impression?
I enjoyed the event because you got to set up a web page with your sponsorship details and how much you had raised so far etc. I enjoyed creating my page and adding a picture of myself looking keen and trying to give the impression that I was a force to be reckoned with when it came to rowing!

What were the difficulties?
The outcome of the race was heavily dependent on the size of the people in the teams. On top of the fact that there were only 12 of us, we knew we were not going to do very well when we saw the size of some of the people in the other teams! Also, some people didn’t use the proper rowing technique that we were taught before the race! I was sitting behind some of them, and they were rowing so hard they scooped water all over me and I was soaked!

 

Yana Vetcherkovsakaya

 

Citizen Commitment Week 2009 : they did it! Frédéric Oudéa at the toy donation event

To enable the children of families in need to receive Christmas presents, Societe Generale staff come together each year: they collect toys in good condition and donate them to charity. Frédéric Oudéa tells of his experience as a volunteer.

" My action simply consisted in giving boxes full of toys to various charity associations", explains Frédéric Oudéa, Societe Generale’s Chairman and CEO. Organised each year in the group’s various buildings throughout the Paris region by Talents & Partage – the charitable association consisting of current and retired Société Générale employees, this toy donation event makes it possible to give presents to children from disadvantaged backgrounds in the Paris area as well as in Bulgaria.

Frédéric Oudéa committed himself to this volunteer work as part of Citizen Commitment Week, an event that is held over one week in June but whose long-term effects are felt far beyond. " It’s an opportunity to come together for humanitarian reasons, to enhance sustainable development, for charities associations that need support but haven’t sufficient means, to make this corporate citizenship spirit endure."

 

Yana Vetcherkovsakaya

 

Citizen Commitment Week 2009 : they did it! When design goes hand in hand with corporate citizenship

Designing a poster for a show by disabled performers gave Yanada Taing, release manager at SG CIB, an excellent opportunity for to offer her designer skills within the framework of Citizen Commitment Week.

"When I lived in Australia, I was able to do volunteer work for humanitarian organisations. Solidarity is deeply embedded in English-speaking culture, and everything is organised to make volunteer work part and parcel of daily life from your school years through your working life and into retirement! Indeed it is totally normal to see such experience in people’s CVs. I wanted to continue in this vein in France.

When the Group launched the www.citizencommitmentweek.com site, with a wide variety of actions to undertake, I was delighted to be able to become involved in volunteer work again. It helped me become involved in something that I believe in, that was in line with my skills and that could fit into my busy schedule. I therefore decided to design a poster for the "Au fil de L'ombre" show that will be held on Friday November 20 in the Neuilly-sur-Seine theatre. The show is being organised by "La Possible Echappée", a charity association that aims to promote, develop and help activities based on all kinds of artistic expression with people of every age suffering from a physical or mental disability.

I drew my inspiration from various theatre posters I noticed around me (in the underground, in the street, on advertising pillars and on the Internet), and researched the requirements and preferences with those in charge of the charity. After numerous meetings, hours and hours of work and a number of mock-ups, our poster was ready.

Today, we are trying to advertise the show by word of mouth, but it’s difficult to convince people to go to see a show with disabled performers.

What have I gained from this adventure? I hope I’ve been useful, and have been able to give visibility to their actions through my poster. It has been a very fulfilling experience. I will of course be going to watch the show, and I hope the performers like their poster!"


Yana Vetcherkovsakaya

 

Citizen Commitment Week 2009 : they did it! Loïc Pinchart looks back at a Dream afternoon

For Citizen Commitment Week, CGI organised for sick children to have a ride in a sports car. Loïc Pinchart looks back at the event.

"We were told about Citizen Commitment Week during a DSFS communication committee meeting. My HR officer Christian Macori and I thought that it could be an opportunity to organise the first such event within CGI. We contacted the "Rêves" (Dreams) charity association that brings the dreams and aspirations of very sick children to life, and decided to organise an event enabling these children to get to ride in a sports car", says Loïc Pinchart, Internal Communication Officer for CGI (Crédit Général Industriel, the Group’s vehicle and boat credit subsidiary). " Without the Group’s initiative, I don’t think that we would ever have become involved in such an adventure. It was a very positive operation, with everything running smoothly from the outset. Every time we talked about the project to someone, they always came onboard with the idea!"

" Our partner Porsche was the first to give the heads up to our request for them to lend us cars, with Mitsubishi and Subaru following close behind. Then, to crown it all, a number of Ferrari owners joined us to take the children on a drive", explains Loïc Pinchart.

The aim of this fun afternoon was to allow the sick and their families to forget their illness for a while. On the day, some thirty CGI volunteers came along to help organise a really exceptional afternoon.

There were of course a few delicate matters to sort out, like organising insurance for the cars and people for example, but getting past these hurdles was well worth it. We had originally been expecting around fifty people, but on the day over two hundred turned up at CGI on Saturday 20th June 2009.

What will Loïc retain from this experience? " The memory of the children’s smiles and their eyes, because they don’t thank people the same way adults do. Their parents left us very moving comments in the visitors’ book. My colleagues and I realised that it’s so rare to do something for free without expecting anything at all back in return. That’s why 20th June was such an unusual and special day for us too."

 

Yana Vetcherkovsakaya

 

Citizen Commitment Week 2009 : they did it! Trainee painters and organisers in Réunion

"For Citizen Commitment Week in Réunion, we helped renovate houses for underprivileged families and helped organise a paper chase for their children"

Says Sophie Mazuy, Head of Internal Training and Communication for BFC

On the French island of Réunion, the wooden houses under the care of the ATD Quart Monde (Aide à Toute Détresse) charity association were in need of decoration on the inside and renovation on the outside. To mark Citizen Commitment Week, on June 20 2009, some twenty staff from Banque Française Commerciale (BFC), the Retail Banking Outside France’s subsidiary in Réunion, gave a helping hand to do these houses up.

"Armed with brushes, paint rollers and other utensils, these BFC staff, some of whom brought their families along with them, became trainee painters and decorators for the day", says Sophie Mazuy, Head of Internal Training and Communication. The day started with a communal breakfast facing the ocean. Those present then donned a Citizen Commitment Week T-shirt and cap, climbed up onto scaffolding or stepladders and began spreading litres and litres of wood stain and paint."

The idea of helping this charity association came from a BFC member of staff, Dominique Foucault, who was in contact with the President of ADT Quart Monde Réunion. "I worked on the organisational side: communication, encouragement, relations with ATD... Another group of staff organised a paper chase aimed at initiating underprivileged children to nature and botany", explains Sophie Mazuy. "What touched me the most was the proof that, beyond our actual job, our team can help other people, other sectors. And management showed its support of this initiative by financing the acquisition of our equipment and by paying for the free lunch provided to staff, children and volunteers from the charity. It was a truly enriching experience."

 

Yana Vetcherkovsakaya