10 things businesses Can do 


to help create an enabling environment for 
transition to democracy and market economy 

Following the fall of communism in the late 1980s, 
business in Central and Eastern Europe had to be 
created anew. Privatisation programmes attracted inward 
investment and business management experience 
from outside the region. Old industrial areas were 
transformed and green-field investments have brought 
new jobs and new technology. Locally developed 
small and medium-sized enterprises together with a 
growing number of consumers – hungry for products 
and services that they had been denied – provided 
the dynamism for economic change. Leaders from 
the business sector went about lobbying government 
for new policies, legislation and public institutions 
that helped to minimise the social costs of economic 
transformation and maximise the positive contribution 
of business. They did this in a number of ways: 

At the company level: 

1. 
Providing CEO and board-level leadership – 
integrating social and environmental issues into 
board structures, customer relations, production 
and management processes. 
2. 
Developing internal codes of conduct and / or 
business principles and implementing them at all 
levels, supported by management and control 
systems that are reviewed regularly and with the 
results made public where possible. 
3. 
Carrying out rigorous and regular impact, risk and 
opportunity assessments in relation to relevant 
social, economic and environmental issues related 
to company operations. 
4. 
Identifying, implementing and benchmarking 
key performance indicators on economic, social 
and environmental performance. 
5. 
Engaging the commitment of key business partners 
(joint ventures, suppliers, distributors and service 
providers) and investors in the company’s strategy 
for addressing these issues. 

6. 
Aiming for public transparency and accountability 
with key stakeholder groups, especially the 
communities in which the company operates. 
7. 
Integrating social, economic and environmental 
issues into executive development and appraisal 
systems to build the capacity and incentives of 
employees and future leaders. 
Beyond the company level: 

8. 
Mobilising core competencies (i.e. skills, 
technology, as well as finance) in helping to address 
broader issues in local communities and in society 
more generally. 
9. 
Work collectively with other partners to address 
issues of public policy concern, beyond the 
immediate commercial interests of the company. 
10. 
Promoting good corporate practice within the wider 
business community – i.e. through trade and 
industry associations, public-purpose business 
leadership coalitions and / or voluntary 
accountability initiatives.