A unique and unprecedented model that combines opinion research, communication strategy consulting and CSR strategy consulting
The ambition: to enable companies and professional actors to increase their usefulness to society, by combining listening and sincere dialogue with their stakeholders, credible action in the service of their impact AND accurate communication
THE STATEMENT: A NEW ERA
While shocks and mutations follow one another, accelerating and creating for the economic actors a duty of profound and permanent reinvention… Faced with the hardening and acceleration of environmental and social issues that are becoming more and more important every day the urgency to act… At a time when society is placing more trust in companies and at the same time making greater demands on their responsibility by making the usefulness and meaning of their actions the central issue. At a time when deciphering the opinions and behaviour of citizens, employees and consumers is increasingly complex and unpredictable. And that the pressure of society imposes on companies a permanent and often difficult dialogue with all their stakeholders
ECONOMIC ACTORS FACING A TRIPLE CHALLENGE
The challenge of commitment
Through its capacity to act, to deploy, the company is an actor of change, perceived today as such by the citizens. In addition to satisfying its customers, employees and stakeholders, it must therefore make a firm commitment to building a more sustainable society, a society of progress. It is a key player in the success of the transformations undertaken at all levels of society. This creates new opportunities for companies that are able to seize them. It also creates risks for those who will not be there or who will be confronted with their past and unfulfilled commitments
The challenge of reality
To be anchored in reality, this commitment presupposes a profound change in the modes of production, distribution and governance. It requires comprehensive, tangible, measurable, long-term actions rather than scattershot or announcement effects. It makes impact and its evaluation an action in itself. It makes their territorial reality an issue in its own right, far from the major programmes decided without taking account of the terrain
The challenge of sincerity
This movement towards a more responsible and committed company is redesigning the function of corporate communication. Its central objective becomes to demonstrate the sustainability of its commitments. It must convince people that what it does is consistent with what it says, that the leader’s word carries a sincere struggle. It must mobilise and engage rather than simply proclaim or seduce. It must convince people that the desired dialogue is not an alibi but a genuine listening process that can influence decisions
OUR BELIEF
“Faced with these challenges, we have a deep conviction: in this new era, the companies that will succeed will be the contributing companies.
The contributing company is a committed company:
It acts to have a positive impact on society in its economic, social, environmental and territorial dimensions. It demonstrates its usefulness through its commitment. It brings together economic performance, business challenges and stakeholder expectations. It reconciles short-term needs and long-term issues. It evaluates and challenges the real impact of its action and is accountable to society
The contributing company is an open company, turned towards its ecosystem, capable of inventing new forms of dialogue and governance with society and its stakeholders. And this without falling into a caricatured vision of giving up sovereignty or co-managing the company on all issues all the time. The challenge for companies is to define the right level of dialogue and participation with stakeholders, depending on the subject and the time. To achieve this, the open enterprise knows how to listen to society and its stakeholders, to anticipate and decipher the basic movements of opinion vs. the froth of opinion, and to set opinions in motion in order to avoid a simplistic approach that would consist of responding to a list of demands or injunctions to act
Finally, the contributing company is a company that does not replace action with communication but makes communication the armed wing of action.
It is the one that publicly assumes that it is part of a logic of progress, of progressive victories, and that it acts in the long term. She is the one who humbly explains the path she has chosen to take given the specificity of her activity. It is the one that values the first successes without hiding the work that remains to be done, because it is committed to concrete and tangible programming. This is the condition for sorting out tomorrow between sincere companies and those whose word will be suspected of opportunism
ELABE AND LINKUP: A FIGHT, A METHOD, A CULTURE
A fight shared with our customers
This new relationship between business and society fundamentally changes the role and responsibility of communication and requires the invention of new models. In a world where societal issues are increasingly complex, we want to accompany companies and professional actors to increase their usefulness in society.
To achieve this we strive to: To build a practicable and desirable path, to develop a differentiating and mobilising narrative, to align evidence and evaluate action, to nurture a sincere dialogue with our ecosystems
One method: objective advice
To respond to this and to accompany companies in this new phase, ELABE and LinkUp have joined forces to build a new consulting model based on a unique approach: objective advice (communication consultancy objectified by knowledge of opinions for ELABE and CSR strategy consultancy objectified by the evaluation of real societal and environmental issues and impacts for LinkUp). By proposing an enriched support offer combining attentive listening to their stakeholders and a sincere dialogue with them, a credible, controlled and measured action, a fair and adapted communication.
A common and complementary culture
Elabe and LinkUp are two firms that have based their success on the principle of hybridisation. For ELABE, hybridisation between research and communication consulting. For LinkUp, hybridisation between CSR strategy consulting and expert communication.
And who share a common and complementary approach based on :
- The value of strategic advice to managers
- The objectification of their advice through the knowledge of scientific opinions and studies
- Measuring social, societal and environmental impact
- The levers for changing citizens’ practices and behaviour
- Stakeholder engagement
- The ability to provide operational support to our communication clients in complementary areas of expertise (influence, editorial creation)
with teams with diverse expertise to provide both a global view and the ability to take a step aside.
ELABE & LINKUP: research and consulting firm in communication and CSR strategy
“What we will do together: Listen and dialogue, evaluate and act, convince and engage
About ELABE :
www.ELABE.fr @ELABE.fr
ELABE is developing an original positioning: “objectified consulting”, i.e. consulting in communication strategy, objectified by the analysis of opinions. This approach is based on the hybridization of three businesses: research, strategic planning and consulting, and allows us to provide our clients with a new approach that confronts the subjectivity of intuitions with the objectivity of data. Founded in June 2015 by Bernard Sananès, ELABE has achieved a gross margin of €5 million in 2021 and has over twenty permanent employees. Its clients include: Veolia, SNCF, Sodexo, Conseil National de l’Ordre des Médecins, MAIF, Ecosystem, APEC, CPME, Institut de l’Entreprise, SACEM, FDJ, l’Ordre des Infirmiers, Assystem, FEBEA, SGM, Malakoff Humanis, Fondation pour l’Audition, DomusVi, … Since 2016, ELABE has also integrated Médiascopie, specialised in the analysis of executive speeches, into its offer, and in the work on words and messages.
About LinkUp :
Since 2010, LinkUp has been offering its expertise in CSR consulting, brand engagement and behavioural change to companies and brands. With its 30 employees specialised in CSR and committed communication, the firm helps them build ambitious commitment processes and share them with their stakeholders. The objective: to help its clients build and express their social utility, to turn their commitments into a performance lever and to accompany the changes in behaviour necessary for a sustainable world. A member of the community of companies with a mission and a B Corp label for 3 years, LinkUp, founded by Sandrine Raffin, has achieved a gross margin of 3.2 million euros in 2021. Its clients include: Bel, Nestlé, Herta, Panzani, Air France, LVMH, St Gobain, STEF, Altarea Commerce, Sodexo, FDJ, Pernod Ricard, Heineken, Mondelez…