Company History

VIAGlobus™ is the natural outcome of its staff's extended and long lasting management consulting work to help organizations enhance their business, societal and ecological performances.

In 1980, a group of visionary researchers and entrepreneurs founded Boston-headquartered CEC International-a research, consulting and education firm with a very clear purpose: to help companies achieve value-based strategic change with measurable and lasting results-a purpose we still cherish.

As CEC pioneered the movement to help guide companies to become more responsible and effective entities, very few business leaders were interested in our approach and even fewer in implementation. Most argued that the sole purpose of a business was to make profits and a good return to investors, and that philanthropy was the way to assume their societal responsibilities. Yet our extensive consulting work indicated that the organizations most trusted by both their internal and external stakeholders tended to have more committed employees, more loyal customers and actually perform better.

When, in the early 90s, rumors spread of a possible connection between socially responsible initiatives and bottom line results, more business leaders began to listen and consider implementation. Seizing the opportunity, CEC began researching the "business case for corporate responsibility" to see if our instincts were right: they were.

As CEC's consulting practice grew, we remained at the forefront of corporate responsibility research, capabilities and practice. In particular, our research revealed the emerging key issues and lead to the development of an extensive database, the contents of which included CSR approaches and models; CSR products, services and providers; types of organizations that buy and use them; the results they obtain; and the feedback from their stakeholders. The database grew so large and became such a wealth of information that colleagues and clients suggested that we make it available to companies for a fee.

This planted the seed for VIAGlobus™, but there were still many missing pieces. We were witnessing the birth of a booming industry-which we call the Global Responsibility Industry-growing so fast and in dire need of leadership at every level. Ironically, the industry itself is redefining leadership and organizational roles and models for thriving in an unprecedented technological, political, social, economic and ecological world context.

It is within this context that we see two unprecedented changes. First, the primary drivers of organizational change are no longer internal management, but rather external stakeholders of these organizations. Second, stakeholders can promote this change on a massive scale using the most advanced and inexpensive technology to date-Internet social networking portals.

Building on CEC's extensive background in developing the theory and practice of global responsibility, our team decided to take advantage of this new technology by creating a service that contributes on the largest scale yet to foster a better world that works for all, that increases rather than conflicts with profitability and above all, that is sustainable and ethically committed to the greater good. That is VIAGlobus™.