A Congress for Quality of Life and Business Development

The recent First International Alares Congress, held under the motto “Quality of Life and Business Competitiveness,” highlighted the growing interest in new activities related to the development of social quality. This is understood as an effective and efficient way of responding to new personal demands that seek to reconcile attention to work responsibilities with dedication to the everyday needs of family life. It also includes social commitments aimed at combating discrimination and consequently promoting equality and integration. Furthermore, integration must encompass everyone, which means providing care services so that people lacking autonomy can participate in collective life and receive appropriate assistance. All these personal projects can become reality only insofar as active policies exist to enable them. Business initiatives must also facilitate appropriate services, while productive sectors must commit to supporting work–life reconciliation and integration processes. After all, meeting the demand for personal services characteristic of an advanced society will depend on all this. In keeping with the above, the Alares Foundation Congress featured discussions of the new strategic-positioning tools facilitating the combination of quality of life and business competitiveness, as well as formulas for structuring work–life reconciliation programs. Other topics included diversity management, progress toward non-discrimination and integration, and the opportunities presented by providing solidarity-based care for dependent people. These were just some of the most significant subjects addressed in an ambitious program that was carried out in detail. To develop the program, prominent figures were brought together to present successful experiences and policies. They spoke from their respective areas of responsibility, whether in the business world, public administration, teaching, or research. They also presented future projects that must be undertaken in light of studies—such as those presented during the sessions—confirming the benefits of investing in and committing to quality of life, both personal and collective. When this commitment translates into demand for and the provision of new support for individuals, it means creating new services for families and developing the still-emerging services currently available. This will open up new areas of activity, while businesses, having to organize themselves to improve their competitiveness and contribute to social quality, will strengthen their management of talent and the motivation of the people who bring them to life, renew them, and make them increasingly efficient. Public authorities, meanwhile, as they manage new spheres in which to implement their policies, will discover the importance of coordinating public initiatives with private ones, achieving more agile and effective management models. Such coordination must also take place within diverse regulatory frameworks and political systems. Speakers were therefore invited to demonstrate the opportunities contained in—and still offered by—the Congress motto, regardless of the social and legislative contexts to which they must adapt. From this perspective, it was possible to see the opportunities opened up by new technological applications and new ways of approaching Corporate Social Responsibility, since all of them can help build the social trust that encourages individual independence and business and collective commitments. The Congress therefore addressed issues related to equality policies and, consequently, work–life reconciliation processes, as well as the benefits this brings for talent retention and competitiveness. At the same time, it referred to the business commitment involved in developing a form of Social Responsibility that contributes to social quality. Social quality, on the other hand, could not be viewed in its entirety without also considering integration and inclusion policies, or policies for assisting people in situations of dependency. Since an appropriate response to all these issues involves incorporating some of the incoming migrant population into the workforce, the Congress also had to address diversity management and professional-qualification processes in the new activities associated with immigration. Finally, the Congress also considered the opportunities provided by technological and service infrastructures for making the processes to be developed more efficient. These infrastructures should enable a wide range of activities centered on the fundamental objective of providing services to people. They will also require the creation of new public and private financing formulas to make them possible. In turn, these will generate new jobs, wealth, and well-being to be shared by everyone. The Congress therefore brought one stage to a close and opened another, in which it will remain necessary to analyze new civic demands and promote actions and information that stimulate solidarity and foster social quality, good practices, and improvements in civic life. Such actions are among the most important means of strengthening the collective networks with which we seek to build the future. As was stated from the very beginning of the Congress, public policies and the availability of resources are essential to weaving that future. Above all, however, collective awareness is needed to promote new processes that facilitate work–life reconciliation and eradicate inequality and discrimination. These processes must also support solidarity with the most disadvantaged people, or with those living in more difficult and vulnerable circumstances that limit their autonomy. Businesses cannot remain outside this process of awareness-raising; they are called upon to expand their Social Responsibility, as are the media and every other social institution. This must encourage new challenges and opportunities to be seen as a common objective and task. Otherwise, public policies would be of little value if they lacked the social and civic support needed for people to make them their own. At this time of equality, solidarity, and competitiveness, the collective effort is only beginning and cannot be left solely in the hands of, or made the responsibility of, businesses and public authorities. Society must equip itself with the resources, policies, and social services needed to mitigate everything that remains discriminatory in collective life. Civil-society institutions, such as the Alares Foundation Congress, must also promote debates and initiatives that reveal the demands and opportunities. This will help ensure the effectiveness of legislative measures and guide business projects. The sessions emphasized that these actions also seek to promote social innovation, in addition to business success, since only in this way can more prosperous and advanced societies be built. In such societies, the results of effective management will ultimately benefit the well-being of the community and the social environments in which businesses operate. Nor should these aspirations be incompatible with preserving room for the happiness of each individual and of those around them. Ultimately, this was a Congress full of ideas, suggestions, and expectations, which therefore makes it necessary to begin thinking about a new edition that can document the rapid advances taking place in all these areas in advanced societies. It should encourage citizens, businesses, and public authorities to continue committing themselves to social quality and to business development that can finance it and bring it into the life of every person.