Achieving economic success by remaining faithful to ethical values and respecting individuals, communities and the environment is the goal of a socially responsible company, an ideal with which the Iris Ceramica Group totally identifies. Maximizing profit, reducing production costs and expanding the global market are inherent in economic practices, but we believe that these objectives must also be achieved by aiming to satisfy the common good, i.e. the well-being of the community and of the people in general. We believe in a company in which part of the profit is used for initiatives that can improve life: environment, health, recovery of the architectural and cultural heritage. Through the company, all stakeholders must be able to achieve their goals and enrich themselves. For Iris Ceramica Group, publishing the Sustainability Report means reaffirming the bond of mutual dependence between civil society and business.
For this reason, in 2020 we organized an initial stakeholder engagement initiative where we could hold discussions with all those who interact with the Iris Ceramica Group in various capacities and on which we drew to fine-tune our medium and long-term strategy. Further in-depth meetings, focus groups dedicated to Employees and Suppliers stakeholders, organized over the past year, have helped us to fully develop the logic of listening and sharing projects and initiatives aimed at continuous improvement.
The public, meaning the final customer, deserves equal attention. Today, new technologies allow for a digital democracy to be achieved that has profoundly transformed commercial expectations and demands. Users now supplement the traditional in-store appointment with prior online information searches on industry portals and in magazines and blogs. Consumers are more informed market operators and therefore more competitive and demanding. This means that product display and promotion spaces must necessarily integrate their services: our flagship stores are now a complementary channel that supports our ON and OFFLINE promotion activities, providing service and experience, opportunities for meeting and training, contact points whose mission, vision and corporate identity are consistent with the Group's strategies. We believe that engaging in ethical behavior in respect of stakeholders helps the company improve its performance. A high level of stakeholder satisfaction allows the company to achieve competitive advantages and, consequently, increase profit. We are convinced that in the world there is a need for truth, ethics and beauty, values that inspire us not only because they are functional to the company's objectives, but also because we believe they are morally right.