The following are edited transcripts for this address.
The fact is, there are one billion adult consumers today who smoke and the World Health Organisation has estimated that in 20 and 50 years from today, even if they are very successful with tobacco control efforts, there will still be the same number of smokers as there are today.
Given that fact, it is very important for us as a company to be out talking and working with government to address the issue of the net harm caused by smoking.
There are many people who believe that, given the nature of our product, there can be no such thing as social responsibility for a company like ours. We haven’t been perfect. We have made mistakes and being at events like this allows us to share the lessons we have learned.
We have done regular surveys involving more than 40,000 adults around the world about what people expect of a company that is socially responsible. They expect them to treat their employees well. They expect them to support charities. They expect them to respect the environment. And they expect them to obey the law.
There are additional expectations of a company producing products
like ours. The community expects us to communicate everything we know about
the health
risks of our products as soon as we know it. The community expects us to
take all steps to prevent children from smoking and to constantly communicate.
Can we be responsible? I’m saying ‘Yes we can.’
One of the things we’ve found is that many people don’t know who Philip Morris is. They don’t really know the brands we produce and they don’t really know who we are. So the tobacco industry is looked at as ‘Big Tobacco’.
When one company breaks the law, or one company surfs around the law, most people say that that’s the tobacco industry. They don’t really distinguish one company from another. So, for us having laws that are transparent and effective helps to create a level playing field.
I know that here in Australia the Australian Government has recently passed legislation to increase the size of heath warnings so that ninety per cent of the back of the pack and thirty per cent of the front of the pack will have graphic health warnings. Philip Morris did not oppose those laws. In fact when we were asked for our opinion by the Government on the warnings, what we told them was so long as we have room for the trade mark, to identify the brand, the content and size of the warning was entirely up to them.
And given the unique dangers of smoking, we think that if you operate within the tobacco industry - from the manufacturer down to the retail level - you should be required to have a licence and if you violate the law you should risk losing that licence. When it comes to kids smoking, there should be very tough laws and they should be enforced.
Preventing kids from smoking
is something that society expects and has demanded from us. But it is a complex
issue and the key is that, working
together
with government, educators, the public health community and the tobacco
industry, together we can address the issue.
But working together is the critical element – we know the product,
we know the distribution, and working with government and with some of our
critics,
which we think is critical - we can advance efforts in reducing the harm
of smoking.
Now, having, said what I’ve said, there may be a few of you in the room who are wondering how it is that Philip Morris, one of the world’s largest tobacco companies, could be serious about wanting kids to quit smoking …. Or how we can be serious about talking about the harm associated with smoking, and helping people stop smoking, when our business depends upon cigarettes. Or, how we can support regulation which ultimately will reduce smoking.
There are two reasons for that - as I’ve mentioned earlier, Philip Morris is not four walls in a room. We have 40,000 employees, we’re part of society as well. The employees that we bring in to our company expect this of the company, so they have helped to define our approach to these issues. Our shareholders expect it, and so does the government and our consumers. So, from our point of view, this is absolutely critical to our business.
But there is another reason as, and that is that we don’t need and we don’t want kids to smoke in order to be successful. As a company, we are one of the largest tobacco companies, but today we have less than 15% share of the global cigarette market, and we believe that we can compete effectively – and responsibly - to increase our share of the market of adults who will make the choice to smoke.