How ServiceNow Hopes to Multiply its ESG Impact

Key Points

It’s difficult to imagine a better time to be running a cloud platform that helps companies manage digital workflows for enterprise operations. With so many employees working from home during the pandemic and many more now returning to a hybrid environment, ServiceNow is in a prime position in the market. At RBC’s Global Technology, Internet, Media and Telecommunications (TIMT) virtual conference, RBC Capital Markets’ CEO Derek Neldner spoke with Gina Mastantuono, CFO and ESG lead at ServiceNow, about the company and its evolving ESG work.

The new world of work

In the wake of the pandemic, digital transformation is mission-critical for businesses, and ServiceNow solutions are more in demand than ever. Mastantuono expects these changes and challenges to the world of work to continue and lead to more transformation in the future.

“Digital workflows are really the way forward and our customers are looking for technologies that are able to help them completely transform their operational models. Their workforces are more distributed than ever before, and that's not going to change post-pandemic. I think the world of work and the future of work, as everyone's been talking about, is absolutely shifting,” she said.

In the last two years, that has pushed bigger and bigger deals for ServiceNow, with large customers growing even larger. In Q4 2021 alone, the company closed 135 deals greater than $1 million, which was up 50% year over year. In addition, those deals include more and more ServiceNow products.

“The ability to have one platform that can sit on top of all of your systems of record and really help drive productivity and efficiency across the enterprise is resonating so strongly. And we absolutely expect those trends to endure and continue.”

Gina Mastantuono, CFO, ServiceNow

Share        

The CFO who leads ESG

ServiceNow is growing as a company and a as a leading voice for a more sustainable, equitable and ethical world. As CFO, Mastantuono is now also responsible for ESG and believes that bringing these roles together just makes good business sense.

“A lot of people are surprised by this, because CFOs are usually so bottom-line focused. But the whole executive leadership team firmly believes that sustainability practices are truly tied to economic value. And my responsibilities as CFO include all aspects of finance, but also workplace services, our supply chain, and our real estate footprint, which are also relevant when you think about sustainability,” said Mastantuono.

“The other thing is ESG efforts are very cross-functional, so I work closely with all of my peers across the entire C-suite to drive these initiatives. But as a CFO, I have a bird's-eye view across the entire enterprise and that gives me a unique perspective. ESG, just like any other key business priority, benefits from having really sound and strategic investment plans. And since I hold the purse strings, so to speak, I have the influence to drive the right investments across the company.”

The first step for ServiceNow in reevaluating its ESG initiatives in 2020 was to take a step back and analyze what the company was doing up to that point. That exercise included a desire from senior leadership to better understand what employees felt passionate about and to incorporate that into ServiceNow’s priorities from an environmental, social justice and equality standpoint.

“ESG efforts are very cross-functional, so I work closely with all of my peers across the entire C-suite to drive these initiatives. But as a CFO, I have a bird's-eye view across the entire enterprise and that gives me a unique perspective.”

Gina Mastantuono, CFO, ServiceNow

Share        

Becoming a force multiplier

ServiceNow is still in the early stages of its next ESG evolution, but Mastantuono sees a unqiue opportunity to drive greater impact by focusing on the right areas, having a comprehensive strategy and leading from the top. The company wants to become “the defining enterprise software company of the 21^st century”, but it also wants to lead with purpose, continue hitting or exceeding diversity targets and lead on ESG internally and externally. The company believes that its platform gives it the opportunity to be a force multiplier for ESG, helping its vast ecosystem of partners pursue and achieve their own ESG goals as well.

To that end, ServiceNow recently launched a new ESG solution to help its clients plan, track and report on their ESG efforts more easily. The solution provides crucial infrastructure to digitize and transform ESG strategy, management, governance, and reporting into a smooth-running operational system. It’s a modular system, which includes ESG management and reporting, risk management, project and portfolio management and ESG workflows.

“We released our first ever global impact report in 2021, so we now have one document that solidifies the strategy but also establishes a baseline for us. That gives us a better, more transparent way to monitor our progress where all of our stakeholders – whether its shareholders, customers, or employees – can really see how we're progressing,” Mastantuono said, adding that this year, ServiceNow will use its own ESG solution to make that global impact report much easier to compile.

“On the climate side, we're most focused on decarbonization. For our communities, we have strengthened our commitment to do more to accelerate our diversity, inclusion and equity journey. From a values perspective, it's all about trust and integrity,” she concluded.

This content is based on a keynote session from RBC Capital Markets’ Global Technology, Internet, Media and Telecommunications (TIMT) virtual conference, which was held on November 16-17, 2021. For more information about the conference, please contact your RBC representative.