Cor­por­ate Social Responsibility

Ver­tical Optim­iz­a­tion. LLC is com­mit­ted to respons­ible cor­por­ate cit­izen­ship and views it as being of equal value to its fin­an­cial mis­sion. Ver­tical Optim­iz­a­tion, LLC exists to serve people. To that end, it meas­ures its impact not just in terms of the value it brings to its share­hold­ers but also the value it brings to its cus­tom­ers, neigh­bors, asso­ci­ates, com­pet­it­ors, and broader com­munity. In other words, cor­por­ate social respons­ib­il­ity is an integ­ral ele­ment of the cor­por­ate char­ac­ter and culture.

These val­ues are defined and out­lined in the following:

1. Ver­tical Optim­iz­a­tion, LLC shall be known and oper­ated as an open, hon­est, earn­est, eth­ical and people-​centered busi­ness entity. This shall be meas­ured by the num­ber, dur­a­tion, con­tent and health of its busi­ness asso­ci­ations with cus­tom­ers, part­ners, com­pet­it­ors, affil­i­ates and neigh­bors at large.

2. Ver­tical Optim­iz­a­tion, LLC and its affil­i­ates shall work to sup­port small enter­prises that cre­ate good qual­ity products and ser­vices the world over. Ver­tical Optim­iz­a­tion, LLC shall provide afford­able, sus­tain­able, and scal­able ser­vices to its small busi­ness cli­ents to spur their growth. This shall be meas­ured by the abil­ity of its cli­ents to access pro­duct­ive capa­city and mar­kets that might oth­er­wise not be avail­able to them. The num­ber and impact of these inter­ven­tions (on both sides of the trans­ac­tion bridge) shall be the primary met­ric of the company’s success.

3. Ver­tical Optim­iz­a­tion, LLC shall endeavor in every product devel­op­ment or enter­prise devel­op­ment effort to reduce its envir­on­mental foot­print and that of its cli­ents and asso­ci­ates. It shall do so by always bal­an­cing the enthalpic needs of a busi­ness effort with the eco­lo­gic impact of such effort. Where there is a con­flict, the bal­ance shall tilt in the dir­ec­tion of the option which serves the greater num­ber of people or assists a lar­ger frac­tion of the popu­lace in the dir­ec­tion of self-​sufficiency.

4. Ver­tical Optim­iz­a­tion, LLC shall itself oper­ate – and drive its cli­ents and asso­ci­ates to oper­ate — in a man­ner that recog­nizes work­place safety as a basic expres­sion of human care. This shall be reflec­ted in its product design, enter­prise devel­op­ment and oper­a­tions man­age­ment prac­tices. The com­pany shall also con­vey these prac­tices in its ped­agogy and out­reach efforts. Given that ‘safety is no acci­dent’, Ver­tical Optim­iz­a­tion, LLC shall emphas­ize excel­lent design and even bet­ter oper­a­tion in all its devel­op­ment efforts.

5. Ver­tical Optim­iz­a­tion, LLC works in many devel­op­ing eco­nom­ies and rural com­munit­ies around the world, with very small com­pan­ies. The firm is keenly aware of its own egal­it­arian her­it­age, and sees the equity and dig­nity of its cli­ents and cus­tom­ers as crit­ical ele­ments of the trans­ac­tion. The firm is firmly com­mit­ted to ‘fair trade’ not as a man­tra or product label but as a basic prac­tice of any respons­ible busi­ness. It defines ‘fair trade’ as “beha­vior that cre­ates a trans­ac­tion – and trans­ac­tion cli­mate — between parties in which both party’s short-​term object­ives are met while advan­cing their longer-​term com­mer­cial aspir­a­tions “.

6. Ver­tical Optim­iz­a­tion, LLC does not view ‘diversity’ as end in and of itself. It views diversity in all its hues (social, cul­tural, edu­ca­tional, reli­gious, gender, cog­nit­ive, exper­i­en­tial, per­cep­tual, and so on) as neces­sary for its effect­ive oper­a­tion in the vari­ous loc­al­it­ies and cir­cum­stances in which it oper­ates. The firm is fully com­mit­ted to hir­ing and part­ner­ing in a man­ner that reflects this neces­sity, and its her­it­age as a people-​centered busi­ness entity.

7. Ver­tical Optim­iz­a­tion, LLC views entre­pren­eur­ial cit­izen­ship as a basic human right. The firm shall always strive to sup­port people (and groups thereof) seek­ing to improve their cir­cum­stance by way of legit­im­ate private enter­prise. It shall do so by provid­ing afford­able ser­vices, and where neces­sary and feas­ible, lever­aging its rela­tion­ships to reaf­firm and sup­port entre­pren­eur­ial cit­izen­ship even in those instances where there there may not be imme­di­ate fin­an­cial reward.

8. Ver­tical Optim­iz­a­tion, LLC views qual­ity man­age­ment and pro­ductiv­ity improve­ment as integ­ral ele­ments of cor­por­ate social respons­ib­il­ity. While the former reduces waste on the cus­tomer side of the trans­ac­tion, the lat­ter reduces waste on the pro­vider side. Ver­tical Optim­iz­a­tion, LLC views these as neces­sary and com­ple­ment­ary ele­ments that reduce the envir­on­mental foot­print AND increase the prof­it­ab­il­ity (both fin­an­cial and eco­lo­gical) of a busi­ness oper­a­tion. This shall be reflec­ted in its design, devel­op­ment and man­age­ment ser­vices and operations.

9. Ver­tical Optim­iz­a­tion, LLC shall obey the laws of the coun­tries and loc­al­it­ies in which it operates.

10. Ver­tical Optim­iz­a­tion, LLC shall not oper­ate in any coun­try or jur­is­dic­tion which laws force the com­pany to oper­ate in a man­ner that viol­ates its eth­ics or com­prom­ises its values.

Adop­ted on the 9^th of June, 2006. Wash­ing­ton, DC.