This was a messy, slushy, snowy week in Manhattan, but in spite of the weather much light was cast on that urban island by world-class speakers who know their stuff when it comes to mixing business and social values.
On Tuesday night a brave group of social entrepreneurs sought refuge from the elements in Patagonia’s Greene Street store to celebrate the publication of “Just Good Business: An Investor’s Guide to B Corps”. Patagonia “Doctor of Philosophy” Vincent Stanley, Caprock’s Matthew Weatherly-White and B Lab’s Amanda Kizer spoke on the intersection of impact investing and the ten-year growth of the B Corp movement.
Twenty-four hours later with the snow coming down even harder, a standing room only crowd converged on a pizza and wine reception in the Gold LEED-certified Heart Tower to mark the publication by Wiley of the book “WEconomy”.
Co-authors Craig Kielburger, co-founder of WE and Dr. Holly Branson, chair of Virgin Unite, were joined by Sir Richard Branson, who wrote the epilogue to the book and has inspired generations of social entrepreneurs, in describing the book’s core and answering numerous questions.
Such presentations have a tendency to get tripped up in a crunchy granola trap of inflated, feel-good rhetoric, but I was struck by how all the speakers kept coming back to an essential theme.
Whether you are building a B Corp (a third party certified company that meets standards of social and environmental performance, accountability and transparency) or shifting the trajectory of a traditional company to a more enlightened path, you can not depend on the enterprise’s social impact to substitute for a solid business model that satisfies stakeholder groups.
As Patagonia’s Stanley said,
No one will buy a Patagonia rain jacket to save the world. They buy a Patagonia rain jacket to keep them dry. But they may choose our jacket because they know of the way we operate our company.
Ever the hard-nosed analyst, Weatherly-White makes the point this way in his introduction to the guide on B Corps (of which there are now about 2,400 certified worldwide),
When paired solid cash flow management, passionate leadership, a coherent strategy, a rational business plan, and all the other factors that undergird every successful enterprise, B Corp Certification is both a risk mitigator and an opportunity identifier.
Helping companies manage the real world process of incorporating a values-based orientation to their management was the driving force behind the publication of “WEconomy”, explained Kielburger.
Divided into three parts, the book provides valuable background for understanding what you are getting into, helps you make the case to others that “purpose” should be your enterprise’s fifth P and gives you practical tools to increase your chances of success.
Part One: “Welcome to the Weconomy”
Introduces the concept of social enterprise as a means for companies and nonprofits to drive social change and profits at scale.
Part Two: “From The Slaughterhouse to Social Enterprise”
Makes the business case for “an injection of smart social responsibility” into any business by showing how it can be a catalyst differentiation, new product development, inspiring consumers and employees and more
Part Three: “If You Build It They May Not Come: How to Get Purpose Right”
Shows through example how to avoid common mistakes in execution so readers increase the probability that they will pull off successful company/cause initiatives.
Whether you work at a business or nonprofit, are a millennial or a boomer, I recommend that you add these volumes to your social entrepreneurship bookshelf. You can download a free copy of the B Lab investment guide here and order your own copy of “WEconomy” here.
One last bit of advice: Now that spring has arrived, don’t wait until dark, gloomy weather sets in again to read them!
