B Corps: Redefining Capitalism
B the Change Weekly: March 29, 2019
Delivered on Fridays, B the Change Weekly delivers the most important and most relevant stories about people using business as a force for good. The newsletter features a weekly note from the B the Change team alongside insight and context on the stories we share here on Medium. Below is our latest roundup. To receive these insights directly in your inbox, sign up for B the Change Weekly today. Now onto the good stuff:
Even if science class wasn’t your favorite, like it is for eighth-grader Bryce Anderson, we think you’ll appreciate his recent class assignment: comparing a plant cell to an organization. In Bryce’s case, that organization is B Lab, the nonprofit that oversees B Corp certification.
As Bryce says: “I love the environment and nature, and I think B Lab is an awesome way to help both of those things.” From the cell wall to the chloroplasts, Bryce unites B Corps with biology and reminds us that science can be fun for students of all ages — and how nature can guide the everyday work of businesses mindful of their impact on community and environment.
This week, as we close out our celebration of B Corp Month, we take a look at the ways B Corps are taking their observations of nature and global events into consideration as they make decisions at their businesses.
Why It Pays to Consider Marketing for Good
For Ridgeline Venture Law (RVL), the process of becoming a B Corp included lessons on what the business could do — but it also showed the firm what it could do better. The B Corp values run deep at RVL: “We believe that the challenging work of building today’s companies for tomorrow’s economies goes hand-in-hand with positively impacting the environmental and social fabric of our community.”
As the Chattanooga, Tennessee-based B Corp strives to find the best ways to pursue profit with purpose, it has learned some lessons on what has worked (and what hasn’t). On B the Change, RVL shares three tips for creating a sponsorship marketing model that complements your B Corp’s business goals.
AI and the Corporate System: Time for Reform?
The relationship between humans and computers — interdependent or independent? — has raised concerns since the machines were invented. These worries are taking new urgency with the emergence of artificial intelligence (AI) systems that, as Rick Alexander notes on B the Change, “do exactly what we ask, but all too well.”
Computers are not the only type of machine that presents this problem, Alexander says. “Organizations, including corporations, are also data-processing machines. Data comes in — the availability and price of supply, customer demand, rules, economic outlook — and the company uses the data to figure out the most efficient way to create goods and services.”
But what happens when what’s most efficient and profitable may not be what’s best for human rights or the planet? Alexander outlines how we might reprogram our financial system by establishing a new corporate principle that goes beyond stock value.
Business Voices: Advocating for Diversity
As a business that is values based, purpose-led and a founding Certified B Corporation, Green Retirement Inc. holds community and planet as stakeholders.
Through its work with client NetSol Technologies, a publicly traded company with multinational operations, Green Retirement has expanded its knowledge of Halal investments — those that avoid investing in companies profiting from activities that violate the core tenets of Islam. Through its work with NetSol, Green Retirement also has built connections that reflect the B Corp values of equity, diversity and inclusion.
On B the Change, read more from Green Retirement co-founder Rose Penelope Yee on how B Corps and other businesses can lead by persistently advocating for policies that value diversity and will help bring about a shared and durable prosperity for all.
Book of the Week
Balanced Effectiveness at Work
By Flip Brown
This “resiliency manual for anyone who works for a living” highlights tips, tools, and techniques to make being at work work better. Each chapter includes conceptual definitions, sample scenarios, frank assessments, “Flip’s Tips,” action plans for real traction and positive reinforcement.
Author Flip Brown in 2000 founded Business Culture Consultants, a Certified B Corporation that helps organizational owners, leaders and managers understand, change and sustain their patterns of interaction and behavior. With a light-hearted but in-depth look at 24 wide-ranging topics, presented in a unique news-you-can-use format, Balanced Effectiveness at Work provides with real options, helpful resources and renewed optimism.
B the Change gathers and shares the voices from within the movement of people using business as a force for good and the community of Certified B Corporations. The opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect those of the nonprofit B Lab.
