Bcorps & CSR: Business is a Powerful Force for Positive Social Change
By — — Posted in Companies that Care, Future of Work, Job Search Tips
“Business is a powerful force for positive social change.
One of the ways to think about that is that we’ve seen business be a force for negative social change many times, and we’ve gotten to the place where we’re not surprised by that anymore.
A Bangladeshi factory collapses and 1000 people die, and it’s a horrible thing, and people sorta shake their heads and think ‘well, it’s just another example of the bad behavior of business.
You don’t’ have to shift the frame too much to think “well, it’s not that there were people in Bangladesh making things.. what if they’d been in a safe factory, what if they’d been paid a living wage in a place where there’s not much work? Well then all of the sudden it’s simple to see that that might have been a good thing. What if the goods they were working on were made from organic cotton, grown close by? Then all the sudden we’ve got an environmental statement that is powerful and positive.
So there are all kinds of ways that the very same transaction could have done good, instead of doing bad.
We think about this in ways that today seem to be the exceptional, they seem fringe… biofuel industry makes all the sense in the world, but it’s something we don’t run into everyday.
The bigger challenge for business is not to have people begin to anymore conceive that business can be a force for positive social change, it’s to say, “How can we scale the change?” …
Too often in business, leaders do what they can, instead of what they should.
We all know what we should do, why don’t we do it?
Because we have this set of rewards that incents (incentivizes) us to do the wrong thing.
“We have to matter for a reason (beyond profitability); also, though, you have to make a profit. If you can’t adequately monetize the work you do, then you can’t be here to serve others. So profit is simply a metric of sustainability, and I would argue, that that should be true for any purpose driven business (for profit or non-profit), you have to be financially sustainable. “….
The role of business in society today not only can be different, it must be.
When we get involved in business, suddenly all we can talk about is spreadsheets and quarterly profits, and they are important, but they aren’t the reason we exist. We exist for love, is for service, we appreciate people who are honorable, who do the right thing.
Too often in business, leaders do what they can, instead of what they should.
We all know what we should do, why don’t we do it? Because we have this set of rewards that incents (incentivizes) us to do the wrong thing. We now know that environments that are built around the wrong incentives make moral people behave immorally.
Those of us that have the great blessing of leading businesses don’t get to check our morals at the door when we come to work, that’s a part of who we are. So everything we do all day every day ought to be a part of serving.
A business as the opportunity to serve it’s employees,
it has the opportunity to serve it’s customers,
but it also has the opportunity and obligation to serve the wider, broader community.“
– Kevin Trapani – CEO, The Redwoods Group
From the documentary: “Real Value” – Economics, Sustainability, Social Entrepreneurship
Real Value is an award-winning economics documentary that delivers a refreshing meditation on how business can be used to create value beyond profit; connecting motivational stories from social entrepreneurs working in agriculture, apparel, insurance, and biofuel, with the captivating science behind our perception of value from world-renowned professor of psychology and behavioral economics, Dan Ariely.
The film serves as inspiration for any business owner, entrepreneur, or customer who is looking to better understand what happens when a business puts people, planet, and profit on equal footing.
