I’ve been reflecting on a day spent with the wonderful people at Mayden recently. For those that don’t know them, Mayden are a Corporate Rebels bucket list organisation who have flattened their hierarchy and embraced agile across all their activities. Needless to time spent with them is always thought provoking.
Sweeping generalisation alert: I wonder if there are only two types of organisations. Those that have recognised the folly and toxicity of the command and control approach to management and rejected it, and those that haven’t.
Now here’s the thing. Most leaders of most organisations would feel that their approach to management was not “command and control.” yet it is only a tiny minority of organisations who are, genuinely, committed to a path where the tacit assumptions that underpin command and control are entirely absent. Indeed, many accepted best practices are built on one or more of those assumptions.
Another way of framing it is to consider which of the following open questions better describes your organisations’ approach to people:
These two questions set you on very different paths, so is there any middle ground? A question I’ll return to.
Bill Gore set up W.L Gore to create an organisation entirely free of bureaucracy. Jos de Blok set-up Buurtzorg to reconnect nurses with the job that they loved and to give their patients the best, personalised care. Chris May developed Mayden with a desire to do something better for its people than follow the herd with conventional management. Although very different in size, sector, era and geography there are spooky similarities in the norms and everyday practices you would find in all three organisations. And I guess we shouldn’t be surprised; if you set-out to create your organisations to fundamentally “work with the grain” of humans; our psychology, sociology, and anthropology we will, by iteration and emergence, arrive in a similar place.
If we set out now to invent the norms and mechanisms of our organisations based on what we know about humans and human performance, what we’d come up with would bear no relation to what we see in most organisations today.
Bill, Jos and Chris all bore the scare tissue of experiencing command and control management and that galvanised them to create something different. Those different “somethings” were all built on very different and better informed assumptions about people. Most of us are not in that situation. The organisations that most of us lead are work in progress, not a blank sheet of paper. Many of us feel that we have inherited a situation which is not of our design, very likely there are bits about it that we don’t like and perceive those bits to be hard to change.
No start-up has ever scaled and flourished into an organisation and got everything right first time. Snags, glitches, wrong calls and failures are inevitable and essential to finding the right path for your unique situation. Even the poster child progressive organisations have had these set-backs along the way, they are quite open about them.
This is perhaps where we find the middle ground, every organisation will have its own level of comfort or discomfort with the conventional approaches to management. The more discomfort there is, the more rapid the evolution will be.
So, assuming you ascribe more to Q1 (How do we create the conditions where people find great intrinsic reward in giving the best of their whole self at work?) than Q2, how do we get started and how quickly can we progress? Here I’m reminded of something that Margaret Heffernan said when speaking with Lisa Gill on her excellent Leadermorphosis podcast.
“…do not think you can think your way to the answer. You can’t, it’s impossible. You have to do something different and see how the system responds. From that you’ve learned something that you can build on. But absolutely, none of us can solve these real world problems in our heads. It’s not physics, it’s not math. It’s human beings working together. And the way people learn to work together, is by working together.”
The practice of experimentation is the key. Experimentation is largely absent in command and control organisations, and woven into just about everyone’s roles in progressive organisations. Based on our research into change-enabled organisations, experimentation is the “how” that applies to the majority of the 26 areas of practice that our research identified.
Experimentation is also, in and of itself, a practice that helps people find great intrinsic reward and creates opportunities for them to give the best of their whole self at work. It is also the engine-room of ever-improving ways of working. So, both the process and the output are accelerants to the evolution.
Absolutely not. Some are more command and control than others, some more human-centric. But if you are committed to a journey from the former to the later, giving people the time, the safe climate, and the autonomy to develop their own safe-to-try experiments will really help build momentum. What’s stopping you from experimenting with it?
The Vitality Index (VI) engenders the habit of experimentation in every team in the organisation. Based on our research, The VI is able to identify the three (out of 26) areas of practice that, if changed will be most beneficial to that specific team at the current moment in time. These insights, in combination with some independent facilitation from us and some inspiration from the Vitality playbook get the teams started on their journey towards ever-better ways of working. This is not just experimentation, this is change that the team own, change that is emergent and responsive and most importantly change that people feel good about.
When you get a quote for an insurance policy to protect your company, you’ll need to provide details of who you are and what you do. We come across business descriptions of all shapes and sizes, including the weird and wonderful. And the more accurate, the better.
In this blog, we’ll unpack why it’s important to make sure your business description is correct, up to date, and matches your activities on your insurance policy.
What is a business description?
When applying for insurance, you’ll need to provide a business description, among other details. This is an explanation of what your business does, including the products or services you offer and how you operate.
Why do insurance companies need this information? They’ll use your business descriptions to understand the specific risks you face in your sector. This informs the level of coverage and the policy cost.
What should a business description include?
You might find it difficult to write an appropriate business description when you deliver multiple services. However, it’s especially important that you explain your business activities accurately and comprehensively. Aim for a broad but precise description that covers all activities, products, and services.
For example, at RiskBox we have several clients who class themselves as a digital agency. They may deal with a diverse range of services, including strategy, graphic design, digital marketing, web design and development, and more. Their business descriptions must cover all these activities so that the insurer is fully aware of what they do.
What happens if you get the business description wrong?
If you don’t provide an accurate business description to the insurance provider, you run several risks, such as:
Therefore, it’s important to provide a thorough and accurate business description when applying for a commercial insurance policy.
Example: an insufficient business description
Let’s say a digital agency specialises in creating websites for small businesses. Their services include everything from graphic design to web development. But when they provide their business description to the insurance company, they only list their logo and business card design services.
Down the line, a client hires the agency to design a new website. But the website isn’t functional, and the client incurs significant financial losses as a result. They sue the agency for compensation, and the agency’s professional indemnity insurance policy is called upon to cover the legal costs and any settlement or judgement amounts.
Yet, because the business description initially provided didn’t accurately reflect the full scope of the agency’s website design services, the insurers would reject their claim. As a result, the agency must pay for the legal costs and any settlement or judgement amounts out of pocket, which could be financially devastating.
So, what’s the best way to prevent problems?
Whether you’re taking out a new insurance policy or updating your coverage, you must make sure you’re clear and accurate about what you actually do.
The best approach is to break down every area of work in your business – no matter how big or small – and calculate the percentage of turnover generated in each. Then, your broker or insurer can help make sure the description is sufficient to cover your business activities and services.
I’m concerned my business description is incorrect, what can I do?
If you think your business description may be inaccurate, contact a broker or insurer right away. They can update the description and issue you the revised documentation to give you peace of mind – and, importantly, protect your business.
For a specialist’s opinion, or to have someone double-check your business description, get in touch with our friendly team. You can reach us on 0161 533 0411, at [email protected], or by filling in our online contact form.
Photo by Christopher Gower on Unsplash
Share space with other creatives in the centre of Bath. Just £200 per month plus VAT will let you have a desk in an open plan office (well, as open plan as an old Georgian office allows!), meeting room, heating (yes – we know that’s really important!), lighting, all the tea and coffee you can drink (yes – that’s important too!) and a bit of light banter.
Our offices are just off Queen Square, which is handy for the pubs and shops, railway station, bikes and anything else except cars.
Our friends at The Wow Company have launched BenchPress 2023. With agencies of all sizes participating, BenchPress is the largest survey of independent agency owners in the UK.
It’s the perfect opportunity for Bristol Creative Industries members to benchmark themselves against their peers and build a picture of the latest trends impacting agencies across the country.
By taking part this year you’ll be able to compare yourself in several key areas:
You’ll discover what the top performers do differently – insights that have the power to transform your agency.
Sooner or later, almost every agency owner will ask the question – how does my agency compare with others? Each year, BenchPress answers this question by surveying hundreds of agency owners. Everyone that takes part will receive a copy of the full benchmark results plus the chance to secure free early bird tickets to the launch event in March. If you haven’t seen a report before, here’s the 2022 report.
The survey takes about 15 minutes to complete so grab yourself a cuppa and get started.
One of the big benefits of Bristol Creative Industries membership is the ability to self-publish content on our website. We’ve seen lots of great content published in 2022 including some brilliant business advice. Here are the 20 most popular advice posts of the year.
Want to publish business advice on our website and make the top 20 next year? Become a member of Bristol Creative Industries.
Written by JX Branding / Joanna Xenofontos
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The role of brand architecture in Facebook’s rebrand to Meta
Written by Varn
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Written by Adapt
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Written by AMBITIOUS
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Written by Fiasco Design
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Written by saintnicks
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Written by Ginkgo Business Development
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Written by Synergist
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Written by Ryan Webb Consultancy Ltd
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The advantages of becoming a B Corp: 9 reasons you should do the “impact assessment” now
Written by Flourish
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10 things the Flourish creative team learned at TwitchCon Amsterdam 2022
Written by AMBITIOUS
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Written by Tom Fallowfield (Ugli)
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Written by Armadillo
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Why Performance Marketing without a Performance Mindset isn’t Enough in 2022
Written by Turnhouse Marketing
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Written by Adapt
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Written by Carnsight Communications
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Written by AMBITIOUS
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Written by saintnicks
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Written by Future Shift
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How to Spot Greenwash in Sustainability Reporting: A Beginner’s Guide
Written by Episode Two
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Want to publish business advice on our website and make the top 20 next year? Become a member of Bristol Creative Industries.
The track was steep, half grass half loose rock. It had peaks and troughs and was designed to keep hatchback cars like ours at bay. Our suspension was low to the ground due to the camera gear we’d crammed in the boot. Thud, scrape, rev, thud, scrape, rev. We zigzagged up the path. This was not how we’d imagined our first bee hunt. Either side of us were broccoli fields, freshly sprouting, the ocean visible just over the far hedges. Cornwall has an ability to take you from the known to the unknown very quickly. We drew into a small National Trust farm where the team from Buglife International, an organization ‘protecting the tiny things that make the world work’, were gathered. Their giant bee nets poking from their backpacks and binoculars hanging from their necks.
We were here on a very specific mission to find and film one of the UK’s rarest bees, the Large Scabious Mining Bee. This mining bee, amongst others, is a focus point of a county wide conservation project called The North Cornwall B Line that’s creating pollinator corridors stretching the length of the South West of England. A solitary mining bee lives, as the name suggests, by itself, they usually live in burrows, instead of in a hive, eighty percent of UK bees are bees of this kind. They come in all shapes, sizes and colors. Some of them, the nomad bees, lay their eggs in other bees’ nests, they’re the cuckoo of the bee world. Solitary bee populations, like most insects in the UK, are plummeting. We used to have 4 species of scabious bee in Cornwall, we now only have one… and it’s only found on the location we were visiting today.
Bees are fast, unpredictable and small – that makes them a hard subject to film. We were lucky in a way that our bees feed on a single flower and are isolated to a small patch of land, that should narrow the hunt down. We were told in advance that we’d be lucky to see any bees let alone get any film of them. Their numbers are so low, and their activity governed strictly by the wind and temperature, that it was a complete roll of the dice. We did our final checks and packed a large antique magnifying glass into our back pocket before setting off on our way.
We followed the team into a swathe of seeded grass freckled with wildflowers. Looking back you could see the old farm land we drove through to get here. A patchwork of dark brown earth with lines of well behaved vegetables. This is Cornwall, next to no trees, 75% managed for agricultural use and 8% is urban area. It comes as no surprise then that breeding birds and mammals are found in only half as many places as they were 30 years ago, butterflies are found in even fewer places. Though this may make you despair, there is plenty of hope. Nature hangs on in the most unexpected places. Looking across the fields you see wild shrubby hedge rows and triangular islands of life where three fields meet, safe from the plow. It’s so easy to see what people mean by islands of biodiversity and when they speak about the need for wildlife corridors to connect them up.
As we walked, butterflies of all kinds fluttered inches above the sward, weightless, beating, still. Evidence of regenerative work was everywhere to be seen. Baby saplings, 10 trees thick, ran along the furthest field margin that backed onto the sea cliffs – a site of specific scientific interest (SSSI). “They told us trees couldn’t grow here… too windy they said… They look perfectly good to me. We’re trying to give the landscape a little shelter and to increase the width of the shrub from the sea cliffs to the meadows.” said Nick Holden, a National Trust lead ranger and our guide, Nick continued, “The fields we were walking on used to be just like the broccoli fields down below. It’s taken years of seeding and regenerative grazing to return the meadows to what you see now. There’s plenty more work to be done, mind.”. As we walked Nick spoke to us of the different wildflowers that had been sown and how their roots permeate to different depths. A technique often used to kickstart the development of health topsoil.
“Well here we are”, Nick gestured for us to walk through a final gate into a sprawling broccoli field. Behind the gate the land dropped away revealing Godrevey headland. The famous lighthouse stood framed between two sea cliffs and the beach stretched to the West. It was beautiful. “Not much is it” Nick said, we noticed he was staring down to the ground to a patch of wildflowers no more than 5 meters thick. This thin belt ran the length of the broccoli field. The Buglife team had already got their nets out and were walking along this patch as if they were looking for a dropped coin, legs straight, back bowed, concentrated. “This is the spot, if you’re gonna have any luck finding the bees it will be here” Nick put a hand out and invited us to take a look.
Little blue flowers littered the margin, their delicate frames improbable against the sea winds. “So this is the field scabious” Laura said kneeling down beside the plants. Laura is head of the North Cornwall B Line project and was the person who had invited us to the bee hunt. “We spent all last summer collecting seeds and have started a makeshift nursery in Paddy’s garden,” Laura pointed at Paddy, the lead Entomologist (an insect expert), as he wafted his net across the verge. Laura continued, “We have well over 500 seedlings now which we’re hoping to plant across the fields you just walked across, the idea is to connect this small patch of flowers with another patch further down the valley”. Solitary bees face a challenge in our great expanses of farmed landscape. Unlike their social friends the honey bees, who will often fly up to distances of 5 miles to find food, solitary bees will fly no further than 200 meters from their nesting sites. You can imagine how easy it would be for an unsuspecting farmer to remove a small corner of scrub, just like the one we’re standing in now, and in the process remove a nearby food source, stepping stone or final stronghold.
There would be two approaches; the stake out, in which a person sits, camera on tripod, aiming at a patch of flowers in the hope of a bee encounter, then there’s the run and gun, where a cameraman, camera in hand, runs along the verge opportunistically poaching a shot here, a shot there. We began with option one, camera steadfast, tripod engaged. Then we waited. And we waited. And we… “Oh bee”, shouted Paddy from the bottom of the field, the net swooped twice, figure of eight style, paddy, knee deep in a sea of blue, flung the net over his own head to inspect his catch. He reappeared holding a small translucent tube in his hand, he had a bee. The bee was the size of a one pee coin, jet black, with two huge balls of bright pink pollen on its legs. It was perfect. I felt a sense of wonder, how could I find something so new, so rare, amongst a place that looks so normal. I was hooked, part by the search for the next bee and part by the idea of what else could be here.
We spent the rest of the day foraging for bees and butterflies. In total, 8 Scabious Mining Bees were seen. The image of Ollie, our cameraman, and Adam, his assistant, leaning into a hedge, Ollie holding a camera, and Adam pressing a magnifying glass to the end of his lens will forever stay in my mind. Wildlife can do that to people, it draws you in, strips back the rubbish and brings out the inner kid. Throughout the day we were reminded by Paddy just how uncommon it was to see so many bees. The thing is, this was year two of their project, with the first load of new scabious flowers already blooming. Conservation takes patience, conservationists don’t speak in days or months, they speak in years, and this project was two years in the making. There’s the councils, the big organizations, farmers and private landowners, there’s the experts, the volunteers and the staff to keep it ticking. It takes all of that, for days like today.
After a series of interviews amongst the bees, we set off on our journey home. Laura told us about the national B Line project taking place and how the North Cornwall project was a small part of a much bigger initiative. In total they aim to engage 150,000 hectares of land, that’s over 210,000 football pitches, across the whole of the UK. That’s an area roughly the same size as London. What’s most amazing about it is they’re doing all of it without owning any land. This is about people sitting down with other people and saying “we have a plan… are you in”. We left the day feeling optimistic about the future. We’d seen our bee, now we needed to make a film to tell their story.
Studio 31 offers serviced artistic office space in Bristol and provides a stimulating environment and community for people involved in creative industries. All of our office spaces are rented out to businesses and individuals whose work fits our ethos. With artists, jewellery makers, magazines publishers, web designers, film producers and more all working under one roof, Studio 31 has to be one of the most inspiring and creative communities in which to work in Bristol.
Located within a grand, grade II listed building overlooking the stunning Berkeley Square, all of the studios are light and airy. We’re usually full, but a space has unexpectedly come available – enquire now before it’s snapped up!
Why is Studio 31 special?
14 offices over 3 floors in a stunning period property with kitchens and bathrooms on every floor
Weekly communal cleaning
Rent is all-inclusive
Fantastic Bristol location
Creative community of inspiring, like-minded individuals
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Dedicated maintenance team
Find out more by contacting the team on 0117 322 6635
In November 2022, the UN Climate Change Conference COP27 will take place in Sharm El-Sheikh, Egypt – just one year after the COP26 conference that brought global leaders together in Glasgow to discuss the catastrophic effects of climate change and what can be done to reverse or slow them.
Following last year’s conference, COP27 aims to advance global climate talks and action, and will focus on the impact of climate change in Africa, which has been flagged as a content disproportionately vulnerable to floods, drought, and extreme heat.
But what changes have we seen since the pacts and promises of COP26, are world leaders really taking action, and what do we hope will come from COP27?
Positive change in Africa
Looking at the State of the Climate in Africa 2020 report, and with COP27 taking place on the continent, it seems likely that the crisis and investment needed to reverse it will be discussed. The report suggests that $30 to $50 billion would need to be invested into climate adaptation in sub-Saharan Africa each year over the next decade.
This money could create job opportunities and help develop the economy while still focusing on sustainable and green recovery.
Clearer aims and responses
One of the most-used phrases to come out of COP26 was “constructive ambiguity”, which is often applicable in discussions around climate diplomacy. Many people were left feeling world leaders had failed to come up with any new or meaningful agreements, and that the Glasgow Climate Pact was littered with ambiguous language unlikely to inspire global action against climate change.
This year, we hope fresher ideas and clearer goals will be put into effect.
Pressure on less responsive nations
The UK, for its political flaw, does have strong ambitions when it comes to renewables and reducing emissions, including the 2050 net zero targets. But the same can’t be said for all nations, and some merely pay lip service to these kinds of goals.
One such country is Egypt, where the conference will be held, which has no set target to reduce its emissions and has been ranked “highly insufficient” in its climate action. Perhaps hosting COP27 will put more onus on Egypt, and other countries without clear climate goals, to take action.
Blame on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine
Certainly a prediction rather than a hope: it seems unlikely that at least one missed, dropped, or failed target won’t be pinned on the invasion of Ukraine. Devastating and with wide reaching global effects, there are no doubt numerous global climate goals that have been affected by the war. But for many European countries, it has also put the need for renewables into a new light as they can no longer rely on Russia for fossil fuels.
Politicians are now in the unenviable position of seeking alternatives while needing to be seen as working to keep energy prices low and still prioritise the environment. Will COP27 be the catalyst for new, greener energy solutions? Or will they just be moved into new regions?
Turning pledges into plans
In November 2021, 151 countries offered plans to decarbonise their economies at COP26. Now, only 11 nations have actually updated those plans. In May this year, G7 – the group of the world’s richest nations – committed to “achieving predominantly decarbonised electricity sectors by 2035” in a statement echoing promises made in Glasgow. This year, we want to see these plans taken a step further and developed into concrete climate pledges.
Greater input from China
Xi Jinping did not attend COP26 and is unlikely to be present at COP27, which coincides with the 20th National Congress of the Chinese Communist Party. But as a huge contributor to environmental pollution and the second-largest economy in the world, the country’s role at the conference is crucial, whether its leaders are there in person or not.
Now, as more countries become actively involved in climate talks, it’s less likely China will get away with keeping themselves out of it. And, since the nation generally aligns itself with developing countries despite its impressive GDP, will Europe and the US continue to finance climate action in poorer countries while allowing China to take a backseat?
A review of the climate situation
It sounds obvious, but with the ambiguity of COP26’s talks, plans, and pledges it’s hard to predict what results would come from a review of the past year’s efforts. Will they look at the effects of their pledges this soon, or will the emphasis be on ‘non-linear’ change and instead look more closely about additional needs that have arisen from a year of unpredictable upheaval?
We won’t know exactly what will happen in Sharm El-Sheikh until November. But what we do know is that there is a 42% chance that the global temperature will increase by 1.5°c. We know that carbon emissions after Covid hit their highest levels ever – 36.3 billion tonnes, and increase of 6% – in 2021 despite greater emphasis in global news and politics about the need for reductions. So we can only hope that yearly conferences will, eventually, help keep world leaders accountable and on track to enforce the changes the planet needs to survive.
Learn more about what we do now, by contacting [email protected].
Written by Ella White.
Your Twitter, Facebook and Instagram feeds are all bursting with agency growth stories. And why not, despite the world’s current troubles, 2022 is predicted to be a year for growth for marketing agencies.
But as you know, or may have learned from past experience, growth needs to be safe and sustainable. So, what does safe growth look like for your agency, and are you ready? In this article, we offer advice on how you can plan to grow your agency the right way, and the data you need to make this happen.
Where are you making and losing money?
This is the first question you need to ask yourself, and you need to be confident that your answer is accurate. Because growth doesn’t come naturally with more work, we’re assuming you want to grow your profits as well as your resource costs. So don’t look at which clients give you the most work, but delve into which client and project types give you the most profit.
If you just get more work blindly, and this work turns out to be less profitable, then you could find you grow your turnover but not your profit. And you’ll create a bigger agency with more resource costs, more resources to manage, more projects to juggle, and more risk but no more profits.
Set a financial plan
Look at what ‘growth’ means to your agency? What do you want to turnover, how much of this should be profit, and what resources do you need to get you there?
You know what type of clients and projects you’re after, and the profit these have generated in the past (because you looked into which were most profitable!). So you should be able to set some realistic financial targets. Along with some accurate expectations on the volume of work you’ll need to deliver, and the resources you’ll require.
It’s not about hiring the best people. It’s about hiring the best people IF they have the skills you need. Resource mix is everything. Using data to drive these decisions is the only way you’ll grow in a sustainable way. Otherwise, you could get into a cycle of hiring and firing, or chasing work that isn’t your most profitable, just to keep people busy.
Use factual data to drive your growth
We’ve touched on some pretty big questions above, what clients are profitable, what are realistic growth targets, what are you turning over vs profit, what roles drive the most revenue and what your resource mix should be for maximum profitability. You can’t answer these questions without data.
Data needs to help you prepare for growth. Continual, solid growth takes more than some big client wins. Data will help steer the bigger questions, like what type of agency you are. Data is the backbone of your roadmap for growth, and your way to continually evaluate your success.
Don’t put off getting the right agency management system
You need to start collecting data, now. Agencies often put this off until they’ve already grown, but if you wait, how did you plan your growth? Real-time intelligence from an integrated system can have a transformative impact on your agency.
If your current system can’t scale, or you don’t have one, it’s time to invest. You’ll gain facts on what’s working and what’s not and you’ll get visibility on crucial metrics in core areas including:
Getting this data, so you can manage your agency as efficiently and profitably as possible is the key to growth.
Get visibility on project progress
As we’ve mentioned, growing your agency is not just about getting more work. You can’t bring in a new chunk and just hope it’s profitable. If it’s not, and there is a lot of it, your profits will head steeply in the wrong direction!
Make sure you can see, preferably in real-time, whether projects are on track budget and timescales-wise. Without this visibility overserving can spiral out of control and hiccups evolve into big issues. You can also lose your grip on calendar bookings as work runs over, causing delays on other tasks and stopping you from effectively managing resource capacity.
Get on top of your pipeline and resource
You need a stuffed pipeline and crystal clarity on when work is landing so you can plan your resource accordingly. Being able to look ahead clearly and plan your resource means your teams are kept on chargeable work, and you don’t have use expensive freelancers when you have the skills in-house.
The skill of managing resources effectively intensifies the more projects you run and the busier your calendar bookings become. Plan ahead and keep the relevant people informed about what’s coming up.
Effectively managing your pipeline also helps you manage client expectations. If you know what work is coming up, and how likely it is to land, even better if you can tentatively schedule it, then when the clients give a project the green light, they won’t be waiting so long for delivery.
In summary
We hope this piece has given you some valuable advice on how you can start planning your agency’s lasting growth. If you would like to know more about how Synergist agency management system can give you the data and visibility you need, why not check out our website.
The B Corp Certification is a powerful way to build trust and value for your organisation. Being a B Corp means that you are honestly committed to creating real environmental and societal benefits.
Andy Hawkins from Business on Purpose joined us for a recent event to explain how and why you should become a B Corp. He was joined by Bristol Creative Industries members Ryan Webb from Ryan Webb Consultancy and Nick Dean ADLIB who are at different stages of the B Corp process. Dan Martin summarises the advice.
B Corporations, known as B Corps, are businesses that balance purpose and profit. They sit in the middle of the three Ps: people, profit and purpose. “They all have one single unifying goal; they want to use their business as a force for good,” Andy said.
The B Corp certification process is very thorough with businesses assessed for their impact on their workers, customers, suppliers, community, and the environment.
As explained on the B Corp website, a company’s entire social and environmental performance is measured. “From supply chain and input materials to charitable giving and employee benefits, B Corp Certification verifies that a business is meeting high standards of social and environmental performance, transparency, and accountability.”
There are currently over 4,700 companies around the world that are B Corps. They operate in 155 industries and are based in 78 countries. You can find all B Corps in this directory.
Several BCI members are B Corps include ADLIB and Skylark Media which announced it has been certified this month.
Here are some other Bristol-based B Corp businesses:
“There is frankly nothing to stop anyone saying on their website that they are absolutely amazing”, Andy said, “but when you see ‘B Corp’ you know the company and its claims have been externally verified.
“Being a B Corp means that you need to be publicly transparent so you have to put out a report every year that says what you have been doing.
“There is also a legal change to your company articles at Companies House. You go from saying ‘we are a company and we’re in business to solely make a profit’ to ‘we are in business to make a profit, but we’ll also make decisions through the lens of people and planet’. That legal change is hugely important.”
Supporting people and the planet is the obvious and major reason, but there are several other business benefits too, including:
People want to work for and buy from a purposeful company.
“Being a B Corp helps you to attract better staff and those who share your vision, values and purpose”, Andy said. “It will also help you retain staff. We’ve heard a number of anecdotes from people who’ve been approached by non-B Corp businesses offering them a few thousand pounds more pay but they’ve decided against it because they would rather stay with a B Corp that shares their purpose.”
It can help if you’re seeking funding or investment.
“For an investment company or venture capital investor, backing a B Corp means a huge part of their due diligence is already done,” Andy said. “It reduces the onboarding, and de-risks the investment.”
It can help grow your brand.
A 2021 survey of B Corp businesses in the UK found they had average growth of 25%, compared to just 5% for all businesses.
To be certified as a B Corp you are assessed on six areas:
You are scored points in each of the areas and to be certified as a B Corp you need to score at least 80 points. Andy aims to get his clients to score at least 85 points so there is “a little bit of wiggle room as once you go through the audit process, you might be marked down on a couple of questions”.
To assess your own company you can use the B Impact Assessment tool.
Andy said the B Corp assessment can be “a bit of a forest to navigate” with between 150 and 200 questions to answer, but there is support out there such as that provided by his company, Business on Purpose.
Even if your score is well below 80, the assessment is a useful exercise as it highlights how ethical your business really is and what you can do to improve.
The assessment is free to use but once you submit it, you pay a one off submission fee of £250 (+VAT).
You application will then be audited to check if you meet the requirements and the 80 points minimum score.
Once certified, you pay an annual fee which is calculated based on your company’s total revenue. The minimum is £1,000 for businesses turning over up to £149,000.
Ryan Webb started his conversion optimisation business in July 2021. He is currently a ‘Pending B Corp‘, the status for young start-ups, which shows how new, one-person companies can get involved in the B Corp process.
“There are a whole bunch of policies, processes, measuring energy use etc, that you’ve got to have in place as a B Corp,” Ryan said. “The advantage of having that for any well run organisation is great, but going through it is a great sense check that you’ve got them in place for the right reasons. Getting started ASAP is the best way to approach it. Just get stuck into it.”
“Another key part of the B Corp approach is that it helps to understand what’s going on in your supply chain, both from a client and a supplier perspective.
“I’ve been pleasantly surprised about the positive impact of some of my suppliers, such as accounting software firm Xero. I’m now much more committed to using Xero, more than just because it is a useful accountancy platform but because they are also making an effort to do some good for the world as well.
“Understanding that supply chain is becoming increasingly important from a procurement perspective too. For me as an individual wanting to work with some bigger organisations, the accreditation of B Corp demonstrates that I’ve gone through that process and my supply chain has been rigorously checked as well.”
Bristol recruitment company ADLIB became a B Corp in 2019. Managing director Nick Dean shared some of his lessons from going through the certification process:
“We became carbon positive. Many people are very afraid of that and can’t get their heads around it. I would say don’t worry as there is lots of help out there. There are organisations such as Ecologi or Spherics that will work with you and implement systems to analyse your carbon use and help you offset it effectively.
“Becoming a B Corp was a big component in ADLIB becoming 100% employee owned. If you are considering your future exit model and if you are authentically driven by what B Corp stands for, employee ownership is a very good vehicle to achieving it. B Corp love it. You get around 32 points which is a considerable amount of your worker score. Employees love it and and for you personally, you’ll love the tax benefits!
“Employee ownership has played a huge part in helping us attract purpose driven employees. For businesses bringing in B Corp retrospectively, you might go through a level where some people get it and some people don’t. It might take a few years until everybody is 100% behind you, but it is incredibly worth it. Three years in, every one of our employees authentically care about people and the planet because they’ve been hired in or have gone through the journey with us for that reason. It has built an incredible belonging and culture in the business that helps to drive the business’ performance.
“We have massively increased our out costs, but that’s not a negative. We do a huge amount of charitable giving, we do match donations, we sponsor the Grassroot Activators Programme in Bristol, we’ve significant increased our maternity leave, we’ve put a significant bonus in place. That has all driven a far higher performance. The level of employee we’ve been able to attract has helped to drive the performance. We’re in the best position that we’ve ever been. You can see it come through in the people who we’re attracting and who are staying with the business for a long time.”
You can read ADLIB’s full B Corp impact report here.
If you’re a BCI member and you’re a B Corp, let Dan know.