Balancing Purpose with Profit – B Corporations #36 #cong22

Synopsis:

In my opinion, B Corps is our one of the great opportunity to tackling the climate change and social injustice by providing an accessible process to assist businesses to change to a more sustainable and purpose-led culture. If you want to know the best way to balance Purpose for good with the desire to turn a Profit in your business then please consider becoming a B Corp. Business with purpose outperform the market by 45%. Imagine what a business with ‘purpose for good’ can achieve!!

Total Words

1,153

Reading Time in Minutes

5

Key Takeaways:

  1. Businesses must radically change if climate action can be achieved. ‘Purpose for good’ should be at the core of every business to enable this necessary change while still balancing the desire to make profits. This is where becoming a B-Corp will help to balance purpose with profits
  2. Business with purpose outperform the market by 45%. Imagine what a business with ‘purpose for good’ can achieve
  3. B-Labs provide a ready-made structure to assist business to become a B-Corporation by enabling the systematic change while balancing Purpose and Profits for the benefit of our planet and people
  4. Business with a ‘purpose for good’ certification can attract and retain more talent while providing a measurable positive impact on community and the environment which translates directly into employee well-being. What is not to like about that!

About Sean Brady:

I have been remote working for 20 years and moved our IT service company to the next level in 2017 by going 100% remote with a ‘no visit’ rule to any customers or suppliers. This radical move was triggered by our involvement in the EU Climate Launchpad competition where we pose the question “Why do we need to meet in-person to do business?”. This purpose has lead me to the community of B Corporations.
We are now working with WDC, Trinity College Dublin and Microsoft on developing an AI solution to help businesses to assist Hybrid Working by avoiding unnecessary travel to the office and then donating the time saved from not travelling to local communities projects and charities for the benefit of society and the environment, this solution is called HybridAssist which is on it’s way to become a B-Corp.

Contacting Sean Brady:

You can connect with Sean on LinkedIn.
 
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By Sean Brady

I am a big fan of Social Enterprises who, by their nature, have a very well developed purpose for the benefit of society however this is often missing in for-profit businesses. Becoming a B-Corp is a powerful way to embed ‘purpose for good’ into a for-profit business while balancing the understandable need to make a profit.

But. first, here’s the definition provided by the B Labs, the nonprofit behind B Corporations as follows.

Certified B Corporations are businesses that meet the highest standards of verified social and environmental performance, public transparency, and legal accountability to balance profit and purpose. The B Global Network’s Theory of Change is to transform the economic system into a more inclusive, equitable, and regenerative global economy.

It is this ability to create a framework to balance purpose for good with profit making objectives that is the core value of becoming a B Corp which can deliver against varying areas of impact such as Community, Environment and Workers. So, when we ask ourselves ‘what is the purpose of business’, B Corps provide a system to create a balanced purpose which is not just about how much profit that can be made without considering the negative impact on our planet and people.

Being a founder of a few for-profit businesses, which are currently measured predominately by revenue growth and profit margins, it is so very easy to blind ourselves to the negative impact of doing business. Of course, if you are part of a non-profit or social enterprise then you are measured on your social impact however most for-profit businesses develop tunnel vision on quarterly revenue and profits to the detriment of everything else. B-Corps marries these two company types into a single structure with the benefits of both along with a certification process that provides the governance to ensure that this is not a white or green-washing exercise.

As we have heard from the discussions at COP27 in Egypt where representatives talk about the critical need for business to change so that climate change can be managed yet there is little practical advice to business. This is where B-Corps is the answer with Purpose for Good frameworks which are ready to be adopted for both small and large businesses in order to change the way organisations and society measures their activity while giving a clear definition of purpose to their employees and stakeholders.

I would like to state that I have no vested interest in B Labs and would also like to say that I am not an expert in this area but having the experience of creating both non-profit and for-profit business, this system of certification and governance is the best and most accessible solution that I have seen. So, if nothing else, I hope that by reading this article then it may have ignited your interest to investigate this approach further and apply this to where you work or will help you to select your next employer by these standards so you can evaluate them through this new lens to see their purpose for good.

My advice to get started is to secure senior buy-in at your company who have the commitment and passion to define and achieve their ‘Purpose for Good’ so it can be cascaded through the business, from the top down. It is all there for you on the B Corp website with a guided assessment process and material to help you to begin your journey to change the purpose of the business while balancing the original business objectives for growth. If you are a senior person in the organisation then this should be a non-brainer as there are plenty of well documented business benefits of becoming a B-Corp.

According to the book ‘Powered by Purpose’ by Sarah Rozenthuler, which Eoin Kennedy kindly lent to me to get my creative juices flowing, states that businesses with a purpose outperform the market by 45%. Imagine what a business with a purpose for good can do when it comes to talent attraction and retention by improving employee psychological well-being and productivity. The B-Corp system combined with their certified data driven process that goes far beyond just having a basic purpose statement. It may even help you to find a higher purpose that you had not even thought possible when we compete in this profit focused business world. You may surprise yourself. For the megalomaniacs out there, there is even a competition for ‘Best in the World’ so make it your purpose to start your journey today to become a B-Corp.

November 21, 2022 2022 Purpose No comments yet
Remote leadership is the future

Remote Leadership is the Future #47 #cong21

Synopsis:

Covid has made everything remote including most teamwork, Leaders need to accept that their teams are going to be distributed by default so being able to manage teams remotely will required new skills and a change in culture. To quote T.K. Whittaker – “Culture is the least worst behaviour that Leadership will tolerate”. Leaders need to ask themselves what is the least worst behaviour that the company needs to adapt the new world of remote teamwork.

Total Words

1,126

Reading Time in Minutes

5

Key Takeaways:

  1. Remote working is not just a covid restriction but the future of teamwork. All Leaders need to be remote-first in their thinking and communication.
  2. Remote Leadership is a skill to be learnt and is more than just having a video meeting once a week with your team.
  3. Remote teamwork will demand a new culture and user behaviour which will need to be clearly defined using a Remote-First Leadership approach where Inclusion and diversity can be the unexpected prize of a Remote-first leadership approach but this needs to be actively nurtured by leaders.
  4. Don;t fall into this trap of incessant online meeting to check on your remote worker. Less online meetings is one of the key metrics that Remote leaders should use to guide them on their Remote-first journey.

About Sean Brady

Sean Brady has been remote working for 20 years and moved their IT consultancy company (CloudAssist) to the next level in 2017 to a fully remote organisation. This move to fully remote included an absolute ‘no visit’ rule for both clients and partners following the selection as a finalist in the EU Climate Launchpad competition where we pose the question “Why do we need to meet in-person to do business?”. I speak about Climate Change and how Remote Working can significantly change our environment, economy and communities for the better. This lead to my involvement with Grow Remote which is a non-profit promoting the benefits of Remote Working to the Irish rural communities while assisting companies and employees to learn the skills of being a remote-first business.
Sean likes to speak about Climate Change and how Remote Working can significantly change our environment, economy and communities for the better. Sean also provide webinars on how Microsoft Teams is an enabler for Remote Teaming and the importance for Change Management to assist user adoption.

Contacting Sean Brady

You can connect to Sean by email.

Remote leadership is the future

By Sean Brady

Before Covid, Remote-first was a new organisational type that was considered a futurist ideal which only few pioneering companies whole-heartedly embraced. However, since Covid, this is rapidly becoming an attractive model as companies are seeing a major shift in how employees work together either fully remote or within a hybrid work environment. This will have radical change on how buildings are utilised which in turn will see a change in the traditional office hours and office design but, more importantly, on management and leadership style

A lot of companies claim to be Remote-friendly however a remote-first culture treats working remotely as the default way of working and build remote working into the heart of their business; this remote-friendly stance is to make the company seem progressive in order to attract new talent or appease existing employees however this is not a remote-first approach because the leadership approach has not changed. This change is imperative to realise the full potential of their new remote/hybrid workforce which I like to refer to as ‘Remote Leadership’.

In the past, some people may complain about their “leadership are too remote” from the day-to-day business and are not in touch with the employees however the term ‘Remote Leadership’ is the ability to connect with their employees and to nurture a culture even though their colleagues are no longer in the same building at the same time. This new paradigm requires transparent asynchronous communications where everyone can have a voice but is also connected to the drum-beat of the company and how this directly relates to their own work and their team. Leaders need to create a culture where there is virtual bonding and support networks which facilitates remote socialisation of not just your immediate team members and fosters well-being in this new world of remote. Finally, the remote leadership needs to build a culture that creates a level playing field for all which is based on openness and trust while embracing inclusivity and diversity so the company can benefit from remote working in its fullest form.
I believe that by adopting this Remote-first approach, the company can benefit from an unexpected prize of having a more connected, productive, diverse, and inclusive community of remote workers however the behaviour of the leaders will determine how much of a prize that they receive. To quote T.K. Whittaker – “Culture is the least worst behaviour that Leadership will tolerate”. Leaders need to ask themselves what is the least worst behaviour that the company needs to adapt to the new world of remote teamwork and how can they encourage and nudge this into reality.

Remote-first is a journey that a leader should take with clearly defined and measurable business goals because change is hard and this is a fundamental change demands clear leadership. Senior management who are leaders of their own departments must understand how this change will be managed throughout the business. As a leader in a fully remote company since September 2017, this has been a massive transformation, both on how our business operates using technology and people skills necessary to lead a team and build relationship with customers while never meeting them in person. Communication is more than an online meeting but having the openness for the remote worker to feel part of the team and have a voice in how decisions are being made. This is where asynchronous communication platforms are key to both productivity and connectivity of the employee. What is the point of having lots of back-to-back meetings in the name of communication when there is no time and space to create focus time to do the work.

This may sounds counter-intuitive but less online meetings is one of the metrics that we encourage leaders to measure when assisting companies with their Remote-first journey; No-one has ever said to me, “Sean the business needs more meetings and more email”; these simple metrics will guide Remote leaders to establish if the change to a remote-first organisation is being achieved while measuring the increase output from remote-first teams. If your online meetings and email is increasing, then this is a sure sign that the remote-first solutions such as Microsoft Teams is not being deployed to their fullest potential which will undermine the ultimate goal of being a true Remote leader.

November 25, 2021 2021 Leadership No comments yet

Travel Should be for Holidays not Business #66 #cong18

Synopsis:

Despite the advancements of online meetings and remote working, why are we still travelling for business meetings. In fact, with globalisation of business markets, we, as humans, are now travelling more than ever. With the clear impact of travel on climate change, why is there still this incessant need to meet in-person to make that human connection?  Here’s an idea to change that.

4 Key Takeaways:

  1. Business Travel is a habit which needs to be recognised as an unhealthy activity for staff, companies and the environment.

  2. The tech is there today to effectively conduct most in-person meetings online but we need to change the way we use it and actively develop our own ‘onlineness’.

  3. The required step change starts with a cultural change based on rewarding performance rather than presence.

  4. Reap the benefits yourselves by moving to 100% remote working like companies such as Zapier, Shopify & CloudAssist. Go even further and set a ‘no visit’ rule.

About Sean Brady:

Sean is with CloudAssist, which as the name suggests, assists companies to get the best from their cloud services with a keen focus on supporting remote teams around the world. After qualifying as a finalist for the EU Climate LaunchPad competition to develop an intelligent business travel avoidance solution to assist enterprises in adopting cloud services to conduct more online meetings in preference to traveling to meet in-person to achieve their business objectives, CloudAssist is leading the way in technology adoption which is human centric in its approach with increased productivity and employee wellbeing as the key metrics for success. Today, CloudAssist is assisting enterprises to change their way of working and to leverage the potential of cloud services to alter the traditional office-bound scenario for increased scale and reach while providing a work environment which enables Remote Workers to feel more connected, effective and happy. Check out our website: www.cloudassist.co

Contacting Sean Brady

You can connect with Sean on LinkedIn, send him an email, see his work in CloudAssist or book a chat.

By Sean Brady

There can no doubt that our activity as a human species is having a direct effect on the environment. The need for change has never been more important so I want to share with you an interesting human behaviour that still persists today which we can address by asking ourselves a simple question, Can I work effectively with/for you if I never meet you or, more concisely, can you trust me if we never meet in person. This is a business challenge that faces all B2B businesses which is made worse by the globalisation of markets forcing more businesses to travel to form these relationships and for remote teams to work effectively together. It is the norm and it is on the increase.

We are creatures of habit and heuristic conformity, so this is the way business has been done in the past and looks like it set to continue with an annual increase 8% in business travel expected in the next 5 years. We need to press the flesh and look each other in the eye to really connect with someone. Maybe the gesture of making the effort to transport whole teams to different locations, which is wholly unproductive and costly on so many ways, is the method to demonstrate how serious we are about winning their business. This characteristic is also at the heart of the large campuses where enterprises are building amazing spaces for their employees to work and for their customers/suppliers to travel to so they can work together. All this means is that all this supposedly necessary travel is directly contributing to the carbon emission of doing business which is the 3rd biggest contributor to greenhouse gases in the world. Now, this GHG contribution of business travel also includes the transport of goods so I am not suggesting that all travel can be stopped. The opportunity is that we make a fundamental change the way in the way we work together which will make your staff more productive and healthier while giving the environment a well needed reduction in carbon emissions including commuting to your desk in an office that is miles from your home.

OK, that is rant over with, so what does the idea look like? It starts with the way your own business works. I am fortunate that I am part of a 100% remote working company which implemented a ‘no visit’ rule in 2017 after being selected to participate in the Climate LaunchPad bootcamp which is like the Eurovision for nerds to come up with idea that could benefit the environment and keep us from exceeding the 2 degree change in our global temperatures otherwise the price that we pay as a species could be catastrophic. Our simple idea was to predict meetings before they happen and assist the attendees to opt for an online meeting rather than arranging travel to meet in-person including rewarding them for their carbon savings. That simple idea proved harder that we thought due to this ingrained belief that people need to meet in order to conduct business despite the impact on climate change. At the Climate LaunchPad bootcamp, the instructors forced us to challenge our thinking to establish the business case which cannot be solely measured in carbon reduction terms but on a clear commercial basis while empathising with our own tribal nature to meet. This led us to work with psychologists to understand human behaviour and also with business analysts to establish the value of not traveling from a business perspective focusing on productive, cost savings and health while setting what would appear an impossible high standard for CloudAssist to see what the limits are to make this vision a reality for doing business without ever meeting. Here are some easy guidelines to help to justify the change:

1. For every tonne of CO2 saved, your business will benefit from a minimum of 3 days of productivity and the corresponding cost saving. This does not include the known reduction in sick days from avoiding travel or the techno-stress from attempting to work anywhere.
2. If you work remotely, you can save €12,000 per employee and eliminate all of the commuting time at the same time while benefiting from higher performance from more focused work. In the US, 40% of the workforce was identified as compatible to this way of working which would result in 10 million cars off the roads.
3. Make this part of your culture and promote this as a positive thing to your customers and suppliers. Encourage social events ( yes, this does involve travel ) to support relationships especially for teams but this is not the traditional business meeting but structured team building exercise which are way more effective that traveling for a 1 hour meeting.

So, reap the benefits for yourselves by doing the following:
1. Join Grow Remote which promotes remote working in Ireland for the benefit of rural society. Go to www.growremote.ie
2. Look at your own future travel and see what this means in terms of business opportunity for change. Go to www.futuremiles.com
3. Embed this idea “Travel is for Holidays not Business” into your culture today to assist your company’s ‘Onlineness’ and be part of the change. Go to www.onlineassist.eu

In our quest to better understand this anomaly, we spoke with large enterprises who recognise the undesirable trend and appear unable to change the trend using traditional travel budgetary policies. Even if they stop their own employees from travel by imposing tough restrictions on travel then they find that their customers and suppliers travel to them which in terms of overall saving under the Carbon Disclosure Project ( CDP ) does not translate into an overall reduction. We hear from other more enlightened organisation who now recognise Business travel as an unhealthy activity for their employees but there is still the drumbeat of business that demands this unproductive protocol to meet. The technology to connect and work together online is there, this will only continue to get better, so ask yourself why are we still addicted to travelling to meet for business today.

Here are some insights that we have learnt from our journey with this idea.

  1. Be the master of technology but not a slave. Avoid signing up for multiple platforms which will only distract you from the true goal of business travel avoidance. Pick your platform and make it part of your company’s DNA. Become experts in how this platform works, appreciate the change and learn from when things go wrong. This is a journey not a destination.
  2. When you get that 15 minute reminder to join an online meeting, don’t wait or snooze the reminder, join the meeting and continue working on what you were doing while others join. This avoids the last-minute panic when the tech gremlins mess up your online connection and, secondly, you also get to chat with your customer in a more social way before the meeting starts in earnest which are them important moments like what happens when you travel to meet someone and you walk from the lobby to the meeting room together.
  3. Plan where you invest your money and time to enhance your ‘onlineness’ with a laser-like focus on your customer experience. Onlineness is not just your ability about hosting a good online meeting instead of travelling to meet but connecting with your customer in such a way that they feel closer to your company than your competitors who travel to meet them face-to-face. This means exceling in customer service and making yourself ultra-available to clients as if you were actually working at their company.
  4. Explain to your customers why your company is avoiding travel and make it a positive aspect of your culture, and not a restriction, which offer lower operating costs, higher productivity and greater employee satisfaction makes you a better company to fulfil their needs.
  5. Educate your customer on their own ‘onlineness’. Give them the same assistance that you would give your own new employees when on-boarding them to your way of working.
  6. Allow for time for focused work and avoid back-to-back meetings as you need to do the work. Use calender booking apps like Calendly which will manage your bookings for you.
November 15, 2018 2018 Ideas No comments yet