Seven important insights from the 'Louder Than Words' B Corp Festival

A fortnight ago saw the world’s largest ever gathering of B Corporations at the ‘Louder Than Words’ festival in Oxford. 

Since Society first certified nearly six years ago, the B Corp community in the UK (where Society is headquartered) has been growing at a tremendous pace. There are now over 2,000 UK-based B Corps, employing in excess of 120,000 people. Over two days in September, nearly 2,000 of these people – mostly CEO and founders – came together in Oxford and practically took over the city centre. Delegates stayed in college accommodation, and attended events and discussions all over town, talking about purpose, sustainability, business ethics, and the urgent need for systemic change.

Here are seven important insights we walked away with.

1. Genuine system change remains the goal. It's great that the B Corp movement is growing so rapidly. But we can't take a victory lap until the norms of the entire economy have been altered. To use a memorable analogy from Anuradha Chugh, there is a danger that B Corps might get stuck as mere “litter-pickers on the beach”, endlessly and futilely attempting to clean up the mess that others are making of the world. To update our underlying 'operating model' we need to push forward proposals like the UK's Better Business Act. 
2. Investment for scale is the next big challenge. Currently around 60% of B Corps in the UK have less than five employees. If they are to make a bigger impact, these businesses desperately require more access to mission-aligned investment. But our dominant finance and investment systems aren't yet catering to that. Even the fastest-growing B Corps seem to be struggling to secure investment that doesn’t require a certain dilution of their purpose. When Amy Clarke from Tribe Impact Capital led a discussion between investors and a group of B Corp founders/CEOs, there was a palpable tension in the room. Our financial system needs to evolve to recognise that there are other considerations besides short-term financial returns. 
3. We need to build coalitions. In the words of one of B Lab UK’s founders, Charmian Love, “The problems in this world are connected; which means that we must be too.” And there were some inspiring examples in Oxford of B Corps putting this into action. B Beauty Coalition and Design Declares are both groups that have formed within their industries to drive for positive change both upstream and downstream. 
4. We must harness the power of desire. Retail legend Mary Portas talked about the way that desire drives consumption and creates a “say/do gap”, whereby people frequently want to do the right thing, and even say that they will do the right thing, but then ultimately fail to follow through because it's just too hard. We have to repurpose our marketing and product/service design expertise to shrink the barriers that stand in in the way of doing the right thing; nudging people towards better choices and patterns of behaviour. 
5. A new approach to consumption is needed. We're not going to get rid of consumer behaviour, but the way in which we approach things has to alter. Patrick Grant from the Great British Sewing Bee, and founder of the sustainable fashion brand Community Clothing, shared the mantra “Buy less. Buy better. Buy local.” 
6. The phenomenon of ‘greenhushing’ is a growing problem. Plenty of business leaders reported experiences of being asked to downplay their work on ESG issues, or of voluntarily choosing to downplay such efforts out of fear that they might come under external attack. We have to overcome this tendency as a matter of urgency. Businesses that are stepping forward and demonstrating progress are worthy of support, even if they aren't perfect yet and sometimes get things wrong. Major innovations are almost preceded by some missteps along the way. 
7. It’s vital to practice what you preach. B Lab and their partners Warwick Events deserve huge praise for how they put the festival together. The event’s signage, plants and even on-stage furniture were all recycled. They also helped to establish a Young Host Academy which trained six young people in public speaking. One of them, Mathilde Gerritsma, ended up as joint compare for the event alongside established MC Shonali Devereaux. 

At Society, we're committed to "redefining talent partnership for a purpose-driven world" and taking a “people-first” approach to board and executive leadership appointments. We bring both the networks and fluency around impact to help other purpose-led businesses find exceptional triple-bottom-line driven leaders able and willing to navigate the issues above.

If you are are a B Corp or aspiring B Corp thinking about leadership appointments - either to your executive team or to your Board - let's have a conversation.