People, Planet + Profits: can they coexist in corporations?

I nodded. She lived in a very active, but relatively small, town where there was just one local running store that had been organizing 5k, 10k, half marathon, and marathon training groups every spring and fall for years.

It was how she had made friends and built a community within just weeks of moving to town, and she often spoke of how much those experiences meant to her. So much so that she now volunteered her time to mentor the 5k group.

“The new owners are talking about canceling all of the groups because they don’t think they’re profitable enough,” my friend explained. “It’s like they don’t understand how community-building events contribute to everything, including their bottom line!”

I suddenly remembered the article I had just read about Avanade, Newsweek’s first-ever “Most Loved Workplace.” I was initially struck by the use of “love” and “workplace” in the same sentence, and further moved by their female CEO’s words in Avanade’s press release about their “Most Loved” status:

In fact, in every article I read about Maynard and Avanade, I heard the same statement: put people first and your business will reap the benefits.

Case study after case study proved that a human-centered approach could drive better financial results. Tracing all the way back to the Great Depression era, Marriott provided a staff doctor to make sure their employees had access to health care.

They knew that the only way to sustain their business was to have a cared-for staff.

Throughout the years, Marriott 'walked the talk' in their people-first mission, dismantling hierarchies (the CEO and executive leaders buy lunch and eat in the cafeteria just like everyone else), suspending the healthcare eligibility rules during the 2008 recession (so even when they cut back hours, employees still had access to health benefits), and creating the industry’s first holistic well-being program.

Not only do healthy, happy employees remain loyal to their companies (reducing overhead costs from constant turnover), but they also produce more innovative ideas, better serve customers, and ultimately increase a company’s ROI. A study by Gallup showed that prioritizing employee engagement can increase sales by 20%.

In other words, a B-Corp-certified company is prioritizing its employees, the community at large, and our shared environment. While it’s issued by B Lab, a global nonprofit organization, the B-Corp certification is a private certification for qualifying for-profit companies. As of the date of this article, they’ve certified over 5,000 companies across 78 countries.

The B-Corp certification puts the focus on:

• Interconnectedness: acknowledging that people and planet are intrinsically linked and one cannot thrive at the expense of the other
• People over profit: recognizing that businesses serve more than just shareholders
• The big picture: people want to work where they believe and know that their contributions matter

“That is heartbreaking,” I told my friend after she shared her local running store concerns. “If some of the largest companies in the world can get this right, they can, too.”

The real bottom line: Companies are made of people, not profits. When one of us wins, we all do.

Learn from Oxford about how to become a B-Corp here

Read our 2022 B Corp Impact Report here

If you have any questions or queries then please do get in touch