The B Corp Advantage

Anastasia Prikhodko looks at how for-profit organisations are rewriting the rules of business.

- Anastasia Prikhodko

The landscape of business is changing. The once sole focus of increasing shareholder value has expanded to include social and environmental concerns. This emphasis on ensuring a more ethical business sector led to the emergence of a new organisational entity: the Certified B Corporation, also known as the B Corp.

The idea that for-profit businesses – and leaders – can be a force for good and reap the benefits has been gaining momentum for some time. Patagonia is one example of a successful, global enterprise that has never steered far from its original beliefs. Since day one, it has remained synonymous with the movement of good business. “Patagonia is trying to build a company that could last 100 years,” said Founder Yvon Chouinard in January 2012 on the day Patagonia signed up to be a B Corp.

Identifying as a B Corp has helped guide the business to meet the highest standards of verified social and environmental performance, public transparency and legal accountability. It paves a new way of doing business that is not only moving companies and leaders to be better but also redefining the meaning of success.

“B Corp creates the legal framework to help mission-driven companies like Patagonia stay mission-driven,” explains Dane O’Shanassy, Patagonia’s Country Director for Australia and New Zealand. “From succession to capital raises and even changes in ownership. It does this by institutionalising the values, culture, processes and high standards put in place by founders.”