A New Way To Do Business

Attracting and retaining a creative workforce is a perpetual challenge. The answer may lie in B Corps, a certification process that’s focused on the societal impact a company has.

- Natalie Chan

All Hong Kong corporations share a challenge: how to attract, nurture and retain the best workforce for their future. The options for young talent are ever more varied and far-reaching: Shenzhen and Singapore attract innovators, Europe and the US attract university students, and the growing ‘gig economy’ is enabling more young professionals to embrace entrepreneurship.

Increasingly, those that want to go into business in Hong Kong are asking more probing questions of potential counterparts. Who are their beneficiaries? What are their impacts? What value are they really bringing to society? This new breed of business mind is motivated by rising awareness of environmental crises threatening health and livelihoods; from air pollution to resource constraints and the impacts of global warming. Transparency and accountability are now more than just a ‘nice-to-have’ for a business, and are progressively becoming essential.

Yet, while frameworks such as the Global Reporting Initiative support communication of businesses’ economic, environmental and social impacts, they do not assess performance. A growing range of stakeholders – from entrepreneurs to investors and consumers – seek ways to determine which corporates are actively becoming a force for good in society.

I felt these mounting pressures very keenly over the last ten years, in my roles leading the corporate responsibility and sustainability teams for Swire and subsequently Hongkong and Shanghai Hotels Group. Such questions are certainly not easy to address. But I believe businesses can achieve the ultimate goal: To deliver value, not just to shareholders, but also to society as a whole, including the environment.