B Corp Assembly: 6 insights that changed, challenged and energised us

A few weeks ago, we attended the 2024 Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand B Corp Assembly. Across two days, we listened, shared, learned and collaborated - connecting with amazing people from the B Corp community as we discussed some of the most pressing issues facing our sector, our economy, and the world.

It’s not often a conference has people tearing up in one session, then cheering in the next - but we truly ran the gamut of emotions as we heard from organisations and leaders who challenged, humbled and inspired us.

We can’t keep what we learned to ourselves. So here’s the 6 things that resonated most deeply with us from Assembly 2024.

1/ The Maori 100-year business plan

Laura Thompson, founder of Clothing the Gaps and Michele Wilson, founder of AWWA Period Care,  explained that indigenous businesses have always been created and run with community benefit and positive legacies at their core. So much so that it's common for Maori businesses to have a 100-year business plan for how they will build and nurture something powerful to pass on to the next generation. 

Not only does this concept make the usual Western 2 or 5-year business plan look pretty short-sighted - it completely reframes the B Corp movement as a whole for us. The idea of business as a force for good is not revolutionary or new - it’s something that indigenous communities have always known and practised, that the rest of us must now work back towards.

2/ Pay your taxes, take care of your people

Prof. Carl Rhodes, Dean of UTS Business School, both challenged and reinforced the way we think about business and social responsibility. 

The bottom line is: as businesses that make money and employ people, unless we’re paying taxes and taking care of our people, everything else we do in the ethical and sustainable space is hollow virtue signalling. 

It’s as much an indictment of big, unethical businesses who fail to do the basics, as it is an encouragement for new businesses that want to do good, but don’t know where to start.

Do the business of business well, and build from there.

3/ Support the organisations doing good - and challenge the others to do better

For any business that services other organisations, there's a fierce debate to be had around the types of clients we should and shouldn't work with. It’s one we often come up against in our own team when we assess potential clients alongside our commitment to working with brands that make life better for people.

As storytellers who are part of the B Corp movement, we have the power to inspire, motivate and activate positive change. With that comes the responsibility to be truthful, discerning and diligent. 

While of course this means supporting organisations doing incredible things for the world, and not working with those doing harm - there’s a whole lot of grey in between. 

If we don’t help other organisations tackle the mistakes of the past and use them to be better, are we driving change, or holding it back? Where do we draw the line?

For us, this discussion reinforced the importance of our own Cúpla values, how we vet our clients, and giving our team the power to veto projects they don't feel comfortable working on. It also challenged us to consider how we might broaden our impact by working with people who might not see the world the way we do, but still want to leave a positive mark on the communities their brand serves.

4/ Un-neurotypical your hiring and management practices - and watch your team bloom

Performance looks different for everyone, and nothing has proven this more than the recent upheaval and reconstruction of work practices caused by the pandemic.

Standard hiring practices and management tactics can hold you back from discovering and nurturing incredible talent. 

By leading with empathy and understanding the incredible individuals on your team as people, not just parts of the business, you can harness diversity to unlock new levels of opportunity and job satisfaction from your team. 

A simple but powerful example we discussed with Natalie Smith (Frost*collective), Sasha Titchkosky (Koskela), and Brooke Anderson (Yellow Edge), was shifting interview questions from the typical “what are your strengths and weaknesses”, to statements like:

• “You get the best of me when…”

• “You get the worst of me when…”

• “Things that make me feel excited to come to work are…”

• “Things that make me feel nervous about coming to work are…”

Instead of cookie-cutter answers crafted to avoid judgement, these questions deliver an insight into the best ways to help that potential team member thrive.

5/ We are on our knees, but amazing things are happening

The sobering fact is we’ve passed the point where we can avoid ‘the brink’ when it comes to human impact on our earth. Things have gotten, and will continue to get, increasingly grim.

But equally, humans are natural innovators, and skillful survivors. People are already doing and creating amazing things that will alter the course of our future.

The problem is, our society and news cycle isn’t geared towards sharing these sorts of stories - they’re geared towards generating fear, which leads to complacency. 

As storytellers and part of the B Corp community our role in society is to challenge that narrative. Yes, we need to recognise the urgency and seriousness of the climate crisis - but we also need to realise the power to save the world and humanity is firmly in our hands. Daily.

As Damon Gameau, award-winning director of 2040, That Sugar Film, and Regenerating Australia said:

Stories shape culture

Culture shapes leaders

Leaders shape policies

Policies shape the system

6/ Our economic system needs to fundamentally change

Our current economic system does not work for the vast majority of the world’s population. It relies on many living in poverty, disconnection or disempowerment, and on the steady decline of our planet, to enable the lifestyles of a select few. Together, we need to drive change, so that people no longer serve the economy - but the economy serves people.

This means:

• An economy that everyone can participate in

• An economy that measures its success not by the surplus of profit earned, but by the wellbeing of the people participating in it

• An economy where every organisation focuses on people over profit

Facilitated by Tim O’Brien from Purpose Made, we worked as a collective on the beginning of a B Corp model for how we can lead this change. This includes ‘huddling’ around industry groups to elevate impact within specific areas, and prioritising the evolving B Corp standards that will drive best practice behaviour and operations in all areas of environmental and social good.

Following the Assembly, we’re aiming to connect with our B Locals Melbourne collective, and like-minded organisations within our sector to tackle industry challenges together - issues like representation, greenwashing, unpaid overtime and more.

Which brings us to our next question: Could this be the start of our journey together?

We’ve never been more inspired and energised by the thought of our future as we are after this Assembly - and we want to work with you to start making bigger, bolder moves for change.

If you’re a B Corp or purpose-driven organisation with ideas to share and passion to burn, we’d love to connect.

Or, if you’re an organisation looking to make positive changes in your own community but don’t know where to start, we can help.

Either way…let’s chat, and change the world together. (But we can start with coffee).