I went to a talk at the UCT Graduate School of Business last week, introducing the idea of B Corporations, about which I knew very little, but which I had a good feeling about when I saw Skinny laMinx cushions all over the sofas.

In a nutshell, B Corp is a movement with a certification, based around the belief that business can be a force for good, requiring an approach to business that puts stakeholders (rather than shareholders) at the centre. It’s quite a radical distinction, this stakeholders vs shareholders thing, and when I look at my own business through this lens, it changes everything.  The stakeholders point of view requires you to see your business as part of a complex, multi-part, interlocking web of people, systems, services, materials and conditions, all working together and all gaining benefit. So our employees, my landlady, the guy who cleans our shop windows, the people who grow our cotton, my neighbours, the post office, the coffee shop on the corner, the City’s systems and policies (etc etc) are all stakeholders in my business, affected to various degrees by how it succeeds or fails.

In this model, running a successful business is about me working to created and maintain a thriving ecosystem, rather than prowling about like an alpha predator, looking to take advantage of any weakness I spot in my competition. How evolved! I love the idea that a business can be an expression of the beliefs and values I have in my personal life – summed up in the BCorp value statement:

We must be the change we seek in the world,
All business ought to be conducted as if people and place mattered,
Through our products, practices, and profits, businesses should aspire to do no harm and benefit all,
To do so requires that we act with the understanding that we are each dependent upon another and thus responsible for each other and future generations.

Can you imagine what a different world we’d live in if this was how we all did business?

For more, read this open letter to business leaders by the founders of B Lab.