B-Corporations: Solving Society's Problems

B-Corporations: Solving Society’s Problems,
Going beyond the shareholder model

Within the framework of most current business models, the shareholders take precedence within the company. The goal of the company is to maximize profit, in order to maximize shareholder value. There are companies who do take care to make their products organic, or make sure their products are fair trade, but with as cruel as corporate law can be, it has often been difficult to take social responsibility because of the greed of shareholders. Our system does not serve society. It serves shareholders and stockholders. B Corporation is a group that has taken the Theory of Natural Law seriously, and feels a great need to be socially and environmentally responsible. The model they have introduced allows companies to weave sustainability into the very core of the business. B Corporation is harnessing the power of businesses, and desire for purpose among employees to take on social and environmental problems. B Corporation has a set of standards to which it holds businesses, whether micro-businesses, or corporate giants. These standards measure every part of the business, including their impact on the environment, how employees are treated, minimum pay for employees, and the ways in which the company takes social responsibility. On the B Corp website on ‘Why B Corps Matter,’ they share insight about the certification, and note that certified companies are “voluntarily meeting higher standards of transparency, accountability and performance... [They are] distinguishing themselves in a cluttered marketplace by offering a positive vision of a better way to do business.” As Jay Coen Gilbert, founder of B-Labs, part of B Corps, shares on TEDx, shareholders are the vision of 20th century capitalism. We, however, are a point of flux. The new “operating system of capitalism is about walking and chewing gum at the same time,” so to speak. He says rather than “maximize shareholder value exclusively,” this new venture will “create social and shareholder value simultaneously.” He notes that a simple business plan really is key to best running a business, and the shareholder model was just that. It was simple, and it worked great. However, with big businesses not being held socially or environmentally accountable, we are letting them run the world into the ground all for the sake of shareholder profits.
B Corp introduces the next step, which still keeps business plans simple, but moves us into 21st century capitalism. It benefits the community, benefits society – and finally, keeps businesses that want to do good safe from the brutal corporate laws that favor shareholders. These laws have left companies vulnerable to lawsuits, and have always worked in favor of shareholder greed, rather than the businesses desire to do good. Esquire magazine wrote a blurb that is now featured on B Corps website, that states, “B Corps might turn out to be like civil rights for blacks or voting rights for women – eccentric, unpopular ideas that took hold and changed the world.”
A question that comes to mind is, why businesses? Why not government or non-profit organizations? Jay Coen Gilbert stated that he was devastated to find out that “governments and non-profits are necessary, but insufficient.” Out government lacks the resources and the know-how to be able to handle such laws that would bring businesses into the new corporate age. Not only that, our government is already so far in debt that it is unable to pull itself back up! As far as politicians are concerned, they may back certain ideas or support causes if they are popular, or to get themselves the popular vote or whatever reason – but these causes fall by the wayside. They are faddish and only stick in people’s mind as long as it is popular to save the rainforest, fight human slavery, fight for various rights, or what-have-you. Most importantly, as he points out, the government is only going to have less money to

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