Mission-led business: What is business for?

Businesses exist to make money. But increasingly, the social and environmental costs of making profit the only goal of running a business have become harder to ignore. There has been lots of talk of late, including from business leaders and politicians of all sides, about purposeful companies, mission-led business and responsible capitalism. The government intends to require the boards of the largest companies to report on how they comply with their legal duty to take the interests of other stakeholders besides their shareholders into account when making decisions. These stakeholders include their workers and customers, the members of their supply chains, the communities within which they operate, the environment and future generations. There exists now also a suite of model articles of association providing templates for businesses who wish to declare publicly what their purpose is and how they will operate as mission-led organisations.

These and other initiatives, including a government-commissioned review of mission-led business, indicate a shift in thinking which, once adopted, has an inexorable logic taking us, individually and collectively, towards a process of re-humanising business, giving greater weight to relationships and recognising the connections permeating all we think and do. And we, individually, have the opportunity to contribute to the change we not only wish to see, but which is becoming increasingly urgent. Purpose-driven businesses already exist in the form of social enterprises and co-operatives which exist primarily to deliver social goals and who recycle the surpluses they generate towards achieving those aims. But there is also an increasing number of businesses who commit to a wider purpose or mission, and who balance commercial success with ethical business practice, without necessarily having to renounce profit distribution entirely, for example by demonstrating this by achieving B Corp status. In an economy built on responsible business, there will still be a spectrum of practice, from what might be regarded as pure social enterprise to just old school CSR. But achieving a more diverse business landscape requires a huge societal shift, in which we all have an active part to play.

David Hunter and Nina Boeger have collaborated on a Knowledge Exchange Partnership at the University of Bristol researching into and reporting on Mission-led Business in the UK.