How are you planning to Democratise your business in 2023?

“Social Purpose” and “Social Value” are terms bandied around in business a lot to bring balance to the economic and climate impacts of business. The "S" in ESG. Businesses exist because society gives them the resources to operate with the raison d’être of making Society better.

Great concept right. But how do you actually bring society and its thoughts into your business and go beyond bland powerpoint research presentations and tokenistic employee representatives on Boards?

During 2022, I have worked with, and seen a number of organisations gather together to Democratise Business i.e To make it more accountable to the society it which it exists. Here are my 6 ones to watch for 2023 (They are in no particular order. They are all good!) . Have you given them a try yet?

Lived Experience - Jan Levy and the team at www.threehands.co.uk bring in "lived experts" from the not for profit sector to review new products and services as well as critique existing ones. Imagine the realties of getting gambling execs and gambling addicts together! Hugely skilful but resulting in some amazing conversations. With industries increasingly being asked by regulators to prove what they are doing in fringe markets and with vulnerable customers this is a perfect mechanism to understand how to adjust your business.?

Using the Power of the Crowd - Rob Love and the www.crowdfunder.co.uk team have built up a huge expertise and 400,000 projects with ￡250m of funding. They now understand by postcode what local people want, what gets funded and what doesn’t. They also blend funds to make the power of the crowd go further. This is hugely valuable to corporate looking to understand places where they operate, draw employees from and or want to invest.?

Putting a ￡ € or $ to Social Value?- Guy Battle at the team at www.socialvalueportal.com have created ways for businesses to measure their impact on society through their TOMS measurement system which currently measures over 250 social outcomes on core business activities for local authorities, corporates and investors. Their 7 Places model for providing where social value can be created in a business is hugely useful to understand your potential as a business.

Fit for Purpose Policies - Michael Solomon and the team at www.responsible100.com have a mechanism to road test over 40 core business processes on topics such as Human Rights, Executive Pay and Fair Tax by simply getting business members to state their position and then get specialist NGO’s to critical friend what the business does in reality. This advanced form of ESG governance means that business members can make sure that they are fit for purpose.?

Citizens Assemblies for Business - Anthony Zacharzewski and team at https://www.demsoc.org/ has been working with regional and local governments across Europe to effectively engage with their citizens to negotiate what they want from each other. Imagine a Board engaging young citizens on decisions they are making today for their benefit in two generations time using the same mechanisms using Citizens Jurys as a basis.

Citizens not Consumers?-? Jon Alexander and the team at https://www.citizensuk.org are helping educate the world (especially corporates) on the differences between engaging consumers (Where you want them to buy what you do or make) and engaging Citizens in whose world your business exists and you earn your licence to operate and serve. Its a very different way of thinking about business and unpicks many years of business theory that everyone could be your customer!

The Common Thread

So if your business is struggling to understand how society is re-configuring, wants to prove its social value and purpose or is just curious what its missing out on. Why not get involved in the Democratising Business movement.

A special thank you must also go to Loughlin Hickey as a fellow Democratising Business spotter built on his experience at A Blueprint for Better Business .