It’s a wild and exciting thing to see the corporate and non-profit mindsets coming together– embracing a little complexity in analytics and realities, and doing well, while doing good. Businesses are increasingly interested in doing well by doing good; non-profits are increasingly interested in using business mindsets and processes to achieve their mission and better serve their constituencies. Folks are seeing that doing business better, listening to all stakeholders, managing for the long-term, and doing good… can be good for business.

My Path

Just over a decade ago, I moved from working in small business growth and corporate re-organization, to social enterprise and non-profit organizations, to make more impact. I adapted the titles of my business skills to the non-profit terms, and dove into some complex issues. I practiced more fundraising (marketing), strategic planning (same in business), board development (leadership ), and organizational development (including mergers and acquisitions). It was a great way to combine my mission mindset with my MBA honed business processes and analytics.

I gradually realized, however, that, in view of shifting technologies and cultural priorities, the sector of the economy that easily makes ~2/3 of the world’s wealth, ie private enterprise, (government and non-profits making the other ¼), might actually be where I can support more positive impact. So, I have shifted back to the business sector, to working with small and medium sized businesses (SMB), and to launching my 300 year plan (you read that right, not just this lifetime, but support the planet and all its inhabitants beyond my lifetime, somehow).

 

No one person or company can know everything

There’s no denying this is a fast-changing, complex world. This reality demands systemic thinking, which demands collaboration & mutual respect among the parts, to address issues. I’ve long held that non-profits and corporations (whether small or large) were businesses solving a market or societal need, and with different time horizons. I’ve also long held that the two models had much to teach other. In many ways, it’s like bringing together the wisdom of the Myers-Briggs Fs and that of the Myers-Briggs Ts; or, a different slice of thinking, bringing together the wisdoms of a strategist and tactician. 

The other thing I realized, over the last five years of studying and working in this doing-well-doing-good-sector (and a lifetime across non-profit and corporate, across multiple countries and cultures), is that the concepts of corporate citizenship, like most things that develop over time, have come to appear like many, separate disciplines, when they’re actually a mindset of caring– about community, employees, market, company, and long-term health of all. It’s the ultimate strategic mindset – listening to multiple perspectives to get fuller insight into the “lay of the land”, and fostering more folks’ creativity to unleash greater innovation and problem solving (and LT profit). 

As Theodore Parker wrote, and MLK Jr repeated, “the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.” The trick is, we, as individuals, communities, companies, governments, don’t wait and watch, but we get involved in bending the arc. And there’s an easy semi-joke in there about building another Noah’s ark to face current issues.


#Sustainability #CSR #ESG #corporatecitizenship #SMB #DoingGoodDoingWell