Welcome back!
Here at The Stakehold, we’re convinced that advocates of employee ownership and social innovation should hang out more. As we argue in a Skoll Centre white paper coming out this fall, both groups of people are asking the same question: What is this organization for?
So I was excited to see that longtime employee ownership advocate Mary Josephs has joined the board of Conscious Capitalism, a group of business leaders committed to four tenets:
Higher purpose
Stakeholder orientation
Conscious leadership
Conscious culture
When I attended Conscious Capitalism Dallas’s event last month (see back left!) it struck me that employee ownership and steward ownership lock those personal commitments in. They can variably:
Lock in an organization’s purpose
Give stakeholders (employees, sometimes others) a financial stake
Distribute leadership throughout the organization
Build a culture of ownership and mutual commitment, and even a flywheel of generosity in a company.
Partly as a way to pull these two communities closer together, we’re testing out a new newsletter, Ownership on Purpose, which will aggregate news and stories about the different ways leaders lock in their organization’s purpose, including through steward, purpose trust, foundation, and nonprofit ownership; certifications from groups like B Lab, The Purpose Pledge, and Tugboat; affinity groups like conscious capitalism and 100% for Purpose; and legal structures like benefit corporations and sociétés à mission. Below is what you’ll get each week as a free subscriber, if this takes off!
Top Shelf News
B Lab is deploying its recently updated standards and considering stripping certification from Havas Media over its work with Shell
The Purpose Pledge, launched as a more stringent alternative to B Corp certification, appointed Mountain Rose Herbs CEO Cameron Stearns to its board
Purpose Pledge’s Executive Director Les Szabo will join CEOs from Newman’s Own, Grace Farms Foundation, and 100% for Purpose at Fast Company’s Innovation Festival
Events This Week
For more, see our running list of (mostly employee ownership) events here.
Sep 14: BKLYN STUDIOS’ panel on Jeffrey Hollender’s new book, Built for a Better World: How Seventh Generation Pioneered a Movement That Changed the Purpose of Business
Sep 15: Tompkins Bank & Trust Power Breakfast: The Power of Purpose in White Plains, NY
Sep 16: Good Together’s Talking Shift: Is the answer to tough times taking back the economy?
Sep 16: 6th Annual BLD Southeast Conference in DC
In Other News
Politico’s Joseph Schatz examines how government equity stakes in companies are shifting from temporary bailout mechanisms to long-term governance levers
Tom Powdrill delves into the UK’s government consultation on corporate reporting, where attempts at modernizing raise questions around stewardship
Newly certified B Corporations: ShipIn Systems, L-Acoustics, Cleanology, Sea to Summit, Birketts LLP, and Just Salad
In a new paper, David S. Lucas and company find that benefit corporations that also have B Corporation status have longer and higher-quality benefit reports
B Lab Africa is launching its latest Resilient Sustainable Business program
Employee-owned B Corporation King Arthur Baking was named a Casella Sustainable Leader
ICYMI: Check out Vital Farms’ appearance earlier this year on the How I Built This podcast: