Carmel McConnell
(Picture: Handout)In today’s fast-moving, global marketplace, the race to keep up with developing trends, tech, and talent is all consuming.
But keeping a competitive edge while trying to remain a good person amid a storm of economic uncertainty, international conflict, and any number of other crises you care to mention, can feel overwhelming.
For leaders, the answer is not hidden in spreadsheets and graphs, but in the only USP of real value: trust.
And there are role models for CEOs to emulate, but they are not the usual suspects: Greta Thunberg rather than Jeff Bezos; Marcus Rashford, not Mark Zuckerberg.
Why? Because we are at a crossroads for capitalism, one where planet-burning profits are becoming as socially unacceptable as enjoying a few quiet cigars at the product launch.
By thinking and behaving more like a social activist, you’ll turn up the volume on climate and social justice issues, be someone who puts profits and principles into the same pitch, into the same budget.
One choice of road is pure denial, business as usual - we’ve managed to get here without all that planet and people and ESG rubbish, so let’s just sound good shall we. Leave the radical change stuff to those who want fewer dividends.
The second path is the finding a way to create profit through principles, having a set of values that seem decent and honest. Not knowing the answers but setting out a message of care, taking action and asking for feedback on how to improve.
The low-risk choice at this crossroads is going to be high risk. Unless consumers and investors believe your firm to be trustworthy, even the best products and services are unlikely to be enough. In a fast transparent market, you either build trust every day or destroy it.
There is a market magnetism to firms that create profits through principles. Think the Patagonia premium, the new Tesco performance management linking C suite pay to climate and social goals. Every business – no matter how big or small, wants to be the trusted partner, the organisation with compassion and care, winning awards that show heart as well as competency. So far, so social activist skillset.
I used to work in a senior corporate role in the city. Talking to Headteachers in Hackney led me to the shocking realisation that just three miles from my office in Liverpool Street, children were going to school too hungry to learn.
How could this be? My heart felt broken. I offered to drop food round to those five schools, and within a week had more schools asking for help. I realised that without school breakfast there were thousands of children who would miss out on a whole morning of learning.
My passion gave me purpose and a plan – to set up a new national school breakfast scheme. No child too hungry to learn.
I pitched for support and so many wonderful corporate allies came onboard. So many great values-led leaders supported those children with compassion. They were all, also, alive to the trust advantage taking compassionate action gives.
Even the politicians were persuaded, and now Magic Breakfast provides a healthy breakfast to 200,000 children in 1,000 schools.
But more needs to be done - just as the Standard’s recent campaign has valiantly highlighted - with the number of children arriving hungry at school rising once again.
It was fantastic to find business leaders wanting to use their mighty capitalist force for good. But how many organisations are truly committing to planet-first, people-first policies?
ESG in harsh financial times - surely a distraction, or just too hard? Although 90% of FTSE 100 firms do have ESG reporting now (according to McKinsey) how many are using their climate commitment or social purpose to drive financial performance? The fact remains, more consumers care about values, and if Unilever point to a 75% sales advantage in products that are "purpose led" then consumers seem to be voting hard for profits with principles. So for profitability and trust, maybe it pays to think like a change activist - empowering, less plastic, raising money for a hungry child with every purchase. Because if you don’t, maybe your successor will.
Hollow gestures will not and do not go unnoticed in today’s transparent market. How on earth did the water companies end up pumping sewage onto Britain’s beaches? Because there wasn’t anyone asking ‘are we prioritising the planet, or profit?’
Talk to activists - we are good at creating meaningful, lasting change with very little. Looking back at the lives of Mahatma Ghandi or Rosa Parks or Emmeline Pankhurst or Nelson Mandela, momentous social changed achieved without offices, without ipads, without TikTok. They did it through a combination of three simple ideas: passion, purpose, plan.
I would suggest a simple index, led by CEOs who want to show they understand trust as the only USP in a global marketplace. Let’s call it the SAYDO Index. Let’s look at the top 5 ESG goals in 10 companies and assess if they say nice things, but do little.
CEOs can learn from successful social activism. We need firms to look more like a group of social activists than suits if we are going to win the planet, end the daily chaos of a poverty divided world.
Action, not words.
Carmel McConnell is founder and ex-CEO of national charity Magic Breakfast and was awarded an MBE for her services to school food in the New Year’s Honours 2016.
