#doingwelldoingood

In the age of transparency and protest, people are looking for the companies they serve and the companies that serve them to be aligned with their own values: in general, doing right by people and doing right by the earth. People are voting with their dollars and evil corporate stories are spreading like wildfire. Instead of staying at cushy corporate jobs, people are abandoning corporate to strike out on their own in a world where they are defined by their ideals, not by a number.

“34 percent of executives indicate there is no one at their company who is responsible for sustainability or “going green” initiatives, up from 25 percent in 2011” (Marketwatch).

“According to the Web site of the Move Your Money campaign, an estimated 10 million accounts have left the largest banks since 2010. Credit unions have enjoyed a surge in business as a result. The Credit Union National Association reported that in 2012, for the first time ever, credit union assets rose above $1 trillion” (Salon).

“In recent years, a wave of white-collar professionals has seized on a moribund job market, a swelling enthusiasm for all things artisanal and the growing sense that work should have meaning to cut ties with the corporate grind and chase second careers as chocolatiers, bed-and-breakfast proprietors and organic farmers. Indeed, since the dawn of the Great Recession, more Americans have started businesses (565,000 of them a month in 2010) than at any period in the last decade and a half, according to the Kauffman Foundation, which tracks statistics on entrepreneurship in the United States” (New York Times).

IMPLICATIONS:
How can we help the companies we serve realize that they need to think about values in addition to the bottom line?