Thank you very much Lance. That’s a great perspective there and starting with your why and communicating your why is just so important.

Julie, what’s one piece of advice that you’d give?

We are a cooperative, we put people first and we want ethical and fair results for them. Then, we are also a business, so I would say it is important to promote cross sector cooperation for the creation of social capital, given the unique attributes of entrepreneurs or a social co-op in being together. Also, combine different stakeholders and the community’s resources. That’s what I’m thinking right now.

It’s a great thought there, and thanks for sharing that reflection.

Thomas let’s hear some advice that you have considering your experience in setting up your enterprise. What would you say?

Tom, I’m so glad that you actually asked the question of what other businesspeople can do, because whilst I think it’s of course great that we have social innovators and entrepreneurs with a strong purpose like we have alluded to, I think that the movement can get a lot more acceleration and bigger impact if existing businesses choose to align the way they do business with ESG principles. To do this, there are today very useful and easy tools which you can use, and the ones I’m going to suggest are actually free. One is the SDG Action Manager, which was launched by a global compact, the United Nations Global Compact.

That tool was actually provided by B-Lab, which is the non-profit organisation behind the B-Corp Certification. That is quite simple to use, and you can choose to do any number of the SDGs, you don’t have to do all of them. If you want to get a bit more serious with the SDG Action Manager, you can actually transition into the B-Impact Assessment. The B-Impact Assessment is a more in-depth assessment, which goes into your business and gives you an assessment.

Eventually, if you reach a certain score, you can go for B-Corp Certification. But the more important thing I believe is that when you do these assessments, you get a bit of a benchmark of where you stand, whether it’s with the BIA or with each SDG.

It also shows you what are the other things you can do to improve. It provides a roadmap for you to progress and really align your businesses over time. I believe that if all businesses were to do this and think this way, there would be a much bigger impact that will come to society.

Great insights there Thomas. Let’s finish off our interview now with some recommendations. When it comes to books, resources, web pages and podcasts, there’s a whole heap of inspiration out there. Julie, what would you recommend to our listeners?

I’m going to recommend the international cooperative Allianz. This website is easy to find because the co-op was established in 1895 to load the corporation model. Today, when we are talking about social innovation, actually it is not a new idea, because about 200 years ago these pioneers had established the tall-short innovative model.

I would recommend visiting the website because you can see the cooperative impact and how they contribute to sustainable economic growth and a stable quality in employment.

From the website, I think anyone can gain some knowledge about the cooperative model and what business driven by value means. I think that is a cool way to start to know what a co-op is. Thank you, Tom.  

Thanks Julie. It sounds like a great resource there.

Thomas let’s talk about your books, resources or other recommendations to our listeners.

This is an easy one. There is a book that was published in September last year called Better Business by Professor Chris Marquis. Chris started his life as the vice president of JP Morgan Chase, and then went on to lecture at Harvard University for 10 years and even lectured at the Kennedy School. In recent years, he has been with Cornell University as the head of ‘Global Sustainable Enterprises’. Chris has a wealth of knowledge; he’s travelled the world extensively; he was a frequent visitor to Asia and sometimes lectured at the top universities in China as well. I believe Chris actually speaks better Mandarin than I do! His book is called Better Business.

Thank you very much Thomas, that sounds like a great resource there.

Lance let’s finish off with you. What books or resources would you like to recommend?

I have to recommend The Business Solution to Poverty. The book was written by Paul Polak and Mal Marwick, with the buzzword nouns ‘the entrepreneur’ and ‘poverty activist’.

The book is centred on Zero-Based Design, the argument that poverty can only be solved by business. This book has helped me a lot through starting this business, based on the ideas of taking risk, and how to make billions of customers, my customers.

It’s also about how to lead companies in the future through securing sustainability in central lane markets. This book has already been published for six years, but it has great meaning for me to remind me of the beginning of my business again. It will give a good insight to those who create inclusive businesses.

Thanks so much to all of you today for sharing your really generous insights and time. Congratulations again on winning the APSIPA Inclusive Business Award. We’ll look forward to tracking your journeys into the future and touching base down the line.