Business’ New Role in Society

Traditionally, business’ role in society was two-fold: provide jobs and maximize shareholder profits at whatever means necessary. Today, businesses are under pressure to take on additional responsibilities within society, for examples not causing harm to humans, animals, and planet, taking stances on social policies, and in many cases actually giving back to their communities.

>>> That is, they are increasingly being called upon to address some of society’s most pressing social issues.

Because these expectations have not historically been part of traditional business practices, there are no established structures in place to navigate tracking, communicating, and bringing transparency to business practices. Herein lies the problem (or perhaps… the opportunity!).

This is not a problem of business

Businesses will adapt to these increasing pressures placed on them by society and some already are. There is a growing trend of companies who are operating above and beyond traditional business practices: tracking their entire supply chain; improving ethical treatment of humans in their manufacturing partnerships; instilling the equal priorities of “People, Planet, Profit” into the very DNA of what makes them tick.

This is not a problem of consumer

Consumers are doing their best to navigate through the thick of what jumbled information is available. In many cases, and we see this increasingly with the Millennial generation, consumers are not only spending extra time to educate themselves, but are in fact, spending extra money to make purchases that more closely align with their values as best they can. However, apathy is admittedly an evident characteristic among many consumers. But, one has to ask – is that because it’s nearly impossible to decipher information? Is it possibly not true apathy, but apathy as a result of the feeling of impossibility?

The problem is with the entire structure

… or rather, the lack thereof.

There are no structures in place that make it easy for businesses to demonstrate the values they actually operate by. There are no structures in place that make it easy to know what business practices are behind each product we purchase. There is no structure for accountability, transparency, verification consistently applied to all products/services and all companies. It doesn’t exist. The reason it doesn’t exist is because we’ve never needed this structure before. It’s only recently that we’re starting to become aware and care about the how/where and by whom/what our products and services are made.

Now is the time to build structures for Transparency

Prioritizing trust and transparency is inevitable. Now is the time to build the structures that bring transparency to the forefront – that reward transparency economically. The pressure and demand are there. Let’s build the structures that allow transparency and trust to become the norm, the expected, the available. This structure will create the possibility for us as a society to anchor something much closer to truth and authenticity into our decision-making processes whether big or small.