Publications | Page 14

En voilà une question allez-vous me répondre et pourtant… Un récent article du Harvard Business Review de Suntae Kim, Matthew Karlesky, Christopher Myers et Todd Schifeling intitulé « Why Companies Are Becoming B Corporations » aborde la question de face.

2 raisons essentielles sont identifiées :

1. First, as large established firms have ramped up their corporate social responsibility efforts, small businesses that have long been committed to social and environmental causes want to prove that they are more genuine, authentic advocates of stakeholder benefits.
2.  The qualitative evidence, gathered from firms’ B corporation application materials, revealed that certifying firms believed “the major crises of our time are a result of the way we conduct business,” and they became a B Corporation to “join the movement of creating a new economy with a new set of rules” and “redefine the way people perceive success in the business world.”

So why do certain firms (and not others) choose to identify as B Corporations? Individual leaders are partly why some organizations broaden their purpose beyond maximizing shareholder value. We might look to Sir Richard Branson, who in 2013 co-launched the “B Team,” publicly decrying corporations’ sole focus on short-term profits and calling for a reprioritization of people- and planet-focused performance. We might also consider leaders of firms like Ben & Jerry’s or Patagonia (both B Corporations) that have prioritized societal and environmental agendas.

Clearly, such leaders can be important catalysts of social change. However, the explosive growth of B Corporations seems also to be driven by broader trends and changes in the corporate landscape that cannot be explained by individuals’ actions alone.

Two of us (Suntae Kim and Todd Schifeling) conducted research to build a more robust understanding of the rise of B corporations. By qualitatively examining the internal motives of firms in the process of becoming a B corporation, and quantitatively testing key factors in these firms’ external industry environment – including the shareholder- and stakeholder-focused behaviors of their corporate competitors – we found that there are at least two major underlying reasons why firms choose to seek B Corporation certification.

À la prochaine…

Ivan Tchotourian

Selon une étude parue le 8 juin 2016 sur le blog de Harvard (« Women Directors and Participation on Key Committees »), la féminisation des CA progressent mais davantage dans les comités du CA.

Women corporate directors globally are showing greater proportional gains on occupying key board committees than on boards overall, according to a new analysis by leading governance and ESG data and analytics provider Institutional Shareholder Services.

Point intéressant sue le Canada :

Among markets outside Europe, boards of Australian companies showed the greatest proportional gains for overall female boardroom representation between 2014 and 2016 with a 4.9 percent increase, and with female directors now making up just under 21 percent of all directorships at those companies. Canadian companies analyzed saw the greatest growth outside of Europe in female representation on audit committees, jumping 5.6 percentage points during that same period.

À la prochaine…

Ivan Tchotourian

Intitulé « L’articulation entre productivité et inclusivité » (pour un résumé, voir : ici), un rapport de l’OCDE analyse les causes profondes de ces deux problématiques, en examinant les liens qui les unissent et les moyens d’y répondre dans le cadre d’une action cohérente.  Il souligne notamment la nécessité d’étendre les actifs productifs de l’économie en investissant dans les compétences individuelles et dans un environnement où toutes les entreprises et toutes les régions peuvent prospérer.

Comme le relève un article publié dans La presse.ca (ici), « Le poids croissant de la finance dans l’économie mondiale pourrait avoir détourné l’investissement des activités productives et provoqué une plus forte concentration de la richesse au sommet de la distribution des revenus ». L’OCDE se demande finalement si le poids croissant de la finance dans l’économie mondiale n’a pas contribué au ralentissement de la productivité et renforcé les inégalités depuis le début des années 2000.

À la prochaine…

Ivan Tchotourian