Mission-driven companies come under the spotlight in an entry for Harvard Business Review's 'Conversation' blog by Michael V. Russo.
As he points out, many modern consumers now care as much about the companies from which they purchase as the products themselves, which means there is a "unique value proposition" for mission-driven companies with "higher-order goals" and responsible supply chain practices.
So Russo asks: "What lessons are offered to mainstream companies by mission-driven companies, those small- and medium-sized enterprises that balance profitability with social and environmental goals?"
Answering his own question, he says: "By studying them, mainstream companies can get beyond the fruitless debate over whether it pays to be responsible, and move onto a far more important issue: How they can make being responsible pay."
Russo says mission-driven companies act as an "early warning system" for consumer expectations. They have also acted as the vanguard for transparency – publicising things like ingredients lists and corporate policies before better-known companies – and delivered "proof of concept" for innovations.
Because of this, says Russo, the mainstream companies should view their mission-led counterparts as a source of strategic insight, rather than dismiss them.
He adds that the mission-led companies can reveal insights that mainstream organisations can capitalise upon. He says: "A range of mainstream companies, from eBay to Dow Jones also have discovered that partnering with mission-driven companies can generate all of the synergies of a great strategic alliance, while avoiding some of the angst of collaborating with non-profits."
Russo concludes that mission-led companies "represent a growing phenomenon whose impact far exceeds their collective size in terms of generating path-breaking ideas that are influencing mainstream business and energising loyal customers. They deserve your attention."
What You Can Learn from Mission-Driven Companies
Michael V. Russo, The Conversation, HBR.org, 06/05/10
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