On Thursday 2nd February UK for Good hosted our second Business for Good Festival (BFGF) in the beautiful City of Chester, and kindly sponsored by Sykes Holiday Cottages.
What a day!
If you were there, you’ll know just how much we learned, and how many new connections and solutions we discovered.
It’s hard to summarise the whole day, but I’ll do my best:
3 things I learned from the BFGF
1. feelings matter
We rounded up the expert speaker presentations with a performance from the incredible children from the CIC AmaSing.
The year 3/4 children from St. Werburgh’s School, Chester sang their concerns and hope for the future they want to see in the world. Click here to listen to their beautiful song.
It’s a beautiful world but the earth is crying
It’s time to readdresss, this is our SOS
And our future starts today
In my many long years in business I have never before been at a business event where so many successful business leaders have been moved to tears – big time!
Why?
Because everybody FELT something.
Boy, was it emotional.
These children expect and deserve a better future, and as business leaders, we have a responsibility and opportunity to shape a better world.
2. performance follows purpose
Paul’s presentation was followed Graham Donoghue, CEO of Sykes Cottages. He agreed that there is a direct correlation between developing a clear purpose for the business, and embedding it into the culture of the organisation, and an uplift in profitability.
There is an increasing body of research which clearly illustrates that businesses that are doing good are doing well.
Doing the right thing for people and planet is no longer simply a nice thing to do, it’s a better thing to do for the sustainability of the business.
People and the planet expect and deserve more from our businesses.
Let’s exceed their expectations.
“Purpose-driven companies witness higher market share gains and grow on average three times faster than their competitors, all the while achieving higher employee and customer satisfaction.
Jim Stengel Co., 2019
3. collaboration is key
Although we discussed the Wicked problems facing the world, and our businesses, the focus on the day was firmly on solutions.
How can we make solve these Wicked problems; the Climate and Ecological Emergency, inequality, poverty, food insecurity, economic instability – the list is extensive.
We all agreed that alone we can do little, but together we can do so much.
Collaboration is key.
Why not join:
👉 UK for Good – our community of awesome businesses are committed to connecting, learning, and leading together to shape a better world;
👉 Business Declares – an incredible organisation helping businesses on their journey to Net Zero
👉 B Corp UK – a movement of businesses who are creating a cleaner, greener, fairer future
👉Better Business Act – driving the transition from shareholder primacy to stakeholder capitalism