North Greenwich provided a stark industrial backdrop for Sifted’s buzzing London Summit on 5th and 6th October. The Magazine London venue was thrumming with a diverse mix of delegates – European start-ups, investors, professional services & advisors drawn to meet and swap notes on what it takes to scale successfully.
One notable roundtable discussion for me was hosted by Principia, an advisory firm for organisational ethics. The title of the session was ‘Should Start-ups pay attention to ethics?’ As a B Corp ambassador and Unreasonable mentor, my starting point for that discussion was clearly a resounding YES! But my interest was piqued to hear other points of view and observations from the front line.
Along with the Principia team’s perspectives and access to academic research, there were people from international investing, banking, health-tech and reputation management at the table. The main insights from the conversation were that most early stage investors who claim to be interested in areas such as social value and environmental impact will be satisfied with an ESG report that is presently more of a box ticking exercise than a real conversation starter. Bethnal Green Ventures were held up as a rare exception and got a shout out for their latest publication ,Impact for Start-Ups which is all about how to measure, manage and demonstrate impact as an early-stage tech for good start-up. (They are also a B Corp which means they are used to having to report annually on their own impact too of course).
We all agreed that ethics constitute both a risk to the business’ fundamentals (look no further than Netflix’s series about Theranos for an example of what happens when ethics go truly awry) and also an opportunity to standout when unusual commitment to purpose and ethical behaviour help attract talent and customers.
We debated the confusion of too many acronyms and the interchangeable definitions of mission, purpose, values and ethics and wondered how many start-ups even got as far as SDGs and ESG, believing that most instead got stuck at what values to opt for. The product manager in our midst determined that few companies get beyond words like ‘integrity’ and ‘resilience’ which can be disingenuous as they are often chosen to push people to work harder – maybe he does have a point?
So where did we come out? We agreed perhaps unsurprisingly that it’s never too soon to figure out what you care about as a business and how to stand up for it. We also had to acknowledge that it’s really hard to instil accountability around being true to your values and ethics when you are a small team. Sharing failures publicly in the spirit of transparency and learning without it being obvious who did the dirty is almost impossible.
We decided that one way to get very driven, growth focused people to pay attention to ethics is to link outcomes to incentivises in a meaningful way. In other words, bad behaviour means no bonus. That’s the stick. The carrot is to identify and be recognised alongside really inspiring role models. Capturing and sharing stories of how ethics create cut through for aspirational leaders will illustrate why it’s as important to be able to articulate the ‘how’ and ‘why’ of innovative and disruptive business ideas as the what.
And to give Principia the last word (a personal value of mine is that manners matter!) it’s wise to get out in front of risks to anticipate where things could come unstuck by surrounding founders with experienced advisors who aren’t afraid of asking difficult questions. Either way, whether ethics are a fundamental part of an impact business model, or whether they are there as a moral compass for the business to grow without doing harm, it’s never to early to focus on them properly.
If you’d like some help crystallising and communicating ethics, purpose or values, we can help. Wilful is a purpose-driven PR firm supporting sustainability start-ups. For more information, please email our team at hello@thewilful.com.
