{"id":3790,"date":"2021-10-25T05:05:12","date_gmt":"2021-10-25T03:05:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wyseminds.com\/blog\/the-art-of-corporate-responsibility\/"},"modified":"2024-04-19T14:31:00","modified_gmt":"2024-04-19T12:31:00","slug":"the-art-of-corporate-responsibility","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wyseminds.com\/blog\/the-art-of-corporate-responsibility\/","title":{"rendered":"The art of corporate responsibility"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"JacquieJacquie Irvine knows exactly what it takes to look good in business. And no, we\u2019re not just talking about sharp suits. The Scottish-born educated businesswoman and co-founder of <\/span>Good Values<\/span><\/a> \u2013 a consultancy that works with clients across the world to improve their corporate social responsibility and sustainability practices and credentials \u2013 has been working in brand identity since leaving Aberdeen University, with a degree in law and a postgraduate qualification in business.<\/span><\/p>\n

She cut her corporate teeth at FMCG giant Proctor and Gamble, who she was with for twelve years, rising from its graduate scheme to Marketing Director. In the early noughties, having learnt the ropes from a market leader and with two young sons to consider, she decided it was time to go it alone and left to set up her first consultancy, The Brand Kitchen.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt was basically just me,\u201d she explains. \u201cI was doing the marketing and business strategy for a whole range of companies and I worked with clients from small start-ups like a head lice brand to an international drinks company and a national telecoms company.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Further projects involved helping to launch a children\u2019s natural first aid brand, Dr Greenfingers \u2013 a joint venture with organics specialist Weleda and WhatIf agency \u2013 before joining former P&G co-worker and future business partner, Paul Gillespie, on a project for Cancer Research UK. It gave the pair vital experience in what it takes to boost a charitable brand in the business world as well as insight into how they could collaborate going forward.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt was 2006 and Cancer Research UK wanted our help in getting the whole organisation to live the brand. This included giving training courses to various departments \u2013 not just marketing or fundraising \u2013 on how to promote the brand in their work practices and all their communication. This evolved into Paul and I thinking we could work together. I\u2019d seen how he worked. He\u2019s a great person and has the right values and we had complimentary skills. He had more of a sales background and had worked with a lot of charities. I had more business strategy, brand and comms experience.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Based on Jacquie\u2019s belief that corporates could benefit from a charitable partnership and not just the charity itself \u2013 and long before ESG (Environmental Social Governance) and CR (Corporate Responsibility) became buzzwords \u2013 Good Values\u2019 mantra of \u2018Companies operating on good values will gain in value and deliver value\u2019 was born.<\/span><\/p>\n

That winning feeling<\/b><\/p>\n

\u201cI always felt that it was not just about philanthropy,\u201d she says. \u201cOf course, giving money to a charity is nice, but if the corporate also benefited then they would be committed to that partnership for longer. If it was only about philanthropy, and budgets were tight, charity donations could be cut. However, if it could be proven that the partnership with the charity was also beneficial to the company. This could be through improved staff engagement – being proud of their employer, being more loyal, or attracting new hires – and customers feeling good about the brands they were buying from. Then companies would invest more into the charities they\u2019re supporting. This is what\u2019s known as a win\/win; if companies are recognised for doing socially responsible things, it helps their long-term business proposition and I wanted to bring this to our clients.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Jacquie and Paul helped find this elusive win\/win for some big hitters, including TK Maxx, Marks & Spencer (with Breakthrough Breast Cancer) and insurance broker, Aviva, which proved to be one of Jacquie\u2019s most rewarding experiences in business.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you work really hard, it\u2019s nice to feel that you\u2019re making an impact and I love it when I\u2019m making an impact to the business and the social cause as well. With Aviva, we helped them create the Street<\/span> to School programme, which helped get street children off the street and into education. Street to School helped Aviva demonstrate their brand and company values and was an extension of how they worked with their employees and their customers and what it did in the community in a global way. The programme made a real step change in how street children were viewed.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWe worked with Aviva for over five years and you could see the progress. They were a great client because they really believed in it. They weren\u2019t just paying lip service to it, they genuinely wanted to make that difference to street children and took some brave decisions – and they saw business benefits from the programme.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cSome clients aren\u2019t quite so brave and that can be down partly to company culture as well as the individuals in the team that you\u2019re working with. I\u2019m afraid that if I thought someone was just doing it to pay lip service, to tick the box, I wouldn\u2019t work with them.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Profit is not a dirty word<\/b><\/p>\n

While engaging in ESG and CR can give a warm fuzzy feeling to both companies and customers, as well as attracting \u2013 and keeping \u2013 a motivated and productive talent pool, there\u2019s no doubt that profit still plays a part.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cOf course, companies have to make a profit because if they don\u2019t, they won\u2019t be around and the people they employ won\u2019t have jobs and there\u2019s a social consequence to that. But it\u2019s all about balance \u2013 yes, make a profit, but not at the expense of some stakeholders. Companies who are pursuing CR properly will be thinking about their employees, their customers, the community where their factory is, where they\u2019re selling, how they\u2019re selling, their supply chains, local government. Communicating and reporting transparently are key and what the public wants. It\u2019s not just about the purpose of the company, it\u2019s also about engaging your key stakeholders and being transparent in your reporting.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Do more, or get left behind<\/b><\/p>\n

These days, companies of all sizes are looking at how they can operate more responsibly and do good for the planet, society and their bottom line.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cSome people are later to the party than others,\u201d says Jacquie. \u201cBut I think now everyone recognises that it can have a positive effect. Companies that were doing it way back when, like Anita Roddick with the Body Shop or Patagonia, were seen as a bit niche. But recently, there\u2019s been a lot more focus on corporate governance, there\u2019s more government legislation, and the aim to go net zero. Any company of a reasonable size has to evolve to give back. They recognise that if they don\u2019t do more, they will be left behind.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cAnyone with a social media profile now wants their customers to know about them and their story,\u201d she continues. \u201cMany customers want to feel engaged with the brand they buy – it says something about you as a person. They want to know that they\u2019re forming an attachment to a brand that is trying to do the right thing.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Jacquie continues to use everything she has learnt with Good Values in other parts of her life, where she holds two non-executive positions at charities Julia\u2019s House and Street Invest and is open to small business non-executive positions as she could combine her \u201cbusiness experience with her ESG expertise\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n

Small business owners, you heard it here first.<\/span><\/p>\n

How do you eat an elephant?<\/b><\/p>\n

And on that note, what advice would Jacquie give to female entrepreneurs going it alone?<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cStart with the end in mind \u2013 what does success look like for you? Where do you think your idea can get to? Set the vision\u2026the destination and break it down into bite-sized chunks, so it doesn\u2019t become something insurmountable. And then you\u2019ll know you\u2019re making progress and it will build your confidence to do more and keep going.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Wondering how strong your company purpose is?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Sign-up<\/a> for our Lift-Off programme, <\/b>the entry level to \u2018Your Journey,\u2019 our interactive training platform designed for female entrepreneurs to find the right, most relevant path to purpose-led business growth. Find out more ><\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jacquie Irvine knows exactly what it takes to look good in business. And no, we\u2019re not just talking about sharp suits. The Scottish-born educated businesswoman and co-founder of Good Values \u2013 a consultancy that works with clients across the world to improve their corporate social responsibility and sustainability practices and credentials \u2013 has been working […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3793,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[60,136,137,138,36,139,140,37,141,142,143,41],"class_list":["post-3790","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-stories","tag-business-growth","tag-cancer-research-uk","tag-corporate-responsibility","tag-cr","tag-entrepreneur","tag-environmental-social-governance","tag-esg","tag-female-entrepreneur","tag-good-values","tag-jacquie-irvine","tag-profit","tag-purpose"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wyseminds.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3790","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wyseminds.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wyseminds.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wyseminds.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wyseminds.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3790"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/wyseminds.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3790\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3792,"href":"https:\/\/wyseminds.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3790\/revisions\/3792"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wyseminds.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3793"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wyseminds.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3790"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wyseminds.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3790"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wyseminds.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3790"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}