Do you think about social responsibility when you're building your company?
I think about social responsibility a lot in my work, and I feel that many founders and solo-entrepreneurs are interested in not just making profit, but in doing something good at the same time... but I'm aware this might be an entirely untested bias of my own.
So what I'd like to know is: do you think about your (and your company's) social responsibility whilst you're building your business?
This could be anything from being more eco-friendly, to fair pay, to open-source and ethically written code, to privacy.
I've got a landing page up and running on Carrd, but what I'd really like to know is: is this something you're thinking about?
I'm researching this as part of our building 7 SaaS companies in a day project that the whole team is taking part in today - you can see more about that here!
I think if people have the opportunity to do something good they'll take it. But there has always been a balance between cost/benefit (benefit being in this case, social good). For example, an electric car some time ago might have been a less practical option (high cost), so it would have only appealed to someone who took that benefit seriously enough. Now we see that the cost/benefit for an electric car as maybe a slightly higher or even neutral cost (how practical they are), and people are incentivised by this. If we can identify those areas of our lives that are similar (i.e. the cost/benefit calculation works), then we can keep moving the Overton window on this issue.
I think the call to action here is where people can see a social good AND a business benefit. And that is the area that needs to be focused on. I can only speak of my personal opinion and I know that there is a broad range of views on this topic.
Good luck with your research.
I think, if you want to build a business, helping people in a genuine social way is the only way to do it. So yes, social responsibility is always in the back of my mind.
Especially if we take the topic a bit wider.
The millennial generation, currently the largest workforce out there (and with it often our customer) are quite renown about being socially involved. They want to feel connected, relatable to a brand. And with it, they also developed this special spam filter for companies who try to sell just to make money.
really well put, thanks Maeva!
Yes, that's probably the largest motivation for me. My site is an attempt to reduce disease burden and ecological devastation by showing people how to eat a healthier / less destructive diet.
Amazing, can you share a link?
Yup, it's scientificmealplanner.com
Yes. I did this for my last company, mostly aiming to do what I felt was right and what was within my reach. It often meant turning down money or being less profitable, but I'm perfectly ok with that.
Thanks Rosie. I think that's it right - because the opposite is that you took those deals or were more profitable BUT felt uncomfortable with yourself for doing so.
I really believe that when given the chance (and resources!) most people would choose to do the right thing. It's packaging that up to feel less daunting and not like something that will hold you back - but as something that will push you forwards!
Which I do genuinely think is true. The world is changing and people, particularly in B2C, care about the morals of the company they buy from because it signals something about themselves.
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I think a lot of people see this as a blocker to committing to 'doing good' - but there are actually loads of ways you can be a 'better' business without it really costing you anything.
Thank you for the analogy though! Helpful to think about it against that metaphor.
This comment was deleted 4 years ago.