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From HuffPost:
As someone who has championed open book management, employee ownership, and the Benefit Corporation Movement for the past several years — this week’s flood of accountability-driven stories within mainstream business have been encouraging to watch. In a world where 70 million North Americans identify as “conscious consumers” and 73 per cent of shoppers say they “care about the company — not just the product or service” — when making a purchasing decision, behavior like Blatter’s and Charney’s is (often) no longer tolerable for mainstream observers. Delivering profits is no longer enough. Charney and Blatter haven’t gotten worse. The public has simply begun to expect more.
While it is great to see these giant, global operations embrace the idea of accountability for their inner workings, true industry leaders aren’t being called to account after the fact — they are proactively pulling back the curtain to show the world what they are all about. This week’s announcement of social media giant Hootsuite’s B Corp Certification is a great example of exactly this sort of leadership.