How to value the impact your business makes for competitive advantage

www.adrianashton.co.uk

introductions

I know why I’m here, but why are you?

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How do you get noticed?

• Marketplaces are crowded

• How do you strand-out? What is it about you that makes you attractive to your customers?

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Marketplaces are changing

• Consumers and customers becoming more ‘ethically aware’

• Rise of the ‘ethical pound’

• Introduction of Social Value Act

• Changes to regulatory reporting requirements (companies house, environment agency, etc)

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So how will you do it?

• Make up your own system or adopt an existing standard?

– Time– Complexity– Credibility

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Some of the options:

• AA1000• LiM• SROI• Social Accounting & Audit• LM3• Investors in People• ...

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AccountAbility 1000

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LIM tool

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SROI

• Identify stakeholders and impacts• Assign values to outcomes and recognise

‘deadweight’

- Useful to generate ‘headlines’ and understand how you’re valued by stakeholders

- Risk of inconsistent measures and values, not consulting all groups, not considering all variables

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Social Accounting & Audit

• Explores links between vision, mission, objectives, activities and values from internal and external perspectives

• Generates indicators appropriate to the enterprise

- Very comprehensive and seen by many as ‘ultimate’ and best model

- Difficult to compare report with others’Adrian Ashton

Local Multiplier 3 (LM3)

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Investors in People

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But do your customers care?

Lets take it as read that customers will like you if you can show how you’re making the wider world (as well as theirs) a better place...

- But what are the wider issues they care about?

Benefits of understanding your impacts in making decisions about your business as well...

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So what?

• Is this relevant to your marketplace?• Is there a clear option for how your business

can create social impacts of interest to your customers – and should you trade on these?

The risk of not doing anything and conducting ‘business as usual’...

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