Branson's Plan B for business

Ever get the feeling that change is in the wind? That caring for the environment and society is becoming more and more mainstream – something that everyone, even big business, is starting to think about?

Don’t worry, it’s not just wishful thinking. A few weeks back some of the biggest names in global industry came together to declare that – in short – it’s time for the financial world to pull finger and start valuing people and planet alongside profit.

That’s not a new idea – but what is new is the way it’s coming from capitalism’s core.

The group calls itself The B Team (the idea being that the world needs a ‘Plan B’ for business, seeing as ‘Plan A’ – the single-minded pursuit of profit – has been so damaging thus far) and is made up of 14 heavy-hitting leaders from business and politics.

If you’re a little sceptical about the chances 14 people have of turning around the problems that big business has dumped on society – sweatshops, climate change, deforestation and so on – then consider for a moment the heft of two of its founding members.

Sir Richard Branson heads up Virgin Group, a global conglomerate that turns over $27 billion a year, while cofounder Jochen Zeitz is CEO of a $16 billion luxury goods group. Factor in the influence wielded by the other members – Paul Polman, CEO of Unilever ($85 billion); former president of Ireland Mary Robinson, and Arianna Huffington of the Huffington Post Media Group to name a few – and you start to see that The B Team has a fighting chance of succeeding where so many others have failed.

The Kiwi connection

Guiding this group is a New York-based management team led by young New Zealander Derek Handley. The founding CEO of The B Team, Derek laughs when Green Ideas quizzes him about the number of New Zealanders involved in the project.

“I guess it’s partly coincidence,” he says. “We want to build a global team – it’s just Kiwi-heavy at the moment.” (see below).

Derek’s role with The B Team started in 2011 on a couch in Richard Branson’s home in the Caribbean. Derek, then aged 33, had just sold a company he founded called Hyperfactory in a multi-million dollar deal. Suddenly cashed-up, he booked himself a ticket on one of Branson’s future Virgin Galactic space flights, which saw him invited to Richard’s annual astronaut’s party on his private island. There, he somehow wound up on the couch with the famous businessman, sharing a wine.

An intensely driven entrepreneur himself, Derek had recently been questioning everything he knew about the business world he thrived in. In a profound turnaround he’d decided to devote a year of his life to making the world a better place – without knowing how to do it – and confessed his aspirations to Richard.

“I told him I was going to do this anyway,” says Derek. “Giving a year of my life to the intersection of doing good and doing well, and he said ‘we’ve got this idea’. At the end of the wine we’d done the deal.”

Within a day Derek was on his way to Africa with Richard on his private jet – and a few months later, with businessman and philanthropist Jochen Zeitz, they created The B Team, with the lofty goal of creating a future where business becomes a driving force for social, environmental and economic benefit.

Reaching a tipping point

Changing the way the money makers of Wall Street do business may seem like a daunting task for Derek and The B Team leaders, but it’s clear to them that now is the time for action. “We accept that the current way of doing business is broken,” said Richard at the launch. “One of the key issues that has contributed to the problems of today’s world is the single-minded pursuit of financial profit at the expense of everything else.”

Yet that system can and will change, the B leaders believe. As Strive Masiyiwa, founder and chairman of Econet Wireless and one of the chosen 14, put it: “Studies have shown that when just 10 per cent of a population hold an unshakeable belief, their belief can form a threshold to tip the majority to follow.

“We believe we can push past the tipping point into an unprecedented era of sustainable, inclusive prosperity for our planet and the people everywhere.”

Working out the details

Good intentions are one thing, but the devil, they say, is in the detail. How on earth does The B Team intend to transform business?

In a statement released at its launch in June the group said it will start by addressing three initial challenges – defining the future of business reporting, the future of incentives, and the future of leadership.

The team has reached out with an international call for submissions of ideas around these challenges which in New Zealand are being handled through the Sustainable Business Network (SBN). Anyone who’d like to get their ideas on those topics to The B Team’s New York office can contact Julia Jackson at SBN on [email protected]. And although all ideas are welcome, the B Team has asked specifically for inspiration on the following three questions:

1. How might The B Team help amplify or catalyse what you are already doing in your organisation as part of a Plan B for business?
2. What are the most transformative, scalable and systemic solutions that could advance the three challenges we have announced?
3. As part of a Plan B for business, we need to reflect on what the fundamental role of business is for people and the planet. If you could add one statement to new a charter that redefines the purpose of business, what would it say?

For New Zealand companies, supporting The B Team’s efforts is a chance to get in on the ground floor with a movement that’s working to shape the future of business.

And for those who’ve felt for some time that change is in the wind, it’s exciting to know that some of the planet’s biggest brands agree: it’s time for Plan B.

Kiwis in The B Team

A core of Kiwis are helping bring Sir Richard Branson’s vision for better, fairer business to life.

Derek Handley – Founding CEO

Derek is an entrepreneur and founder of The Hyperfactory. He went to Selwyn College in Kohimarima, Auckland and graduated from Victoria University, Wellington with a degree in architecture and finance. Recent ventures include publishing his first book, Heart to Start, chairing NZAX listed company Snakk Media, being made an adjunct executive professor for AUT University in Auckland and signing up as a future astronaut on Virgin Galactic.

Jo Kelly – Chief of Staff & Stories

Jo is chief of staff and stories with The B Team. Her background is in film and advertising production, and she has created stories and ads for some of the world’s most recognised brands. Jo grew up in Wellington, where she studied commerce at Victoria University. She now lives in New York, where she studies at AYNY (Ashtanga Yoga New York).

Charlotte Burson – Team Assistant

Charlotte grew up in and around Auckland. She studied at the University of Auckland and holds a bachelor’s degree in political studies and environmental ethics. Prior to working for The B Team, Charlotte lived in Toronto, Canada and worked as the public engagement coordinator for The Leprosy Mission. In another life she would be a photographer.

Rebecca Mills – Strategist

Rebecca founded an Auckland-based sustainability strategy consultancy in 2009. Prior to this she led the development of sustainability standards for the UK’s first eco-region, the Thames Gateway and an assessment of Europe’s largest regeneration site, Greenwich Peninsula. Rebecca was also part of the core design team for energy and sustainability strategies for London’s 2012 Olympic Park.

Jessica Desmond – Digital Consultant

Jessica is a graduate of the University of Auckland where she studied marketing and international business. Prior to working for The B Team Jessica spent several years working for Auckland-based digital agency Gravitate, is a cofounder of Luumin and a Radio Lollipop volunteer at Starship Children’s Hospital.

From Parnell to the world

Another New Zealand sustainability project with links to Sir Richard Branson – though not actually part of The B Team – has the ambitious goal of slashing the CO₂ emissions of air travel.

Kiwi company LanzaTech, based in the Auckland suburb of Parnell, recently signed an agreement with airline Virgin Atlantic on the supply of jet fuel created by bacteria.

LanzaTech cofounder and chief scientific officer Sean Simpson (pictured) explains how their innovative process captures greenhouse gases from steel mills, feeds it to tanks full of bacteria, and produces ethanol which is then converted into fuel for the airline industry.

“It’s like sticking a brewery onto the side of a steel mill,” he says.

The system reduces greenhouse gas emissions by an independently proven 50-70 per cent, and has the added benefit of reducing other pollutants created by the steel industry.

“Aviation and sustainability do not have to be a contradiction in terms,” wrote Sir Richard Branson in a blog about LanzaTech. “Hopefully the dream of the aviation industry being one the cleanest industries one day can be a reality.”