Several years ago author and speaker Rob Bell was invited to attend an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting as a support person — and it forever changed his life. He later wrote about his experience;
“As the people went around the room and told their stories, the gears in my mind turned as fast as they could, trying to figure out and name what it was about the meeting that was so different from any other gathering I’d ever been to.
Slowly it dawned on me what it was. I was in a bullshit free zone.
As I sat there, it was as if I could see, really see, for the first time, just how much time and energy and effort we expend making sure that everybody knows how strong, smart, competent, together, and good we are.
It’s hard to see just how much that posturing consumes us — until you’re in a room where it is absent — a room where people aren’t doing any of that because they are giving their energies to admitting their powerlessness.”
My job title is Corporate Social Responsibility Manager for the adventure brand Kathmandu.
As such, I spend my time focused on ethical and sustainable sourcing in the face of the major social and ecological challenges our global community is facing.
When it comes to trying to change the world, admitting our powerlessness seems like the wisest and most honest place to start.
In keeping with that honesty, I would like to call bullshit on a few things. Not because it is fashionable or risque to do so, but because by doing so we have the opportunity to see and do things differently.
RESPONSIBILITY
As Albert Einstein famously said, we cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them. In other words a new mindset (a new way of seeing) is necessary as we seek to find solutions to challenges that our old mindset created.
Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is an attempt by a private company or publicly listed corporation to take some responsibility for the wider social and environmental issues within which it does business.
I believe CSR is a completely ineffective, inauthentic and outdated paradigm.
“Responsibility” — is typically experienced as an externally imposed duty, burden or obligation that we are required to fulfill.
How many of us enjoyed being told by our parents or teachers to do something because it was our “responsibility!”
How many of us as adults like being told what we have to do?
As long as CSR is externally imposed, it will always be something we reluctantly feel obligated to comply with. It will be a burden. A duty to fulfill.
It relies on extrinsic (external) motivation, the root of which is fear.
Fear that if I don’t do this thing that I am responsible for, I will feel bad, I will look bad, I will be punished in some way and, in the context of sustainable and ethical sourcing, it will damage my business and my brand.
Unsurprisingly then, most CSR is focused on “social compliance” and “auditing”.
Audits and compliance have their place and are an important part of ethical sourcing.
But audits are limited and are typically not designed to assess or measure many of the social challenges that threaten the wellbeing of workers in vulnerable circumstances — such as bullying and abuse, sexual harassment, forced labor and other forms of modern slavery.
The existing CSR paradigm leads to the policing of our suppliers, which in turn has spawned a billion dollar auditing industry, plagued by deception and corruption.
Auditing is then a cat and mouse game where suppliers hire consultants to help them fake the necessary information so they can pass an audit that their business depends on having.
Auditing and compliance has not ensured ethical and sustainable sourcing or facilitated genuine improvements in the protection and wellbeing of those workers who are the most vulnerable part of our businesses and brands.
A new model is necessary as we seek to find solutions to challenges that our old mindset created.
A model that is filtered by a new mindset, transparency and partnership.
MINDSET
In his book Start with Why, Simon Sinek argues that average companies start with a focus on what they do, the thing they sell or the service they provide.
In contrast, great companies start with why they do what they do; their identity and their purpose. Their values provide clarity on how they will operate and only lastly do they focus on their particular product or service.
The critical difference is that by starting with your why or company purpose, you are tapping into who you are and your internal motivation.
There is growing evidence that only those businesses who are clear on their why, on their purpose, will thrive in the years to come.
It seems clear that the modern consumer is looking to support companies that are focused on purpose and profit — not one at the expense of the other.
Most businesses started because in one way or another they wanted to add value to people or planet and be profitable in doing so. But once job security and fear take over, it is so very human that we forget our original reason for being.
The purpose of Kathmandu, why the company was created, is to inspire and equip the adventurer in all of us. What that means is the company exists to inspire people to step into the unknown, embrace risk and face their fears. It is essentially a statement of belief that there is a courageous person in all of us waiting to be unleashed upon the world, and our purpose is to inspire and equip you in doing so! THAT is an inspiring purpose!
“All of us” means everyone. Our customers, our staff and the workers in our global supply chain who make our stuff.
Once we got clarity on our purpose, we became internally motivated. Now the wellbeing of the workers in our supply chain is not our responsibility. Their wellbeing falls within our purpose, the reason we were created and therefore within our ability to respond.
Now our freely chosen response is not based on fear, but on our true identity as a brand, our values as a company and our freedom to respond to the world in which we do business.
Now showing up on their behalf is an authentic expression of who we are — and so we do so with a desire and an intention that is genuine.
THAT changes everything.
TRANSPARENCY
Businesses put a lot of energy, time and investment into developing awesome products and bringing them to market.
But if child labor or modern slavery was involved in the making of those products, how good are they really? What risk do those products now pose to the value of the company? What does it say about who the company is and the brand the company is inviting their customers to be a part of?
At Kathmandu we decided that if child labor or modern slavery is present in the making of any of our products, it doesn’t matter how amazing the products are or how much profit they make; they are bullshit products.
Human exploitation and planetary degradation thrives in the hidden places. Having transparency in the supply chain is therefore key and an emerging norm. Consumers, civil society groups and investors are all increasingly wanting to know where their stuff is produced and who made it.
There is also increased legislation such as the California Transparency in Supply Chains Act, the U.K. Modern Slavery Act and the Australian Modern Slavery Act, all designed to drive transparency in recognition that supplier information can enable workers and their advocates to play a role in protecting their basic human rights.
Some still resist the idea of publishing their global supply chain for fear that others will be able to see the dirt hiding there.
Many of us are still held captive to our corporate egos, afraid to say that we are in fact imperfect.
Yet as we all know, if you have a global supply chain, it is not a question of whether you have some imperfections — but where they are and how bad they are.
Owning and being honest about our imperfections is critical if we are ever going to have an ethical and sustainable supply chain.
Author and Professor Brene Brown and other researchers like her have confirmed through their work that it is our willingness to be vulnerable and admit and own our imperfections that builds trust.
Paradoxically this is the very trust that businesses all hope to instill in their staff, customers and investors.
The good news is that if you are aligned in both your purpose and your profit, transparency now becomes your shield.
You want the imperfections to be exposed. Why? Because you are solid in your identity and purpose, you are unafraid of external scrutiny, and you are already invested in proactively identifying imperfections so you can get better. Now when your imperfections come to light through whatever means, you can address them and improve as a result, because that is who you are.
AN INVITATION TO CHANGE
The courage required by the business community to be transparent about our imperfections will however also require a major mindset shift in civil society groups, NGOs and the media.
In New Zealand, like many other cultures, we can be quick to judge and to shame. We are the land of “the tall poppy syndrome”. We sometimes delight in seeing the imperfections in others because it somehow makes us feel better about ourselves. And so we can be quick to cut each other down, especially those companies we can so easily villainize, making profit at the expense of people.
The NGO and the media community can sometimes be the worst at this.
Social Scientists like Brene Brown have shown through repeated evidence based research, that nothing good ever comes from shame. Shame is never helpful or productive and in fact shame is far more likely to be the source of destructive, hurtful behaviour, than the solution.
The courageous transparency required to effectively address modern slavery and other challenges in our supply global chains will require the support and the applause of NGOs and the media, not their criticism or shaming.
When a corporate entity is open and transparent about the imperfections that exist in their supply chain and an NGO or media representative uses a name and shame approach, they are fueling the very deception that in turn drives the injustice they seek to abolish. And this, once again, is bullshit.
The invitation to NGOs and the media is to end the use of shame as a tool for social change. Instead look for ways to celebrate the transparency and vulnerability of a company when they admit they are imperfect, when they don’t have all the answers, but demonstrate through their words and their actions that they are committed to figuring it out and doing the right thing.
PARTNERSHIP
To be completely frank, when it comes to addressing the present challenges in a global supply chain, none of us know what we are doing. It has never been done before. We are all figuring it out as we go along.
If the United Nations and the combined weight of global governments working together cannot adequately address gender inequality, unfair wages and modern slavery, as well as overcome the many cultural barriers that exist between nations, why do we think our company should be able to navigate any of these challenges successfully?
We are not that good. And the good news is, we don’t have to be.
But by working together in partnership with others, anything is possible. It is called the collaborative advantage.
Our CSR Program is built on strategic partnerships with suppliers who share and respect our values — and we incrementally cease doing business with those who do not and who demonstrate no intention to change.
It means working with supply chain partners who equip and empower us to go beyond auditing and access innovative ways of assessing and addressing worker wellbeing. Critically they provide us with people on the ground who have the experience and cultural understanding to communicate with management and workers effectively.
The Fair Labor Association provides us with guidance on how to improve, the tools to do so and a pathway to follow in implementing best practices. Our partnership with them allows us to address issues that we cannot influence alone. Similarly, by working with the local and international NGO community we can make an impact in areas that are beyond our skill set and immediate focus.
Ethical and sustainable sourcing is only possible if businesses can get over their corporate egos and work together to the benefit of all. This includes working with other brands and in some cases, direct competitors.
A NEW HOPE
In addressing ethical supply chain challenges, one of the limitations of CSR and all ethical sourcing programs is that although well meaning, they are aimed at treating the symptoms of the problem rather than tackling the underlying cause: the very nature of the existing business model.
Authors Boersma and Nolan state in their book Addressing Modern Slavery, that unless there is a significant change in the way we see (our mindset) and operate as corporate entities, none of our CSR strategies are going to work. They argue convincingly that a fixation on making a profit is what ultimately drives down costs and legitimizes cutthroat competition among suppliers. This scenario creates the ideal conditions within which modern slavery can thrive.
That is one of the reasons Kathmandu became a B-Corp.
Benefit Corporations (B-Corps) are a new kind of business that balances purpose and profit. They are legally required to consider the impact of their decisions on all their stakeholders including customers, suppliers, workers, the community and the environment; to benefit more than just the bottom line.
It changes the focus from being the best in the world (which is all about us and our ego), to being the best for the world. B-Corps and other like minded initiatives are now a rapidly growing community of leaders, driving a global movement of people using business as a force for good.
We have a unique opportunity in a post COVID world to create a new mindset and a new business model based on transparency and partnership; harnessing the combined weight and leverage of the private sector to radically transform our global village.
It is not our responsibility, but it is very much within our ability to respond.
The very real threat of social and planetary collapse has hopefully made it clear that maintaining the “business as usual” model is both destructive and delusional.
Some might even say bullshit.
