Business Design for Success in the 21st Century!
Realize the Value of becoming a Certified B-Corp – A Workshop Series
Calling all purpose driven entrepreneurs looking to maximize the social, environmental and financial benefits of your company while strengthening the social impact business community in Canada!
We invite you to apply to participate in the 4-part B Corp Assessment Workshop Series. This set of workshops will help your company reach and exceed the high bar set by the B Impact Assessment, providing you and your team with the tools and support you need to collaboratively design changes to your operations and business model that will
- Drive business value
- Improve your B Impact Score, and
- Provide a financial return for the investment required to make the necessary improvements.
The B Corp community is leading a global movement focused on using business as a force for good, and we want you to be a part of it. The B Corp Certification and Assessment process is a powerful way to measure & benchmark performance, communicate your company values, engage employees and join a supportive, passionate community. The rigorous B Impact Assessment sets a very high bar for companies and highlights the best of the best when it comes to social, environmental and economic impact.
The workshops will provide you with access to world-leading visual design and business case tools as well as expert enterprise coaching to help your company realize the full value from the effort you have already put in to complete the B Impact Assessment.
At the same time, the workshops will connect you with other purpose driven business leaders and existing Toronto B Corps, introducing you to the supportive and passionate B Corp business community in the region and around the world. This community is doing incredible work to change the definition and purpose of business, and provides an inspiring community that will enable you to maximize your impact and make new connections with possible values-aligned customers, innovation partners, local suppliers, investors and more.
The workshop series is being facilitated by Better My Business, a certified B-Corp and a project of members of the Strongly Sustainable Business Model Group, an initiative of the Strategic Innovation Lab at OCAD University, in collaboration with The Roots Collaborative, the Centre for Social Innovation (CSI), Hallbar.org and Sustainability Advantage. The workshop series is sponsored by the Business Development Bank of Canada (BDC).
Why You Should Attend:
- Gain clarity of where your business stands and what you need to innovate using the standards set out in the B Corp Assessment to make you company more competitive, driving your economic, social, and environmental performance
- Build the business case to justify the investment required to realize the benefits of improving your B Impact Score to decision makers and investors
- Learn how to use the powerful collaborative visual design tool, the Flourishing Business Canvas, to help align your entire organization around a shared-purpose
- Improve your ability to communicate with staff, customers and other stakeholders through a deepened understanding of your business model, allowing you to attract and retain values-aligned employees, customers and partners
- Get advice and support from experienced social enterprise coaches and consultants
- Become part of the vibrant and passionate world changing community of purpose driven entrepreneurs – the B Corp community
Who should and can participate?
If you are a passionate, purpose driven entrepreneur/business leader who is focused on creating social, environmental and economic impact with your company we encourage you to apply to participate in the workshops.
To attend:
- Your company must have completed the B Impact Assessment and know your B Impact Score before the workshop starts (a number out of 200).
- Your company must be an established enterprise; have been operating with your current business model and earning revenue for at least 1 year
- You should be keen to understand how to improve your score and the business value in making the required changes to your business.
- You should have any B Impact Assessment score; you may or may not have proceeded with B Corp Certification.
What You Can Expect
Duration: Over a six-week period in November 2017 to January 2018, the senior leadership team for your company will participate in 4 intensive workshops at the Centre for Social Innovation in Toronto.
Dates and Times:
- Tuesday, November 28 2017 – 4:00-8:00pm
- Wednesday, December 13 2017 – 4:00-8:00pm
- Wednesday, January 10 2018 – 4:00-8:00pm
- Wednesday January 24 2018 – 4:00-8:00pm
Location: Centre for Social Innovation – (The Bigger Bolder Room) 192 Spadina Avenue
Time Commitment: Your company must send at least 2 and may send up to 3 representatives to the workshops. You will be expected to complete approximately 2-4 hours of work between each workshop to accelerate your journey to realizing the financial, social and environmental value of becoming a Certified B-Corp.
The workshops will be hands on, with you and your team working directly on reviewing and designing innovations to your business model and operations, and the business case to justify the required changes. Pre-work will be provided for each workshop, giving your team the background, theory and reflection time you need to allow us to use our full time together in the workshops focused on hands-on design. You will be expected to complete 4 hours of work before each workshop.
Outcomes: By the end of the workshop series you and your team will have:
- Gained a more complete understanding of your enterprise’s current business model and how that relates to your B Impact Score using the Flourishing Business Canvas, a collaborative visual design tool.
- Collaboratively designed potential changes and quantified the business case for investing in the improvements to your business performance and B Impact Score.
- Prioritized and determined an implementation plan for key changes to drive business value and improve your B Impact Score.
- Connected with other social purpose businesses, members of the Toronto B Corp community, the Business Development Bank of Canada and CSI Toronto.
Cost: With the generous support of BDC and CSI the workshop series is being held with a significantly discounted cost. The cost per company for the full workshop series is only $200!
How to Apply
Please fill out this short expression of interest form. (Applications have closed.) The facilitation team will then reach out to confirm details and get a sense from you as to how the workshops will fit with your goals.
We will be able to accommodate a maximum of 12 companies in the workshop series to ensure each company will receive adequate consulting support and coaching from the team.
All expressions of interest must be submitted at latest by November 6, 2017.
Any questions? Please send an email to info@bettermy.biz and we will get back to you as soon as we can!
