Intimacy, Relationship, Focused Prpose: Bualancing passion, purpose and relationship for an abundant life!
-Anna, Breitenbush Hot Springs, OR
Blending Value & Blurring Lines
-By Angel True
Remember that old adage "If you want to receive love then give it away"? Well that's the foundation of the next big evolution in business!
The idea behind that adage about love is that to create more abundance you must first be willing to give some of it away. How that's emerging in the business world is a concept called "blended values" that combines both revenue-generation (profit) with social-value generation (non-profit). The model isn't so much a new idea on how to make money as much as it's a new model for conscious business creation…and the way the economy is changing. The reality though is that it is becoming a powerful force for incredible profit and incredible change!
To put it into context consider the terms "eco-friendly" and "socially conscious" which have been used for at least a decade. These terms are used to describe businesses that changed their products and practices to be environmentally friendly or less impactful than the industry standard as well as compassionate and concerned with employee or supplier success and fair compensation. These terms have become so ubiquitous that most small businesses are claiming these standards and even going so far as to make the effort to have a zero carbon footprint or be very selective in sourcing and building their products. In many markets it's almost become a standard that marks the successful businesses and lets them stand out and thrive.
Blended values brings in not just the eco-friendly and socially conscious concepts almost as an assumption but it blurs the traditionally separated roles of the for-profit and non-profit worlds. This blending can happen in a variety of ways including:
1. For-profit business funding non-profit activities
2. Non-profit motivations creating not-just-for-profit businesses
3. For-profit and non-profit businesses becoming intertwined in the business
generation and social value creation
Each of these models brings a slight different model into existence but each method is tying the importance and necessity of this business transition to the equal weight of revenue and social value. The impact this is having on the success of the businesses is phenomenal though.
In an economy where eco-friendly and socially conscious are often assumed for successful business creation these blended values companies are not only gaining in popularity but gaining in stability as well. When the revenue and social values are linked customers become integrally involved in seeing the business succeed and this is almost always a good thing for businesses!
Blended values businesses actually have several advantages over traditional businesses. By engaging the social community, they gain a significant following and customer base. In addition to building this customer base some blended values companies are even creating the market which they serve in a for-profit perspective. By passing off this market creating function to the non-profit portion of the business they create the opportunity for both grants and other community funding to help support this portion of the market, as well as performing some portions of the business with lower overhead and no taxes. The ability to build the market through non-profit social value generating activities can create a substantially more stable, more effective, more beneficial and revenue-generating business than the traditional just-for-profit counterparts.
Rather than being subject to business cycles that ebb and flow with the economy, the blended values business model not only generates more loyal following and customer base but it can actually create the micro-economy it seeks to profit from. The possibility this creates for blended values businesses are rather important, of course and can be felt as reverberations not just in the social sector but in the business economy as a whole.
The question for businesses today is how do you grow or convert to the blended values model and begin generating the new economic success? The first step is understanding what is important to you and how you want to change or improve society. The next step is changing your mentality from "make money" to "create value". After that it can pretty much be business as usual!