Hello and welcome to our second series of Green Elephant Better Business interviews.
Better Businesses, and especially B Corps, look beyond profit and strive to focus on social and environmental performance, public transparency, and legal accountability to balance profit with their purpose.
Throughout this series, we are chatting with key people in organisations that have chosen to work towards making themselves, or helpings others, run Better Businesses.
00:35 Interview with Nathan Stuck from Ad Victoriam Solutions
- 02:46 Elephant in the room question – What’s in the name Ad Victoriam?
- 03:28 Ad Vic the shortened story
- 04:39 Clearly American – Why a Georgia Fanatic?
- 06:42 “A drinking town with a music problem!“
- 06:53 A tree that owns itself!
- 07:00 and a double-barrelled cannon
- 08:29 How did the lecturing start?
- 11:50 How big is Ad Vic now?
- 12:17 Growth during lockdown!
- 13:30 Self-financing, no furloughs, no job or wage cuts and offers to recruits honoured
- 15:25 A bumpy road and wearing a lot of hats
- 16:13 Culture and Strategy impact – what does that mean?
- 18:28 B Corps is a “journey”
- 19:48 The spirit of knowing you’re not perfect
- 20:17 Community Builder?
- 20:45 What is a B Local?
- 22:20 Clarkston – the most diverse square mile in America!
- 25:42 Still a lot of work to do in the South East of the US
- 26:26 Busy doing stuff, not for Ad Vic!!!
- 28:13 What does Ad Vic do exactly?
- 32:05 Salesforce – not well-known for ethics and sustainability
- 33:10 Scoping emissions an opportunity
- 34:45 Not a huge supply chain to worry about
- 35:55 Currently focusing on diversity
- 37:18 Salesforce approach to M&A
- 38:55 Return on Investment needs to be measured differently
- 40:28 Milton Friedman was right on one point…
- 41:02 Gen Z and Millennial workforce impact
- 44:45 USA is far closer to the trading floor than the UK
- 45:42 “Problem with Americans – you all want to be multi-millionaires and think you will be one” – a changing generalisation
- 47:40 Ad Vic is taking a different route to success
49:32 Tip/Action
- Take action – make progress
- Just do the impact assessment
- Build goals with actionable strategies
- Talk to people who have opposing views with open discussion and practice radical empathy
52:36 Recommendation
Travels with Charley: In Search of America by John Steinbeck
60:01 Fact or Fake
- Nielsen study reported that 54% of global respondents feel strongly that companies should help improve the environment. (FAKE)
- Nielsen study reported that 81% of global respondents feel strongly that companies should help improve the environment. (FACT)
- And, Nielsen calculated a near-50% jump in sustainable product sales in 2020 compared to 2014.
- Nearly half of global respondents (49%) say they are inclined to pay higher-than-average prices for products with high-quality/safety standards. In North America that raised to more than 2/3 (69%) (FACT)
- According to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, shoppers in the U.S. alone will spend up to $150 billion on sustainable products by the end of 2021, or 25 percent of all goods sold (FACT)
Connect
Find Nathan Stuck and Ad Victoriam here:
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