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#22: 🔥 B Corp Growth in the UK (w/ Chris Turner & Dyann Heward-Mills)

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What does it take for businesses to drive real, systemic change while ensuring inclusivity and equity? In this episode of Beyond the B, we explore how the B Corp movement in the UK is evolving to meet these needs with two leading voices: Chris Turner, Executive Director of B Lab UK and campaign director for the Better Business Act, and Dyann Heward-Mills, a UK-qualified barrister of Ghanaian origin and CEO of HewardMills.

Chris shares insights on the rapid growth of the UK’s B Corp community—expanding from 200 companies in 2019 to over 2,300 today—and the importance of fostering an inclusive and equitable business ecosystem. Dyann, one of the few Black female CEOs of a UK B Corp, highlights the need for diverse leadership and the role her company plays in championing data privacy and corporate social responsibility (CSR).

This conversation unpacks the increasing demand from young professionals for purpose-driven companies, the B Corp movement’s commitment to racial equity, and how the Better Business Act aims to embed stakeholder governance into UK company law. Chris and Dyann discuss the power of community, the challenges of scaling a values-driven movement, and the need for businesses to continuously evolve their leadership approach to create a truly regenerative economy. Tune in today!

Key Points From This Episode:

  • Dyann's journey from corporate law to leading a purpose-driven data protection firm.
  • Chris’ career trajectory from marketing to the tech sector to social enterprise to B Lab UK.
  • The history and growth of the UK B Corp movement, from 200 B Corps in 2019 to 2,300+.
  • Why fostering community within the B Corp network is key, especially during rapid growth.
  • HewardMills’ CSR initiatives, including programming and support for Black women and girls.
  • Ways that B Lab UK is intentionally centering racial equity in its growth strategy.
  • How the Better Business Act aims to embed stakeholder governance into UK company law.
  • The power of recognizing the blind spots in an organization and working to address them.
  • Evangelism by B leaders and other factors that have contributed to B Lab UK’s growth.
  • Growing demand from talented employees driving the movement’s acceleration in the UK.
  • Challenges of the new B Corp standards and the significant step forward they represent.
  • Redefining what leadership looks like in a dynamic and constantly evolving space.
  • How you can support the B Corp movement in the UK (and play golf with Dyann!)

Quotations:

“Hundreds of innovations would cross my desk every week or month, but I remember – B Corp because I remember thinking at the time, ‘This is an innovation which has – not just potential for businesses, but also potential at a much more systemic scale.'” — Chris Turner [0:09:19]

“[Community] is really important because you otherwise can feel quite isolated as a B Corp. For me, coming together and looking into the whites of each other's eyes and sharing experiences is so, so important.” — Dyann Heward-Mills [0:18:32]

“The way [B Lab UK sees] the B Corp community ultimately driving systemic change is by being a model of what good looks like. We want to build the vision in action of a better economic system.” — Chris Turner [0:30:10]

 “[Businesses] are just collections of people. One thing that absolutely has been at the heart of [the B Corp community’s] growth in the UK is brilliant people leading B Corps and showing us what good looks like.” — Chris Turner [0:43:47]

“When I look to the future, I can see why this movement is accelerating in the way that it has, especially in the multicultural, dynamic UK.” — Dyann Heward-Mills [0:46:57]

“We're constantly trying to understand what leadership looks like in a dynamic and evolving space shifting towards a new system [that] doesn’t yet exist at scale – We need to be learning every step of the way [to] change, get better, [and] raise the standards.” — Chris Turner [0:57:45]

Links Mentioned in Today’s Episode:

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