Written by: Vickie Sullivan | November 16, 2023
B2B Firms Must Anticipate the Impact They Have on Society
Last week’s Women’s Leadership Board meeting at Harvard Kennedy School hit on some tough subjects and had some hard truths for B2B firms.
In discussing social media’s role in spreading disinformation, Dr. Archon Fung, director of the Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation at the Kennedy School, explored the power of unintended impact. To paraphrase what he said: The people who created those platforms were focused on connectivity. They didn’t anticipate a business model where harvesting data to generate ad revenue would take engagement down a dark road. They focused on their impact and their intention, not on how others (and themselves later) would use their work to make money.
Fung’s observation: Moving from a company’s mission to the business model created gains for social media companies and bad actors, but it created longer-term losses for the rest of us. I call that damage creep.
What B2B Firms Can Do
Perhaps it’s time owners of B2B firms to look in the mirror and ask the same tough questions. In the race for growth, have we let others use our work to damage the greater good? If so, what is our plan in those situations? How do we prevent long-term damage to our own environment?
My hot take: The business model is our head. It decides where we show up and the structure of our offerings. It makes sure we are taken care of while we serve others. Our heart resides in our day-to-day decisions. It decides who we serve and how we show up. It dictates the experiences we create while serving. And it calls out bad behavior and uses those lessons to set up boundaries.
We can take care of ourselves without burning down the village in which we live. Let’s make sure our growth plans don’t override our mission.
Listen: How B2B Firms Can Prevent Damage Creep
Now Read This: