Our Theory Of Change
Competing in a race to the top
Responsible 100 is organised around the idea that our customs, expectations and norms can and must change, so that stakeholders are empowered to identify and reward the most responsible businesses, at the expense of irresponsible ones, thus creating a system of business in service to life.
That, in 46 words, is our theory of change! If we are to fix the way the world works, it will be by enabling businesses to compete in a race to the top, where the most responsible businesses are the most profitable, and where the laggards lose market share and ultimately fail.
Responsible 100’s mission is to give critical power and agency to people – as consumers, employees and investors – to identify and support the businesses competing in the race to the top. These are the businesses the world needs to succeed.
The world needs responsibility without wokeness
With all due respect to a growing number of brilliant voices arguing that societal and economic collapse is nigh, or indeed already here and well advanced, Responsible 100’s position is different.
Yes, we support the telling of the truth, and then acting as if the truth his real, to borrow XR’s brilliant line. Polycrisis is here. Nature is being destroyed and the fabric of society eroded by what we describe as “business as usual“.
We are unquestionably in a hot mess. But “doing responsibility” for any other reason than to improve your business and become more commercially successful takes us further backwards, not forwards.
A whole industry that has ballooned in recent decades whereby various activities under the aegis of ESG, CSR, ‘impact’ and ‘purpose’ have over–promised, and woefully under–delivered, as detailed in e.g. Survival of the Fittest: From ESG
to Competitive Sustainability, a recent discussion paper by the University of Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership
We all need food on the table, clothes on our backs and a roof over our heads. Obviously, no business can ever be perfect. But any business can do its very best in responding to the various social, environmental and ethical issues if faces, so that it can explain and justify everything it does.
This is, in effect, the process and support that Responsible 100 offers. No performance, no theatre, no greenwash. Just businesses explaining and justifying the thousands of trade offs and compromises they make, in getting their products and services to market, at the best price and quality, while maximising their net positive impacts on people and planet.
Any business can compete and prosper in the race to the top.