Cloud Technology Solutions
Focus: Private equity-backed Google partner with £66m revenues
Date certified as B Corp: January 2023
Representative: Chris Bunch, Managing Director
Why did CTS want to become a B Corp?
I often say to people that our primary aim is to “build a company that we’re proud of”. B Corp plays a big part in that, as we can properly demonstrate (rather than just posture) that we’re doing the right things by the planet and the people that live on it.What’s your advice for other IT providers weighing up whether to follow your lead?
Make sure you’ve got someone passionate about the topic and strong on making things happen, as there’s a lot of scrapping about for data points
I’d encourage it, but only if you’re really going to value the recognition – it’s a lot of effort and work to get there, i.e. not just a tickbox exercise. Equally, there’s no point if you’re not going to try and grow further from your baseline and improve over the years. So, if you want to do it, because it feels like something close to your organisational culture, then go for it!
I’d also say to make sure you’ve got someone passionate about the topic and strong on making things happen, as there’s a lot of scrapping about for data points. In our case, the amazing Charlotte Batters hauled it over the line for us. Beyond that one person to pull it together though, you need a wider culture that wants to make a difference – otherwise I think you’re pushing water up a hill to coin an old phrase. We already had internal teams in place that work on the core B Corp areas – crucially because they want to.
What was the most challenging aspect of the certification process?
Probably the time to complete. It does use time and effort from various corners of your business and the elapsed time to complete is pretty long.
Is it worth it?
For us, yes. I feel it’s something we can be proud of as the most important item. But secondly it has value in recruitment, i.e. showing people we’re not a heartless corporate monster, and our customers and potential customers have also been impressed by it.
How long did the process take?
End to end, it probably took us about 18 months I’d say. That’s not constant work of course.
The key thing here though is that it’s not a one off. If you value it, you’ll want to be evolving and improving over the years and pushing your score up further and further.
Did you make any missteps or mistakes during the process?
I don’t think so, although we were less well prepared on how we vet suppliers for selection than we could have been.
If you value it, you’ll want to be evolving and improving over the years and pushing your score up further and further
What’s the biggest business benefit of becoming a B Corp?
I think the primary angle from a business perspective is one of external perception, i.e. the brand of CTS is enhanced by this association with B Corp which is becoming increasingly well known in the world, and certainly is in the UK.
What’s the biggest misconception around B Corps?
We’re all a bunch of pipe smoking hippies? More seriously, I asked Charlotte for her view: “A lot of people assume that B Corp is all about the environmental angles, when that’s only actually 1/5th of the framework. Along the same vein, people assume you have to be environmentally focused at your core (i.e. your business’ purpose and focus is to save the planet) – whereas it’s actually about businesses doing the right thing in a much broader sense.”
Were there any other comparable certifications you considered pursuing, and if so what made you plump for B Corp?
Not really in our case, albeit if I were the founder of a larger entity, I’d perhaps consider this: https://onepercentfortheplanet.org/
How much did certifying cost you, either in money or management time?
In cold hard cash, I’d guess around £10,000. In time…quite a lot more than that – but in our case, we’re happy it was well worth it, and we’ll keep striving to improve.
Doug Woodburn is editor of IT Channel Oxygen
