Quite a few Survey Participants speak proudly of the goodwill they have built up with their communities as well as with civil society and how it helps their business. Moreover, a good proportion of the Survey Participants put forward the idea that a business that is there for its community will enjoy the support of the community when it goes through difficult times. Clarissa Desjardins, CEO of Clementia Pharmaceuticals, sums up this point of view succinctly when she says, “Goodwill is a real asset”. Hélène V. Gagnon argues the same principle applies to governments, “The government prefers to partner with businesses that are liked by the public.” For his part, former premier of New Brunswick and now CEO of Medavie in Moncton, Bernard Lord affirms that business and government clients alike want to partner with organizations that share their values. Several Survey Participants believe that businesses devoted to linking profit with purpose through creating and sharing value with their stakeholders will more easily obtain and maintain social licenses. As Michael Sabia points out, “A social license is a precious thing. What you do with it needs to be aligned with how [your stakeholders] think.” Comparatively, some Survey Participants describe how businesses that do not seek to link profit with purpose by creating and sharing value with their stakeholders could lose social licenses and find themselves with no stakeholders’ support during trying times. Marc-André Blanchard points out that in addition to legal and financial risks, there is now a risk that a business’ social license be revoked. He goes even further by stating a business could be facing new acute challenges and because it did not look to positively impact society during the good times, it will not be able to recover as there will be no one there to support it during the bad times.
ii) Employees “Employees always want to work for a company that they’re proud of.” – Senator Hassan Yussuff Frequently, Survey Participants stated that employees are applying immense pressure on businesses to espouse a purpose and values they believe in. Lisa Kimmel explains that “a business’ employees can be its biggest advocates or detractors – as we’re increasingly seeing the pressure that employees are taking in response to a company’s policies, decisions, and actions.” Of the Survey Participants, 70% state that ‘Employees’ are putting pressure on businesses to augment their engagement in solving societal issues. (‘Employees + ‘All of the Above’)
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