iii) Customers

iii) Customers

“People are starting to make decisions with their pocketbook as to who they want to buy from. They’re going to map their values, both personal and societal, on those companies and make decisions based on that.” – Elizabeth Cannon, President Emerita and Professor of Engineering at the University of Calgary

Customers arguably wield a lot of power to demand change from the business community. After all, if a business does not have any customers, it will not last very long. A part of the Survey Participants says customers are starting to base choices on whether they feel a business is as concerned about communities and stakeholders’ well-being as it is about generating profits.

Some Survey Participants speak about how this has changed over time. John Bragg, President and Co-CEO of Oxford Frozen Foods Limited says that nowadays on a sales call with a potential business client, it is not just the financial people attending on behalf of the client. The businesses they are trying to land as clients now have people in charge of sustainability join the meetings to ask questions with respect to things other than price. John Bragg admits questions around sustainability were not always asked in the past.

John Manley adds, “Not everyone buys on price alone. And not all goods are without differentiation. So, to the degree that you can differentiate yourself, you can demand a better price.”

Bernard Lord admits that you need to have good quality products and services to be competitive but, all else being equal, clients will choose a business because of its purpose and impact. Additionally, Sean Drygas is of the opinion that a purpose-driven business will enjoy more loyalty from its customers.

At the same time, it is the opinion of a number of Survey Participants that customers are not applying the ultimate pressure point at their disposal – their purchase choices. When asked if customers are applying pressure, Shayna Bleeker answers, “In voice, certainly. Not sufficiently enough with where our dollars are going now. There are pockets of very committed, values-aligned behaviour - that’s not the majority though. The majority are wanting convenience, they’re wanting affordability.” Michael McCain adds, “Consumers say that they care about climate change but are still very sensitive to price.”

A few Survey Participants argue that this behaviour is induced from an economic system built on an overvaluation of money, the need for perpetual growth, and an addiction to consumerism. Zita Cobb, Canadian businessperson and social entrepreneur, puts it simply, “If you are overvaluing money, you’re going to buy the cheapest t-shirt.” Customers + Consumers + Clients

Throughout the interview process, Business Leaders generally answer questions that pertain to this subject from the viewpoint of their businesses’ customers, while Accelerators, in general, speak of consumers. At times, Business Leaders speak of clients – often this is when the Business Leader leads an organization with more of a business-to-business model.

For the purposes of this report, the term Customers embodies the terms Consumers and Clients.

For those who want consumers to apply pressure on businesses to engage more on societal issues, there are reasons for optimism. The majority of Survey Participants are of the view that ‘Customers’ are applying pressure. Plus, Max Koeune, the President and CEO of McCain Foods, thinks that five years or so ago no one cared if a business was purpose-driven or not. He believes that customers are now in more of a reward state of mind: meaning customers will reward a business for being purpose-driven, but not necessarily penalize one for not being purpose-driven. Nonetheless, Max Koeune is of the opinion that this is changing and that customers will demand purpose-driven businesses in the future. Taking it one step further, Martin LeBlanc anticipates that “most companies that interact with the public at large will need to be seen to be more environmentally and socially responsible to continue to sell.”

With customers being so crucial to businesses, it will be imperative for business leaders to stay on top of the wishes of their patrons and ensure their organizations will be able to meet their ever-expanding expectations. DEEPER DIVE: Customers’ Pressure

In a deeper dive it becomes evident that ‘Employees’ are the ones that are seen to be applying the most pressure on business leaders to step up and engage on societal issues. As noted above in figure 10, 70% of Survey Participants identify ‘Employees’ and 55% mention ‘Customers’. When comparing the Business Leaders and Accelerators groups (below), the frequency in which ‘Employees’ is raised is statistically about the same (68% and 73% respectively) while the frequency in which ‘Customers’ is put forward is 22 percentage points lower amongst the Business Leaders group compared with the Accelerators group (47% and 69% respectively). Further, the data suggests that the Accelerators are a tad overly optimistic on the number of stakeholders applying pressure on business leaders. Considering the percentage of each group that respond ‘All of the above’, it seems as though the Accelerators group believe business leaders are being pressured by all stakeholders (42% respond ‘All of the above’) more so than the Business Leaders themselves (26% respond ‘All of the above’).

Even further, when the response ‘All of the above’ is extracted, the percentage of the Business Leaders group which brings up ‘Customers’ goes down significantly while the percentage explicitly naming ‘Employees’ remains strong. A striking 42% of the Business Leaders group identifies ‘Employees’ as applying pressure on businesses which is the largest percentage of any of the stakeholders mentioned by either one of the groups. Potentially surprising to some who monitor social media and often see customers apparently applying pressure on businesses to be purposeful; according to the Business Leaders group, not all businesses feel pressure from their ‘Customers’. The percentage of Business Leaders explicitly naming ‘Customers’ (21%) is half that of the percentage explicitly naming ‘Employees’ (42%).