Innovation

The innovation emerged around 5 years ago when founder and visionary April Burrows became determined to create a social enterprise that would better support services for businesses as well as the local community. After finishing a job as general manager with a consulting company, Ms. Burrows was determined to pursue her vision of creating a more value-driven business that is also involved in improving the community, as she believed that her vision to “do business whilst creating good is a powerful business model” that will have a good impact on society. Consequently, Ms. Burrows — together with her co-founder, who has experience in virtual assistance — began to contact those who would be interested in joining their team and would bring a particular skill set to offer clients. Thus, FLOW Office Wisdom was created as a triple-bottom-line company, before later becoming a B Corporation.

The innovation relates to the purpose of empowering society. They do this through their holistic approach of helping companies do better and run more efficiently because, as April states, “when we can help companies do better, they are doing more good in the world.” The mission to better society and tackle issues such as reducing inequalities, taking care of the environment, and creating sustainable communities allows FLOW to “vicariously change the world through the companies [they] work for, creating a good impact and moving things forward.”

Inspiration

FLOW Office Wisdom started out as an idea to help serve the community. This idea began in September 2011. April Burrows was talking to a friend and was about to leave her general manager role at a management consulting firm. April had been in management roles for most of her career, so it was natural for her to start a management consulting firm that incorporated social values in FLOW’s work.

The motivation behind creating FLOW was to help the community. April had reached a plateau with her work before FLOW and wanted to be more involved in the community. She tried to sell the idea that they should do something to serve the community, but it did not work out, so she decided to part ways. After leaving, she reached out to all her contacts about her idea to serve the community. She found a business partner and some workers shortly after. April stated “the company naturally came together; people looking for jobs got jobs, and that was what we based our services on.” FLOW has grown from helping the local community to supporting global causes aimed at empowering women and promoting gender equality.

Overall impact

Turning into a B Corporation had a positive impact on the business. As Ms. Burrows said, “It aligned with our goals and values;” it was a purposeful switch and aligned with them as entrepreneurs with a vision of doing more. It essentially gave more purpose to the already rewarding work they were doing and allowed them to be more active in their communities. Switching their business from a triple-bottom-line focus to a B Corporation helped their image. As Ms. Burrows says, “It was always hard to explain our business as a triple bottom line.” The impact they had on society was educating others about B Corporations. They also created an event, "Hooping for Hunger," as well as many other cause-related events. Hooping for Hunger strives toward the goal of raising funds and awareness of chronic persistent hunger on both a local and global scale. Their company has made an impact with their work in Ghana and Madagascar to help create communities that can sufficiently sustain themselves after 3 years.

One short-term effect was the community engagement through the Hooping for Hunger event. Ms. Burrows stated this about the community: “We are creating an impact through them...we’ve helped move things forward.” They created the event and were able to raise a significant amount of money. In the long term, she says that the event was able to “even carry on without, we even helped with the website.” Also with their collaborative work in Ghana and Madagascar, they were able to help create “completely self-sustaining communities in Ghana,” stated Ms. Burrows. The concrete evidence of the impact is that in the three communities in Africa, they have helped with creating a stable and sustainable lifestyle. FLOW raised $10,000 last year and is well on their way to reaching $15,000 for the upcoming year. FLOW Office Wisdom has made a big impact on its community and world in a short amount of time.

Business benefit

The benefit that FLOW Office Wisdom provides to the societal and business world is the ability to operate on a triple-bottom-line philosophy where they are continually aware of their environment, community, and economic impact. Further, they are an accredited B Corporation and Social Enterprise that seeks to empower individuals to get their plans in motion and make a difference for all. As found on the website for FLOW Office Wisdom, a B Corporation is “a global initiative of businesses working together to create positive change. They are required to meet high-performance standards in the areas of social and environmental performance, public transparency, and legal accountability. B Corporations are committed to considering all stakeholders, not just shareholders.” Conducting the interview with April allowed our group to understand what occurs on a normal business day for a B Corporation such as FLOW. They all work from home and do their part to cut down on transportation costs and office supply usage and to take any other mindful actions they can do to support sustainability in the community.

An example of how FLOW is benefiting the community would be through their upcoming initiative to support women who are being released from prison with no support upon entry to society. They found that many men have support systems lined up once they have been released that allow for a swift transition back to normal life, while many women are not prepared or do not have the proper assistance needed from others. FLOW would like to be the support system that they need and search for ways to integrate them back into society.

Through the use of the B Corporation webpage and networks that FLOW Office Wisdom has established, they can reach out to other B Corporations by connecting via e-mail, chat board, or even Skype. This allows them to have the opportunity to share ideas for sustainability, assist in local issues the other B Corporations are facing, or ask for help themselves. FLOW Office Wisdom stresses their ability to assist in the Guelph community by doing business differently, where the main goal is to have a sustainable balance for the triple bottom line. FLOW Office Wisdom benefits the business world by supporting the vision others see for a better world and using their goal-driven motivation to, as they quote on their website, “get s#!% done.”

Social and environmental benefit

Despite the fact that FLOW is a for-profit organization, they still work actively to redefine the way businesses operate. The company represents a wide variety of administrative and back-office skills to help small to medium businesses achieve goals that focus on corporate social responsibility. In a sense, FLOW is working to vicariously change the world through other corporations. Their main goal beyond making profit is to end hunger, poverty, and the exploitation of the planet through the empowerment of women. The organization looks to inspire other businesses to have the same outlook when designing their business models. Sustainability should be incorporated into the plan, and FLOW Office Wisdom helps support businesses that make a conscious effort to do so. An example of this would be their engagement in The Hunger Project, an organization that directs its efforts toward ending world hunger. This is beneficial not only to FLOW itself but to the society that it and its clients operate in as well.

In terms of creating an economic benefit, “FLOW provides opportunities for women to work with businesses and not-for-profits striving to solve the world’s greatest challenges while simultaneously supporting their growth, development, and purpose and providing a fair wage." While societal benefits are a major goal for the organization, they are still a for-profit business that focuses on turning a greater profit year after year. In fact, FLOW has a long-term goal set for 2020 to reach an ascertained margin of profit. Profit is the lifeblood of industry; by trying to earn a greater profit and providing opportunities to others in similar industries, FLOW is contributing to the economy by keeping the money supply flowing.

Interview

April Burrows, Founding Partner