Fiona Ras-Jones, founder of Mission Works, supports businesses with a purpose and those who want one to deliver impact through profitably solving a social or environmental challenge. In this conversation, Fiona shares her journey from being awakened to social and environmental challenges in her early life, to taking action through exploring different paths. She discusses the challenges of scaling social enterprises and the need for support and infrastructure. Fiona also highlights the importance of purpose-driven businesses and the birth of Mission Works.

In this conversation, Fiona Ras-Jones discusses the B Corp movement and the importance of going beyond B Corp certification. She explains that B Corp is more than just a box-ticking exercise and highlights its comprehensive approach to social and environmental impact. Fiona also introduces Mission Works and the concept of mission-led businesses, which aim to profitably solve social or environmental challenges. She emphasises the need to define and measure the problem a business is trying to solve and offers advice on getting started with a radical idea.

Key Takeaways

• Mission Works supports businesses with a purpose to deliver impact through profitably solving a social or environmental challenge.
• There is a need for support and infrastructure to help social enterprises scale.
• Purpose-driven businesses have the potential to make a significant impact.
• Fiona's journey highlights the importance of being awakened to social and environmental challenges and taking action to create positive change.
• B Corp is a comprehensive certification that goes beyond social and environmental impact and includes governance, worker treatment, community engagement, and customer relations.
• B Corp should be seen as a starting point for businesses, not the end goal. There is much more beyond B Corp in terms of deep impact and continuous improvement.
• Mission-led businesses have a clearly defined and measurable problem they aim to solve, and they align their business model and strategy to achieve impact and profitability.
• When exploring a problem to solve, businesses should consider their unique abilities, industry expertise, customer needs, and social and environmental challenges within their industry.
• Mission-led businesses can achieve both purpose and profit, and there is an imperative to grow in order to create a larger positive impact.
• It is important to focus on product-market fit and start with a minimum viable product that solves a problem, and then iterate and add more ethical, social, and environmental benefits over time.

Fiona on linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/fiona-ras-jones/

Rob on linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rob-warren/

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