Business is a tool, its how you use that tool that matters. Michael Porter, the Harvard Business School Professor in the Ted Talk video below, argues that business can be the tool to solve the world’s greatest problems. We all know the social problems: childhood obesity, poverty, water scarcity, poor healthcare, climate change. Usually, we look …
Why Business Can be Good at Solving Social Problems Read More »
In our day-to-day practice at Apex Law, we are lucky enough to come into contact with many social entrepreneurs who are seeking advice on how to structure and implement their socially motivated business. Now, generally, this conversation starts with a discussion of what business entity is best suited for a particular venture. Should it be …
The Recipe for Social Entrepreneurship – Love of Jojo’s Sriracha Sauce Read More »
Language matters. Language is how we communicate, frame problems and seek their solutions, and otherwise interact as social, complex human beings. Words can affect how a person feels. Ask anyone in the marketing business whether word choice is crucial; they know that words develop identity and create associations, and chosen carefully, words establish brand loyalty. …
You want to make a change with your new business venture and you’re ready to file the necessary paper work to form a legal structure, but what type of legal structure should you form? Because your idea combines for-profit considerations and nonprofit motives, you’re a little confused about whether you should form a nonprofit, a …
Effective today, Washington will recognize a new corporate entity: the social purpose corporation. You can learn more about this legal structure here and here (or even download the legislation’s text here). The social purpose corporation (or SPC) is Washington State’s social enterprise; its version of the benefit corporation that has been adopted by several other …
Why the Social Purpose Corporation is Necessary: Self-identification and Legitimacy. Read More »
Over at her blog Razesquire, Karen Raz asked an interesting question summarized as follows: where in the law does it say that traditional corporations must pursue a duty to maximize profits at the expense of social and environmental considerations? Although proponents of hybrid entities (benefit corporations, social purpose corporations, etc.) will tell you that management …
“Because government and nonprofits alone are insufficient to solve the world’s most pressing problems . . .” Like Jay Coen Gilbert (one of the founders of B-Labs and the Benefit Corporation) says in the video below, both government and nonprofit entities will have incrementally less resources moving forward. Indeed, the more interconnected the world is, the …
A new way of doing business, the Benefit Corporation Ted Talk Read More »
Today, the Washington State Senate approved a bill that would establish the Social Purpose Corporation by a vote of 34 to 14 with 1 excused. The bill was passed by the House of Representatives last month, as I wrote about here, and it now only needs approval by Governor Gregoire to become law. Washington …
The Washington State Senate approves of the “Social Purpose Corporation” Read More »