On 1st March 2022, Arisaig Partners celebrates its first anniversary as a Certified B Corporation.
What does this mean?
We became a member of a small group of companies (<4,000) and an even smaller group of investment managers that seek to balance profit with purpose. Becoming a Certified B Corporation® is a legally-binding* commitment to consider the interests of all stakeholders in everything we do.
To achieve this, we underwent a comprehensive assessment of our policies and practices towards our clients, our employees, the environment and our community (see link for our Impact Report). This took the best part of a year to complete. Throughout the process we were able to identify the things we do well, but equally importantly the areas where we can improve.
*amongst other things, we amended our Articles of Association to make our Directors accountable for maintaining these standards
Why did we do this?
Nearly 25 years of experience investing in emerging markets has taught us that the concept of ‘Purposeful Growth’ delivers superior operating performance for companies and earns them the right to grow forever. ‘Purposeful Growth’ is an organisational principle which requires businesses to think about the overall value creation of the enterprise across multiple stakeholders, including customers, employees, the environment, and local communities.
We believe this applies equally to our own business and have attempted to instill this within our culture from the very beginning. Becoming a Certified B Corporation® helped to verify this mindset. Ultimately, we are only as strong as our weakest link, and we hope this will become a catalyst for further enhancing the alignment of interests across our stakeholders.
What have we learned?
Practices we received the highest B Impact scores for include our approach to investing (full integration of ESG, consideration of positive impact, reinvestment of Partner dividends back into our portfolios), contributions to our employees’ health & wellness (flexible working policy, professional training budget, private healthcare packages), and how we manage climate change risk (science-based targets for operational and portfolio carbon emissions).
One year on, we have already begun to implement new initiatives that address areas for improvement, such as running annual employee engagement surveys, installing smart water meters at our offices, and integrating ESG considerations into our Procurement Policies. We believe this commitment to continuous learning and improvement will helps us go from strength to strength.
