Initiatives
The B-Team

The B Team ... SUGGEST A CHALLENGE

Burgess COMMENTARY

Peter Burgess

The B Team ... SUGGEST A CHALLENGE

Tell us what you think we should take on.

We want to hear your ideas. We want to take on challenges that, if we're successful in overcoming them, will result in significant progress. If your idea satisfies our selection criteria, chances are it could be a suitable challenge for The B Team.

1. Will this Challenge remove a critical roadblock or create enabling conditions to ensure business works significantly better for people and the planet as well as profit?

Yes ... as long as the dominant metrics for decision making are (1) money profit for business; (2) stock prices for investors; and, (3) GDP growth for policy makers, decision makers will ignore impact on people, place and planet. This can be changed with metrics that incorporate impact and value from the perspective of people, place, planet and profit and optimization is done from the perspective of all four components.

2. Will the Challenge lead to an entirely new expectation, model, ideology or system for how business is done?

Yes ... There is all sorts of 'talk' about CSR, sustainability, resilience, etc, etc, but the metrics about these things are missing. It is difficult to sort out PR from reality.

3. Is the Challenge scalable? Is there existing work we can accelerate to cause greater impact at a faster rate without duplication?

Yes ... the ultimate goal is that every economic activity should be using these metrics rather than the current prevailing ubiquitous simple money profit accountancy.

4. Is this a Challenge best advanced by business?

Yes ... but in combination between the professional segment of the private sector as well as the 'business' segment. Furthermore this initiative reduces the need for government to be a major actor in delivery of social goods and services.

5. Is this Challenge a good fit for The B Team and does it fill a needed gap in the world (does it ultimately serve to accomplish Plan B)?

Yes ... if we change the way the game is scored we will change the way the game is played

Describe the challenge or most pressing issue you would like to see The B Team address:

The metrics that dominate the capital markets and the decision making process for allocation of resources are the terrible trio of: (1) money profit for business; (2) stock prices for investors; and (3) GDP growth for policy makers. These metrics were a reasonable proxy for progress when productivity was low and the world could not produce what it needed, but in a world where productivity means that there is the possibility of surplus production of the goods and services that people need, these metrics fail. A more meaningful framework of metrics is needed along the lines of value accounting that has equal focus on people, place, planet and profit and there needs to be a quantification of value that can be broadly accepted. The use of many of the concepts of money profit accountancy can facilitate value accountancy and make it as powerful for society as a whole as money profit accountancy is for the business organization and investors.

Explain why you think this challenge / issue has yet to be addressed or has previously failed to 
be solved:

The need for improved metrics has been recognized for many years, but the initiatives can be characterized as merely trying to layer a social and environmental impact narrative on top of the unchanged continuum of money profit reporting. There has been no change in the fundamental domination of money profit metrics within the decision making community of business, finance and politics.

Do you believe this challenge / issue fits within The B Team’s vision and focus, if so why?

This challenge fits the B-Team vision and focus perfectly. Business achievement in the area of business productivity has been amazing and facilitated by powerful metrics that kept the goal ... of more profit ... in sight at all times. By having equally powerful metrics for people, place and planet as well as profit, the performance of business to achieve critical social goals can be just as amazing. Merely by keeping score, we can improve things. By changing the way we score the game, we will change the way we play the game.

Peter Burgess
peterbnyc@gmail.com
Tr-Ac-Net Inc. (TrueValueMetrics)
TrueValueMetrics.org
212 744 6469
United States

Additional info:
I trained as an engineer, before taking on some economics and then becoming a Chartered Accountant. I worked in corporate management both in factory management and as a CFO and in addition got international experience. Subsequently I did consulting work with the World Bank, the UN and others on difficult issues that had major impact on human lives ... drought and starvation, refugees and IDPs, post war reconstruction, and so on. No meaningful metrics and no sustainable performance. There are better ways!