Posted on February 04, 2021
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Since its creation two years ago, the quality of a company with a mission has already won over more than 100 French companies. The new Observatory of companies with a mission looked at the 88 pioneers who took the plunge at the end of 2020 to draw up a typical profile. According to the observatory, the enthusiasm is such that 10,000 companies could change their statutes by 2025.
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Putting your company at the service of solving social and environmental challenges without compromising on the profitability of its model… This is the ambition of companies with a mission, a quality (and not a status) offered by the Pacte law to companies volunteers. Only one year after the publication of the implementing decree which specified its outlines, more than a hundred were seduced by this possibility, according to the statement of the Observatory of companies with a mission.
“Not all legal forms of this type around the world have had this immediate success.“, underlines Kevin Levillain, doctor in management sciences and research professor at Mines Paris Tech / PSL Research University. Benefit corporations born in California, for example, took five years to reach this level. Which makes say to the Secretary of State to the Social, Solidarity and Responsible Economy, Olivia Grégoire, that this answered, “if not to a wait, in any case to a real need“.
Young and Ile-de-France SMEs
Source: Observatory of mission-oriented companies
Of the 88 companies listed by the Observatory in December 2020, two thirds are SMEs, 3% large companies and 33% micro-companies. 80% of them work in services, 12% in commerce and 9% in industry. The transport sector is entirely absent, says the study. Finally, they are predominantly Ile-de-France (62% of companies), even though Nouvelle Aquitaine, Auvergne Rhône Alpes, Occitanie and Hauts de France are represented. We see a “fairly good representativeness of the French economic fabric“, considers Kevin Levillain.
But companies with a mission do have some distinctive signs. First, their youth. More than half of them are under 10 years old. “If older companies are in the minority, this is probably because the corporate culture and organizational patterns are much more entrenched. Getting involved in the process can be more complex for them“, notes the observatory.
Source: Observatory of mission-oriented companies
An opening necessary to scale up
Another point of differentiation: the “mission” is often anchored in the business model of the company from its creation. One in five was born with an intention to make a positive impact and quickly translated this into their quality of business with mission. In addition, 11% come from the social and solidarity economy (ESS) and nearly 15% also have the international B corp label, granted to companies which have a high level of maturity in matters of social responsibility (CSR). This is not surprising when 36% of companies explain their approach by envy “to address the challenges of economic, social and ecological transition” or “preserve natural ecosystems or common goods”.
But the promoters of the company with a mission do not want to limit this potential for transformation to only companies with a mission “in essence”. During the presentation of the results in Bercy, the Community of enterprises with a mission, which created the Observatory, put forward “classic” companies, such as Anaïk, specializing in corporate gifts. His approach has led him to review the way of designing and promoting his offer by focusing on eco-design. These examples aim to inspire a growing number of companies to get involved. The community hopes to have 10,000 mission companies by 2025.
