How to Have a successful Business, while still helping the world, Paul Hargreaves

What is your background briefly?

After a degree in Zoology, I had three years in sales before more than ten years working for charities and churches in inner-city London. The money ran after, or rather was consumed by a growing family and I needed to change tack, so I started a fine food wholesaler, which I am still the CEO of twenty years later. The business initially started continuing the same vein as the charity work by trying to improve people’s lives for better. Of my first 5 employees, there was an ex-drug addict, an alcoholic and an ex-con.

Does it seem like a logical background to what you do now?

Yes, I have always been passionate about reducing injustice in the world and now use my own business to do that as well as encouraging other business leaders to do the same. The book I have just written, Forces for Good, is about businesses that are doing just that, and I strongly believe that these businesses will be leading the way in future as consumers are tired of businesses that are just about making money and far more interested in buying from businesses that are changing the world for better.

1 min pitch for what you are doing now?

Both through my own business and encouraging other business leaders I aim to change the world for better. We do this by creating a great place to work, treating our suppliers with respect and deliberately buying products at higher prices from under-served communities and through developing ways of helping to reverse climate change through consolidation of supply and working closely with our many artisan food suppliers.

Why did you decide to write the book?

When I was at school a teacher told me that everyone in Iceland wrote a book during their lifetime. It turned out not to be true, but the seed was planted – I wanted to write at least one book during my life. (It turns out that more people than any other country write books in Iceland at 15%)

I am passionate about business to be used as a Force for Good as the potential for good business to facilitate massive change on this planet is enormous if we all play our part.

I hope through the book to have more opportunities to encourage other businesses in this direction

Will people learn from your mistakes or do they have to make them for themselves too?

Haha, good question! I am sure people will make their own mistakes we still do, but my mistakes have all fallen within two categories. 1) Employing the wrong people and 2) not going with my ‘gut’. I have been brutally honest about examples of both types of mistake in the book, so hopefully others will learn from them.

You mention B-corps, and triple bottom line, are things improving OR are we still seeing corporate greenwashing?

Well, no doubt greenwashing is very much around, especially within the corporate world, but, to be honest, I think consumers see through this these days. The lack of authenticity is fairly easy to spot. As more larger companies certify as B Corps, it will create a snowball effect and encourage other companies to certify. It is impossible to b a B Corp and greenwash as evidence is required for certification which is carefully audited. My company, Cotswold Fayre, was one of the first 50 to certify in the UK and there are now 200 in the UK and 2,800 worldwide. Taking the total GDP B Corps would be the 81st largest country in the world, so the movement is definitely becoming significant.

How can people find out more about you & your work?

There is more information about me on www.paulhargreaves.co.uk and more on my company, Cotswold Fayre at www.cotswold-fayre.co.uk

Anything else you’d like to add / we should have asked?

Various people have written about the triple bottom line (TBL) and I was particularly pleased that the creator of the concept, John Elkington, wrote the forward for my book, but as I was writing the book, I couldn’t leave it there so added a 4th bottom line. Businesses that are better for people and better for the planet will also be better for profit too, but if we are going to change the world for better we also need to look at changing ourselves and adding more compassion and love into the way we do business. This is perhaps the most exciting part of the book for me. As we have reached out as a company to the world I have seen individuals within my company and myself change for better as people. Now, that IS exciting!

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