Business owners keen to measure wider impact of their company

Business owners are becoming increasingly keen to consider their wider impact on the world when making decisions about their companies, according to new research.

In a poll conducted by PriceWaterhouseCoopers, four out of five business owners agreed that it would be useful to measure figures relating to their company’s environmental impact, jobs supported and tax paid, as well as their finances.

According to freshbusinessthinking.com, many of the survey’s respondents suggested it could help improve decisions about business risk, strengthen relationships with employees and give more confidence to investors.

It certainly could be something for those who have signed a franchise agreement to consider as well.

In an interview with economia.icaew.com, PriceWaterhouseCoopers global leader of sustainability Malcolm Preston suggested that the era of “growth at all costs” had now come to an end.

He said: “Businesses need to look beyond financial reporting to their wider outcomes and impacts, to understand their total footprint on society in terms of economic, environmental, tax and social impacts, and use what they find to guide their decision making.

“Assessing decisions on their total impact – economic, environmental, tax and social – is a framework for how a company can run itself in the 21st century, which transforms the way boards make their strategic decisions, beyond profit and loss.”