Halifax Advisor Says ‘Old School’ Way Of Running A Company Must Change
HALIFAX – There is a common belief that to succeed in business, one must operate independently and, most importantly, be constantly competing with rival businesses to get as much profit as possible. The idea of sharing resources or knowledge with a competing business is akin to cutting off your own limb.
But there is one business advisor in Halifax who is working hard to turn around the “old school” way of operating a business. Dorothy Spence, the owner and operator of The Purpose Led Business School and Imaginal Ventures, believes it’s about time entrepreneurs worked together to help themselves and the environment.
“We believe that traditional businesses typically create very competitive and hierarchical systems and structures. And the importance of a return to the shareholder is the focus of how we were taught how to build our businesses,” says Spence.
“I feel that form of capitalism and that operating model really has got to go.”
Spence envisions a future where businesses come together to create an “ecosystem,” much like organisms do in nature. In fact, the name Imaginal Ventures comes from the name of the cells that come together inside a caterpillar to create a butterfly.
Spence has been teaching such communal principles to the Halifax business community for years. In June she is partnering with TD Bank to do a virtual course with 25 women who have founded tech startups across North America. If there is a hyper-competitive industry that could use more collaboration and less resource wasting, it’s the technology sector.
“The whole platform is about an ecosystem development,” explains Spence. “So, they’ll get to know each other, they’ll go through some specific programming, then they’ll have access to the platform, where they build out their conscious operating system.”
“It really changes the whole access to network, to funding, to knowledge, to mentorship, that a lot of these women don’t have access to, especially if you’re not living in the major cities in Canada and the USA. So, it’s a really under-served, underrepresented population.”
The Purpose Led Business School already has a track record of empowering female business leaders locally. April Stroink a Halifax “Money Coach,” says Spence helped her build a business that can both make money and have a positive impact on the community.
“Participating in Imaginal Venture’s Purpose Led Business School has had the biggest positive impact on my business,” said Stroink.
“Not only did I explore how my business can be a force for good, but I also learned about myself as a business person and the impact that I want to have in my community. Dorothy taught me both the mechanics of running a profitable business and the mindset of making it purpose-led.”
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One of the principles these 25 women will be taught is how to allocate resources properly. Spence advocates that businesses view their employees with a lens of “human dynamics” versus the corporate “human resources” view of the workplace.
“Human dynamics is really the energy and the interaction of people and the systems that support those healthy collaborative interactions,” says Spence.
“There’s a lot of expertise out there on big corporate structures, but that doesn’t work for small business owners.”
Spence says there is a lot of data out there that shows the importance of valuing employees as people and creating a psychologically safe workplace. That means the typical hierarchical structures in the workplace need to change to prevent the common burnout we see in many industries.
“There’s A lot of burnout, a lot of stress. We can’t just be treating our people the same way,” proclaims Spence. “The command-and-control structures, the hierarchy, and these environments that are filled with fear; you can’t do it anymore- we’re burning out.”
Typical business structures are harming more than people, says Spence, they are also harming the environment. Many industries use up a lot of natural resources and create waste that goes unused elsewhere. The competitive business landscape has created a rabid consumer market where items are routinely used for a short time and thrown away.
“We can’t continue this way to consume at the level we’re consuming and continue to have the lifestyles that we have; the earth can’t sustain it; there’s nothing sustainable about this way of being and business.”
“It’s imperative as human beings, globally, that we shift from a ‘me’ mentality to much more of a ‘we’ focus.”
Spence is encouraged to see some new entrepreneurs starting businesses with a focus on environmental protection. She notes that a group of businesses in Halifax are preparing to share resources with one another; even to the point of recycling waste within this little ecosystem.
“There’s a group of companies here, in Halifax, and they have much more of an environmental focus,” says Spence. “And they have agreed to collaborate, and they’ve agreed that the input of one business will be the output of another so that they will use each other’s waste or provide each other products.”
“What we’re seeing now is waste is a natural resource. There are all kinds of nutrients and value in waste.”
On top of simply being ethical, Spence also points out that good environmental practices can result in a bigger customer base, as more consumers now expect businesses to be leaders in protecting the earth.
“As a culture and a society, we are demanding that businesses play a much stronger role in a broader stakeholder community, including the environment,” says Spence.
“We are already seeing a shift with these businesses, where consumers say they’re willing to pay a premium because they are aligned with the values of these businesses.”