Innovation consultancy Magnetic attains B Corp status
UK consulting firm Magnetic has obtained B Corp status. To achieve the award, the firm had to demonstrate its commitment to responsible practices relating to governance, workers, community, environment and customers.
Formed via the merger of Fluxx and magneticNorth in 2021, Magnetic has since worked to create a combined hub of innovation and digital design. The unified firm’s holistic services led to a rapid increase in demand for its combined services – with clients including Abellio, KPMG, Parliamentary Digital Service, adidas and The Economist, among others.
One year since the firm completed its realignment with the launch of its singular brand, Magnetic has announced another major milestone. The firm has been awarded B Corp status, after demonstrating a commitment to design a more sustainable world, and embrace diversity to bring responsible new products and services to market.
Magnetic co-founder and CFO, Richard Poole, commented, “We are incredibly proud with this milestone. Our purpose is to ‘design better futures’ by working with ambitious brands such as Mars Wrigley, Bupa, Google, Innovate UK and Simply Business who are reinventing business. They understand the importance of driving change and becoming a force for good. We aim to support purpose driven businesses that strive to make a difference in the world.”
Run by non-profit network B Lab, ‘B Corps’ are certified having proven they operate at the highest standards of verified social and environmental performance, public transparency, and legal accountability making the grade. While there are currently over 1,300 B Corps in the UK, initial uptake from the consulting industry was slow. However, the industry’s B Corp cohort has been steadily growing, with recent additions also including Bip UK and US, and 4C Associates.
As such, Magnetic is joining a growing global community of organisations, which it believes are “prioritising people, planet and purpose”. Poole added that for Magnetic, the B Corp model represents an “economic alternative to a world dominated by shareholder-only decision making” – and argued that the “innovation industry” Magnetic sees itself as part of “should be leading the way in this space”.
Strict process
B Corp certification addresses the entirety of a business’ operations over five key impact areas of governance, workers, community, environment and customers. According to fellow co-founder and Chief Creative Officer Lou Cordwell, in order to achieve the award, Magnetic has “built upon its core values and purpose”.
Cordwell expanded, “Our focus is to use design as a powerful tool to work with our clients to make new responsible and sustainable products and services. We’re incredibly proud to be only one of 6,000 companies in the world that have been certified as meeting the high standards of social and environmental performance, transparency and accountability as prescribed by B Lab.”
Magnetic was recently ranked among the top innovation consulting firms of the UK for 2023. The firm received a gold rating for its work in the segment.