Tell us about Marmalade Fish. What was the inspiration behind the creation of Marmalade Fish and what is its mission?
If we are lucky, we have 1,000 months to play at the game of life. 400 of those are spent queuing and sleeping! Given how much of the remainder we spend at work, we should endeavour to make the most out of the experience.
Yet in recent years, we have seen trust in business fall to an all-time low, with employees having to navigate toxic cultures, often by disengaging their humanity during working hours.
Marmalade Fish was born to bring humanity to business – formed in 2015 to fundamentally change the way employees engage with organisations. In the future of work, people are craving a more conscious form of leadership. They want to bring their full, authentic selves to their role, and in return, deliver better outcomes for customers by living meaningful values and delivering on purpose.
At Marmalade Fish, we believe that the consciousness and action needed for business to create a more sustainable future starts with investment in human capabilities, attitudes and behaviour. We’re a team of global leadership facilitators and coaches, aspiring to use the power of business to solve social and environmental problems and, in doing so, rewire the way businesses are governed, managed and led.
What impact is Marmalade Fish trying to make?
How can we hope to create a better world if we don’t create healthier workplaces? How can we create thriving businesses if we don’t have sustainable people strategies?
Increasingly, senior leaders are recognising that business cannot be a bystander in the society that gave it life in the first place. Addressing new-world problems with old-world thinking is no longer tenable.
Sustainable change requires a reset in mindsets and behaviours, and a realignment to values and purpose. We equip the top team to be the custodians of culture, placing it between purpose and strategy to articulate ‘how’ to do business.
How we show up as leaders – how we listen and connect, give and receive support, how we care for others and nourish physical, emotional, and mental health – these are not just commitments. They are skills, and when developed, the result is improved engagement, enablement and empowerment, which in turn drives sustainable results.
Please share some key milestones or initiatives that your company has undertaken on its sustainability journey leading up to achieving B Corp certification.
As we know, sustainable business is much more than caring for the environment. The B Corp™ movement believes in the power of business as a force for good. It’s about businesses that are not just the best in the world, also the best for the world.
When we first conducted the B Impact Assessment in 2016, our company practices and outputs were assessed across five key areas: governance, workers, community, the environment, and customers. We thought we were doing a great job until we went through the certification!
The certification process (and subsequent recertifications every three years) is intense. The realisation that we were at base camp of the never-ending journey to sustainability enabled us to get really clear on our overarching strategy and become more coherent in creating impact. From there, we revisited our practices and outputs to ensure sustainability was ingrained in the fabric of the organisation.
For example, prior to certification, we committed to donating at least 5% of revenue – not just profits – to charitable causes. On the journey leading up to certification, we decided to make this part of our employee proposition, inviting our Associates to nominate their chosen charity and map the impact to the UN Sustainable Development Goals.
We were so proud to become the first Certified B Corporation® in the Middle East. It would be seven years until another company certified in the UAE, and happily, several more companies have joined our community in the last 12 months.
What motivated your company to pursue B Corp certification, and how does it align with your broader sustainability goals and values?
When things are breaking down in systems, there is a window of opportunity to create something different…something better…for and from our time on this planet. Reality becomes like modelling clay – it is more malleable and can be shaped by co-creators before it hardens. This is the time when ‘outsiders’ become the leaders. It is a mindset shift where those who fully grasp the power of we instead of me, truly thrive.
What attracted us most to B Corp™ is that it is a holistic assessment that is independently verified. The assessment is available for all businesses to measure their impact, regardless of whether they pursue certification. If they do, they join a movement of thousands of companies across sectors and geographies that are leading the change.
“Large-scale problems do not require large-scale solutions; they require small-scale solutions within a large scale framework.” – David Fleming
Highlight some specific ways in which becoming a B Corp has influenced your company’s operations, culture, or relationships with stakeholders.
We have seen what happens when companies consistently put profit before principles and value before values. The true impact of hyper-individualism is now coming to light, and people are beginning to turn their backs on hustle culture in order to live a life of meaning.
In hierarchical societies, we are typically told what is important. But this purposeful change was grassroots, with ethical consumerism and sustainability growing organically from the edges. Those who became awakened and empowered created a coalition of voices, and those in authority responded by announcing more community participation initiatives.
This ethos has been key to us attracting the finest Associates who care deeply about being involved with a business with a higher purpose. Hopefully, our culture, operations, and approach to stakeholder relationships has set an example of what is possible in business. In 2023, we were delighted to see our heightened impact reflected in a recertification score of 117.4 (80 out of 200 qualifies):
https://www.bcorporation.net/en-us/find-a-b-corp/company/marmalade-fish
Can you share some future plans or initiatives that Marmalade Fish has in store to enhance its impact?
For several years, we have been advocating for the importance of conserving, protecting and restoring nature and ecosystems, so it was great to see the inclusion of biodiversity and a global deforestation goal at COP28. Stay tuned for updates from some of the ecosystems we support, including the Vohimana reserve in Madagascar, where humanity and nature thrive together.
In our corporate operations, we have recently expanded into the Americas, and will be running more Conscious Leadership retreats for the public around the world. We are also pioneering ‘coaching containers’ for leaders ready and committed to doing deep, transformational work.
Finally, what advice would you give to other businesses and brands looking to become more sustainable and socially responsible in their operations?
At an organisational level, gaining an understanding of the underlying culture and how values really play out in the system is critical for accelerating change efforts.
At an individual level, if you find yourself at the periphery, stay on purpose and in community – your time is coming…the centre will not hold. Till then, as Socrates wisely said, “Be as you wish to seem.”
In that sense, the question for conscious leaders is not ‘What can we do now?’, it is ‘Who do we need to be?’ in order to create the shift.
It will take a while to turn this world ship around, so resilience, grit and determination will be helpful on the adventure. Don’t forget to experience joy along the way too…it’s one of the best ways to stay present and connected!