Power Collective Own Our Impact

Why I’m passionate about Power Collective (and you should be too!)

I was always aware of the power of business… for better and, unfortunately, also for worse.

I believed businesses could provide jobs to people that need them
I believed businesses could be pillars of their communities
I believed businesses could develop services and products which improve people’s lives
I believed businesses could positively impact society

I believed businesses could do all of this while not harming people in the process

As a result, it was no surprise that a few years ago, I accepted a job at a startup bank with a mission to invest in urban and socially responsible businesses in order to help create jobs and develop communities. 

Sounds great, right?

Great socially responsible ideas and businesses deserve a fair chance

My first meeting at the bank was with a woman who needed money to help her grow a natural cosmetics company that donated its profits to programs that promoted positive body image for young women around the world.

I wanted to help her, but there were some problems. She didn’t have enough customers. Her product was “too expensive.” The retail stores she was trying to sell to didn’t care about her mission. We couldn’t invest as she told us we were her last hope to her keeping her business. It was a slap in the face to my optimism…and it was a story that repeated itself again and again with other companies I saw with similar stories.

The worst part was that these promising and socially responsible ideas were being crushed by businesses that didn’t care about their impact on society at all. You know the story…

• Oil companies polluting the environment
• Banks creating the conditions for a financial crisis that destroys global economies
• Companies that layoff workers while paying CEOs huge bonuses

I could make businesses be better!

What I realized was that I had the ability to actually make these businesses be better.  To support those that were trying to do business the right way instead of supporting those that were doing it the wrong way.  Obviously, others had thought about this before – for instance, leaders of the Civil Rights Movement who organized the Montgomery Bus Boycotts or actions which targeted companies that supported apartheid in South Africa.  So I decided to closely examine where I spent my money. And I was shocked.  I was supporting businesses that were doing business in the wrong way with my dollars. I wanted to stop doing so and sought alternatives that were more socially responsible. And when I told others of these goals, they reacted favorably, but questions persisted…

• Where could I find the alternatives?
• How could I tell that one business was better than another?
• How could I have enough time to do this all the time ?
• And how could me switching my small amount of spending actually change anything?

Actually…We can make businesses better!

So I decided to try to answer those questions to make it easier for me and others to support businesses that they cared about, because it would take much more than just my actions to change anything. It would take a bunch of people who care doing the same in a coordinated way, eventually spreading to communities across the globe even…

So what do I believe today?

I still believe in the power of businesses.
But I also believe more in the power of people to direct the power of businesses.

Therefore, the vision of Power Collective is to help people recognize that each of us has an impact on our communities and societies, no matter how small or big.  Further, our goal should be to try to maximize the positive aspects of that impact, whether that be through work, family, charity or, in the case of Power Collective, where we spend and invest our money.  And by doing so individually, then collectively we will end up with better businesses and, ultimately, a better world.

Join us to make it a reality (and change anything)!

What Exactly Does it Mean to Buy Better!?

To Buy Better! is to buy from “A+” businesses that positively impact and create more value for society instead of buying from “C-” businesses, which do not. More specifically…

• “A+” businesses create more value for society by:
  • Reducing the costs they expect society (customers, employees,
    suppliers, governments, communities, etc) to bear on their behalf
  • Making profit in sustainable and ethical ways
  • Providing the highest quality products and services

• “C-” businesses create less value for society by:
  • Shifting their costs to society
  • Grabbing profit in harmful, unsustainable ways
  • Abusing their power to provide lower quality services and products

Why Should We Buy Better!?

If enough people Buy Better!, then, collectively, we can change how businesses interact with society, leading to better businesses and a better world.

Right now, we may not realize it, and we may feel powerless to change their behavior, but many of us are buying from C- businesses which actually create less value for all of us. For example…

C- BUSINESS PRACTICE		LEADS TO…
Produce unhealthy food		Higher healthcare costs
Pay their CEOs huge bonuses		Lower wages for the rest of us
Limit competition via government lobbying and unfair business practices		Less innovation, more stagnation and higher prices

Power Collective wants to help you reverse this cycle by informing you of your choices and providing incentives to support and purchase from more socially responsible businesses which create more value.

Therefore, PC is not anti-business overall. We are anti C- business and pro A+ business.
We don’t want you to stop buying. We just want you to Buy Better!

What can we do together?

Collectively, if we Buy Better!, we can positively impact society.

And how exactly can we Buy Better!?

Power Collective rates how companies impact society based on a number of factors. Based on those ratings, we can inform you of the choices that you are making, calculate your personalized Better Business Score, provide recommendations for how you can improve your choices, and then give you incentives to do so.

In other words, Power Collective makes it easy for Power Users to Buy Better! and improve their impact!

Learn

• Members learn of the impact of their purchasing and investing choices and are provided a personalized Better Business Score

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Get Recs

• Members get recommendations of companies they can switch to in order to improve their score and thus their impact

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Support

• Members can choose to support suggested companies by purchasing from or investing in them via the Power Collective website

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Get Goodies

• Members also get incentives (discounts, rewards, etc.) for supporting better businesses

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Buy Better

• Power Users support Better Businesses and maximize the positive impact of their purchases and investments
• Collectively, we influence all businesses to be better
• Collectively, we change the world to be better