Paul Gurney: How we became the top-scoring B Corp in the UK

Hi Paul, congratulations on the B-Corp recognition - what does this achievement mean to you personally and to the BecomingX team? 

BecomingX’s founding purpose is to ‘create a world where everyone can realise their potential’, and at the heart of that is a goal to always aim to be the very best we can be as a company, aiming to inspire and equip the people that we work with. So whatever we do, our goal is to be the best.

A little-known story is that I actually had a scholarship from the International Centre for CSR at Nottingham to do the very first ‘Corporate Social Responsibility’ Masters degree back in 2002, and ever since then I’ve been passionate about sustainability, having previously spent 15 years at Accenture focused on sustainability strategy. So when it came to finally setting up my own company, it was built bottom up with the aim of being a fundamentally different type of business. Becoming the highest scoring B Corporation in the UK (and 3^rd highest in the world) is great recognition for this effort and an achievement we can all be very proud of.

What was the inspiration for founding BecomingX, and what has been the most rewarding part of the journey so far?

I’ve done a lot of things in life I should probably not have been able to achieve. Having a career at a top company, walking to the North Pole, racing across the Sahara, running 170km, climbing mountains, raising money for charity. I knew there was nothing unique about me, I’d simply learned what it takes to do difficult things. The sad reality is that we never teach people the personal attributes needed to do difficult things. I decided that I’d have a go at doing that, and set out by starting to film the world’s most inspiring and iconic people to tell their stories (which are far more interesting than mine!). Co-founding with Bear Grylls helped accelerate our reach and impact. We’ve not looked back since.

How did BecomingX come to be the highest scoring B Corporation in the UK? What are the non-negotiables behind being a business that truly makes a difference?

We know that to achieve our goal of a world where everyone can realise their potential, we need to be different. We have to be an organisation with conscience. With humanity. With purpose. Our aim is to impact everyone, not just those that can afford learning and development training. This requires a different way of thinking from purely commercial businesses. It’s hard to run a company driving social impact, especially in a turbulent economy, but we will never compromise on our values and integrity, nor our aim to do the absolute best in everything we do.

What advice would you give to someone looking to start their own impactful business?

All businesses should start with asking the simple question of ‘why does this business exist?’. The answer should always be one of solving a real world challenge for people which gives you the potential to deliver a positive impact, no matter how small. This should always be the starting point for doing something that really matters. I think if someone is passionate about doing something positive in the world through business, then they should just start and see how far they can take it. It’s always high risk starting your own company, but it allows you the freedom to do what you want to do and follow your passion.

BecomingX just released a film with Gareth Southgate - what was it like working with him, and what can he teach others about leadership and self-growth?

Gareth was fantastic to work with. He’s an exceptional leader and someone I have a huge amount of respect for. People will always criticise others, particularly in football, but here is a man who had the courage to take on a team in total disarray with a culture of underperformance and fear, and turn it around into a team that had belief. That supported one another. That had the never give up spirit. To quote Theodore Roosevelt, Southgate really was the ‘man in the arena’, doing everything he could to support the team. It’s so evident in our film how much playing for, and managing, England really meant to him. He’s a highly considered guy that always brought the highest levels of professionalism and respect to everything he did, so it was a great opportunity to showcase this to people through his BecomingX film.

With the BCorp recognition under your belts, what are your next goals for BecomingX in the near future?

We’re at an interesting time at BecomingX. We’re proud to work with some of world’s most prestigious companies, we’re filming some of the biggest names on the planet and we’re also starting to make some waves with our social impact initiatives. It’s never easy doing these things and we often have to juggle priorities, but our big focus now is developing a digital solution for professional development which in turn will drive our planned social impact programmes at a truly extraordinary scale.