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Davos Dispatch: Richard Branson and The B Team Make Business Case For Human Rights

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Toms Shoes founder Blake Mycoskie and Virgin's Richard Branson

FORBES caught up at Davos this week with billionaire Richard Branson, who has completely shifted from profit-seeking serial startup mode to non-stop philanthropy and social change. Branson now spends some 80% of his time on social causes and planet-healing work under the umbrella of Virgin Unite.

Examples: His safari preserve in South Africa runs a nearby clinic dispensing free anti-retrovirals and medicine for TB and malaria. His Virgin Active gym club chain in South Africa created a gym in Soweto township with the community that houses a hair salon and other ventures and is now one of its most profitable gyms in the country. The next item on his calendar is a meeting in early February at his Necker Island in the Caribbean to hatch plans for a carbon-neutral Caribbean Basin with regional heads of state and to discuss a ban on shark and manta ray fishing.

“I made all the money I need in my lifetime and there are quite a lot of problems in the world,” says Branson.

At the World Economic Forum in Davos, Branson had gathered his advocacy group The B Team, formed in 2012, to finalize their commitments to 18 pledges toward making the world a better place--and to issue a new statement (below) challenging business leaders to make a bigger stand for human rights. Its 17 members are a supergroup of business and political leaders with an activist bent, including Unilever CEO Paul Polman, Indian industrialist Ratan Tata, former Irish prime minister Mary Robinson, Nobel laureate Muhammad Yunus, Nigerian finance minister Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Tom’s Shoes founder Blake Mycoskie and media entrepreneur Arianna Huffington.

Some of the pledges they committed to today include working toward ending subsidies that increase the consumption of natural resources, achieving meaningful diversity at the highest levels of organizations, end quarterly reporting where legally possible, and publish more reporting on how companies are faring on environmental goals. The B Team members are supposed to spend the next 12 months coming up with specific plans and timelines to achieve these goals, with the hope that more companies and organizations will follow.

Branson and Toms' Mycoskie took a few minutes from the Davos whirl to answer some of the skepticisms they face from the business community, chief among them questions about why business should care about more than creating jobs and profits and how to measure success in social change.

"Up until now businesses have thought of themselves as businesses... there to worry about the bottom line and create jobs, but they’ve been frightened about speaking up about issues. What we hope for with the B Team is for them to be a lot braver. If we see that women’s rights are not being protected in certain countries, we will speak out about it. If we feel that the rights of individuals who love each other but are of the same sex but not being protected we will speak out about it. And we will do our best to use the influence we have to try to get some sense and try to change opinions," says Branson.

Branson pointed to the latest poll showing that the most respected person in the world was Bill Gates. "That's above anybody else, above any politician. Business people do have influence in this world and it’s very important that they use that influence to protect basic human rights which are very clearly stated in the human rights charter but are not adhered to in many countries."

Mycoskie said that business leaders have every reason to engage. "A CEO has to listen to the customers they’re serving their products to. And for more people, especially young people, these issues are paramount to the companies they're going to support. They’re voting with their dollars. This isn’t just some lofty talk. These are issues their customers care about."

"Businesses are made up of the human beings who work in these companies," says Branson. "The people who work for Unilever are proud of the work that [CEO] Paul Polman is doing and the rest of the people are going to embrace their company that much more and are going to be proud of the company they’re working for."

Branson knows the issues he is advocating, especially today, which focus on same-sex marriages, gay rights and gender equality, do not go down well in many parts of the world. "We have to respect there is a lot of work to be done in emerging countries the same way there was a lot of work to be done in the UK and America 100 years ago. Change does take time. Having said that, politicians will not dare to speak out in a lot of these countries and a lot of business leaders will not dare to speak out. But when you know that they shouldn’t be imprisoned and we have to do our best to try to change bad politics and try to treat everyone equally." 

Full text of the B Team statement issued today:

B Team Leaders call for business to stand up for human rights
Business has been improving people's lives for centuries, creating jobs, driving innovation and
extending prosperity.

Certainly business leaders do not try and cause harm to the people that work for them, but often the warped incentives we've created to drive profitability put such pressure on the organization, that we lose sight of the most important part of any company, our people. There needs to be a completely new approach to how we operate as business leaders, one that clearly puts people at the centre of all we do. To do this we need to turn upside down the "old way" of doing business and create a "Plan B", focused on longer-term horizons and a goal of helping people to thrive, rather than maximising profit at all cost.

We know that much remains to be done. And the news of the last twelve months – from the widely publicized situation of migrant workers in the Gulf States to the harrowing images of the RANA plaza factory collapse in Bangladesh are powerful reminders of the damage that can be wrought.

At a minimum, businesses can start by implementing the UN's Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, not only in their core operations, but across their supply chain. Decent working conditions, fair wages and stable communities could quickly become the norm, if encouraged by ethical purchasing decisions. Business can also go further, working with
governments to strengthen governance and end corruption.

Depletion of natural resources and excessive release of greenhouse gases also impact negatively on human rights and the wellbeing of people all over the world, especially those living in poverty. Business has an opportunity to explore alternatives that protect and restore ecosystems to ensure a healthier planet for all.

Finally it is time that business leaders use their influence to uphold human rights. Preventing peaceful protests, treating people unequally because of their gender or criminalising people on account of who they love are unacceptable attacks on fundamental rights. Business leaders can and should lend their voice to those pressing for change.

We all stand to gain when businesses makes human rights a priority. Where society thrives, so
does business.

*The B Team Leaders issuing this statement are: Shari Arison, Richard Branson, Kathy Calvin, Arianna Huffington, Mo Ibrahim, Guilherme Leal, Strive Masiyiwa, Blake Mycoskie, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Paul Polman, Mary Robinson, Professor Muhammad Yunus and Jochen Zeitz.