Thought Leadership

The calls were hosted by Mark de Lat, former partner at Eshuis Accountants en Adviseurs and PhD researcher on stewardship in small and medium-sized practices, and Ulrich Britting, co-founder and co-CEO of ba-group in Germany. Both firms are certified B Corps, and AAFCPAs joined the North America call to share its own journey. Their answers were candid, sometimes uncomfortable, and practical. One message ran through all of them: purpose only works when it is built into how a firm is governed, whom it serves and how it treats its people.

1. It starts with the mirror, not the framework

De Lat has helped around 15 companies through certification and trained more than 150 people in the standard. His first message was still that the system is not the point. Before any checklist comes a question every leader answers in front of the mirror: Do I want to be a responsible leader – a steward of a sustainable society?

His interviews with 16 board members of B Corp firms in the Netherlands and Belgium show one consistent pattern: responsible leadership comes first, followed by the question of how the business model can serve that purpose. His research contrasts two ways of seeing a professional services firm:

Balancing ideals with the need to make money is the hardest part, De Lat admits. Research suggests that a long-term, purpose-driven focus can support stronger performance over time – even if that is hard to prove or argue up front.

2. Make it binding – decide before the pressure arrives

The most practical lesson of the calls: commitments written down as rules survive pressure far better than good intentions. The host firms described three levers any partnership can adapt:

• Values with consequences. Written values that feed into onboarding and annual reviews, and a defined process when someone is in significant conflict with them.

• A stakeholder clause in the bylaws. Managing partners are obliged to weigh the interests of employees, community, environment, clients and suppliers. Introducing it sparked real debate – which was the point.

• A fixed giving rule. Instead of ad hoc donations, a shareholder resolution commits a fixed share of profit – 10% in ba-group's case – to social and environmental projects. Because the P&L sets the amount, it is not reopened in every budget debate.

The same logic applies to client choices. Some firms define sectors they will not serve; others decide case by case. Where a firm draws its line is its own decision. What made the difference for the hosts was deciding before a tempting engagement arrives. Britting described turning down a €150,000 engagement in a quiet summer month because it conflicted with a line set years earlier. The effect inside the firm was not a sense of loss but more trust: people saw that stated values and actual decisions match.

3. Footprint and handprint

Footprint is how a firm operates: energy, travel, procurement, offices. It matters, and measuring it – including staff commuting – was among the most demanding parts of certification. Handprint is what a firm enables through its clients and its advice. For professional services firms, that is by far the bigger lever.

4. What it returns

The return is real but hard to measure precisely. What participants reported falls into four areas:

• Talent. At ba-group, staff turnover fell from over 30% during the Covid years to around 10% in the last two years, which the partners link to the leadership work that came with certification. Younger candidates increasingly name purpose as their reason to apply.

• Clients. Community events brought new clients who look for advisers with a similar mindset – nobody switches auditors for values alone, but when a switch happens anyway, shared values can tip the balance.

• Alignment. Agreed decision rules reduce recurring partner conflicts and help when firms merge. De Lat cited a Dutch firm that used the B Corp framework to align governance and purpose with two merger partners.

• Trust. Employees can see that values and decisions match.

AAFCPA added the North American perspective, noting that many of the positive changes B Corps report after certification have also shown up in its own firm.

Purpose does not depend on a certificate, though. A member firm in Southeast Europe described how it turned high staff turnover into a strength: it trains graduates as well as it can and tells them openly that after five or six years the choice to stay is theirs. Average tenure has risen to around five years, and its alumni – now CFOs and CEOs elsewhere – have become partners and clients.

Direct costs are modest: for a firm with around €10 million in revenue, roughly €500 for certification plus about €3,000 a year. The real investment is internal time.

5. A tool, not a tile on the wall

The most important caution came in response to a member's question about convincing skeptical partners. If partners want B Corp mainly for marketing, De Lat said, it is not the right starting point – that is story selling, not storytelling. Spend two days somewhere quiet first and decide what kind of firm you want to be. Once a partnership knows what it wants to be, deciding whether B Corp is the right tool becomes easier.

B Corp in brief

• Run by B Lab, a non-profit founded in the US in 2006; over 10,000 certified companies worldwide, most in Europe and North America.

• Seven impact topics covering environment, social and governance, increasingly aligned with regulation such as the EU's CSRD.

• The B Impact Assessment is free and confidential – a useful self-check even if you never certify. Fees apply at certification stage; verification is external.

• The B Corp workbook, translated into English and German together with PrimeGlobal, is available to members.

Join the conversation

This first discussion showed that member interest goes beyond certification alone. Firms are asking practical questions about purpose, governance, culture, measurement, talent and client choices, and about how these ideas can be applied in a professional services context.

PrimeGlobal will host a follow-up webinar in the new year, shaped by the questions and areas of interest members have already shared. Future discussion could include:

• The business case, honestly – costs, benefits and lessons from firms that have done it

• Inside the standard – a practical walk-through of the free self-assessment and what it can teach a firm, even before certification

• Embedding purpose in practice – how firms connect purpose to governance, culture, people, clients and decision-making

• Practical first steps – one concrete next move for firms at different stages

Every member firm is welcome, wherever it stands on purpose and certification. If your firm would like to be kept informed, contribute questions, or take part in the next discussion, please register your interest here.

The first question is not which tool to use, but what kind of firm you want to be.