Edelman Barometer shows that trust in family businesses has been waning over the last few years, dropping six points in their 2022 report. As corporate citizenship has developed, consumers expect companies to espouse and demonstrate their commitments to causes like the environment, just supply chains, and social issues. Family businesses often have these values ingrained in them from their founding, yet it appears many are failing to communicate their long standing commitments.
To understand how well family businesses are communicating their values, Leadership Story Lab (LSL), a storytelling coaching, consulting and training company, designed a ranking system with 8 criteria. The VISibility Ranking scale helps a company measure how well they are sharing their Values and Impact through Storytelling.
LSL then scored 30 B Corp certified family businesses in how well they are communicating their values across these 8 criteria. Leadership Story Lab chose B Corp businesses as the certification process ensures the family businesses selected for review have proven to a third party that they are indeed values-driven businesses.
“Family businesses are a trove of incredible stories across generations, but often they don’t take the time to reflect on or share these stories,” said Esther Choy, Founder and Chief Story Facilitator at LSL. “When they do it [storytelling] the impact can be so powerful. Not only as a marketing strategy, but in elevating the purposes of the company internally and preparing the next generation for leadership. This is why I was interested in creating this ranking system.”
The ranking is now available on Leadership Story Lab’s website.