Message Agency and Marcus Iannozzi - Web Design for the Public Good

Meet the Disruptor: Message Agency

As B Lab holds its almanac retreat this calendar week, the local web blueprint firm talks most staying true to the values that made it a "All-time for the World"—social good and less greed

Oct. 19, 2016

Message Bureau, a web design firm founded past Marcus Iannozzi in 1995, works near exclusively with nonprofits, universities, and public institutions. In the years since, the company has repeatedly been recognized for its civic engagement by institutions like the Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce and Benjamin Franklin Engineering science Ventures .

Today, Message Bureau—a certified B Corporation—has grown in size to over a dozen employees, but maintains its do-gooder intentions, from the spread between Iannozzi'due south salary and his employees to searching for cost-savings for clients.

In anticipation of this week's B Corps Champions Retreat—when 300 socially-witting companies from 22 countries are converging on Philly—we spent a few minutes with Iannozzi, talking most how becoming a B Corp has strengthened Message Agency's commitment to existence civically impactful.

Todd Snider: Tell me a little scrap nigh the history of Message Bureau and your culture.

Marcus Iannozzi: I started off as a solo consultant in the 1990s, working mostly with universities, translating the results of enquiry into products and tools that broader audiences could utilize, whether [they were] policy makers or the general public. And that was before the web was a affair—this was the early on-1990s. We transitioned into a digital firm, and I've had the honor of simply working with nonprofits, universities, foundations, and authorities agencies. (We've worked for a handful of for-profits, but they're usually B corps or a local organisation.) I purposefully set out to have a social mission with this business organization. By the time we really took the [cess for B corporations], we were a Best for the Globe —the first time we took the assessment! And we've been there for three years running.

TS: What does the thought of civic date mean to you personally?

MI: I experience like a business has a responsibleness to brand a contribution to the customs that it serves, and that involves redefining the value that the business organization generates. For example, we don't think of the value that the business generates equally just existence owned by me, the owner. It is something that gets redistributed to our staff—because they accept a key function in generating that value, sometimes more than me!—and as well our clients.

Nosotros exercise that in a couple of ways. We attempt to leverage all the things we've congenital before for other clients, and rather than making big margins off those things, we try to drive down the cost of delivering them to new clients, so that [the new clients] benefit from the investments the [old clients] have fabricated. It means sometimes choosing to lose money on a project, because information technology's more of import that the system, that nosotros really believe in and that we really want support, gets aid from usa. We can't practise that all the fourth dimension, merely nosotros figure out how to balance our books in different ways.

A lot of that, too, is just my not being a greedy owner. Not that all owners of businesses are greedy—that sounds terrible. But the distribution of wages in this business organisation, from what I get paid to what the lowest paid employee is paid, is very narrow. It's not because I was born into wealth and don't need the money; I simply happen to atomic number 82 a very unproblematic life, a good life, and I don't have to extract as much out of the business organization every bit other owners do. And we operate without debt. Or investors. And so nosotros're able to brand those decisions without the influence of other interests.

TS: Why did you want Message Agency to get a B corporation?

MI: It really is an imprimatur—like a Good Housekeeping seal. Only it'south more meaningful than some of the other pay-to-play badges that people engage in, especially in my industry. [Being a B corp], to me, is actually a meaningful bespeak to our clients that nosotros are who we say we are.

What we hear from clients is that, first of all, [being a B corp] establishes a level of trust, the fundamental part of the relationship, that is actually beneficial. Because, someone else, independently, has examined how nosotros do what nosotros practise. Information technology's not about how we build websites or projects, information technology's almost how we run our business. And that's very important to our customer base.

And it's opening us upward to a whole new community—and maybe even a new marketplace—of businesses that we would non have met with otherwise. It allows us to understand how to practice what nosotros practice, better. [Message Agency] is difficult—information technology's a difficult manner to run a business. Hearing other people share experiences is and then powerful, not only to inspire us to keep going, but likewise past [providing] examples that we tin adopt, that our colleagues are using, to help us get there.

TS: Lastly, what advice would y'all give to companies that are because becoming B corporations?

MI: Do it! On the 1 hand, I recollect it's really important to grow the number of B corps that are in this economy, right? This is a movement that is actually important to grow. [Being a B corp] inspires other organizations to rethink how they're doing things—it actually gives them a roadmap for doing it. And I would encourage anyone to take the assessment, regardless of whether or not they want to exist a B corp. They may surprise themselves at how well they're doing, and start to rethink who they are—their identity as an organization. I e'er thought 'business' was a dirty discussion, and it was, until I realized that I could run a business organisation differently and, using this assessment, keep to run my business concern in an impactful way. It's actually been valuable, even for a firm similar ours that scored really highly to begin with [on the B corp assessment].

I would encourage people to use it every bit a framework for proving their social affect,  especially large corporations. What are they doing? What kind of touch are they really having beyond volunteering?

Photo header: Message Agency

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Source: https://thephiladelphiacitizen.org/message-agency-marcus-iannozzi/

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