Anthony Collins - 2024 impact report review
My review of Anthony Collins’s impact report is a bit different – because I actually reviewed two documents to pull together this combined review. Their Social Impact Report and their B Corp Impact Report.
They do say that they have an ambition to integrate their long-standing social purpose with their B Corp commitments – and I think there is a huge opportunity for them to do so. Impact is clearly integral to their purpose and strategy as a business.
Together, the two documents give a great insight into the firm’s approach to impact. My 6 reflection points below are based on both documents.
👍🏻 Three things I like:
1. HAVING AN IMPACT THROUGH THE WORK THEY DO
Businesses always have a far bigger impact when it is integrated into the work they do every day.
Anthony Collins share lots of examples of how they are doing this. I particularly enjoyed the interview with the major trauma nurse practitioner at Birmingham Children’s Hospital. This also talks to the people-centred way they work as well as just what they do.
2. CRITICAL FRIEND ROLE AT BOARD
They’ve introduced a Critical Friend role at 50% of Board meetings to bring in different perspectives. This is whilst actively trying to increase diversity of Board members.
3. ED&I WORK IS MAKING A DIFFERENCE
They go into detail about what they are doing on ED&I.
And their outcome metrics suggest that what they are doing is making a difference. For example, 49% of partners are female and 63% of legal directors are female. 65% of “first- and second-year trainees now come from under-represented socio-economic backgrounds”
For both of these stats, it would be helpful to understand how these compare with prior years and the sector as a whole.
❓Three questions it raises:
1. WHAT IS THEIR PURPOSE & STRATEGY?
They talk a lot about being a “purpose-led law firm” but don’t define what that means. Their website says that their purpose is “to improve lives, communities and society.”
I’d like to understand their specific goals and strategy for delivering them.
An exercise to articulate this could be how they integrate their B Corp commitments into their wider strategy.
2. HOW DO THEY DECIDE WHO TO WORK WITH?
They say “over the last 12 months … 94% of our work directly improving the lives of
individuals, communities and society.”
How do they decide which projects / clients to work on vs not? How does this align with their purpose and their strategy?
3. WHAT WERE & ARE THEIR OBJECTIVES?
What were their objectives for the year? How do those align with the longer term strategy and journey they’re on? How did they do against those objectives?
In the B Corp report they do share what’s planned next. However this is discursive rather than SMART and feels focused on a B Corp perspective rather than progress towards their overarching purpose.
***
You can read the Social Impact Report for yourself here and the B Corp Impact Report here. Let me know what you think!
If you’re preparing to write your own impact report, you might find my FREE Impact Reporting Roadmap helpful: