You can never truly know a person until you’ve watched them try to assemble an Ikea wardrobe at 9pm on a Tuesday.

It always starts with such optimism. You’ve seen the shiny picture in the showroom. You’re a wizard with an Allen key so there's no need for the instructions. Heck, this will only take 20 minutes.

Some hours later, you emerge red-faced and furious with three mystery screws and a deep sense of regret.

Running a business is remarkably similar. We all start with a shiny vision of what our company should be. We want to be the good guys, the kind of business that looks after its team, treats its clients like royalty, and leaves the world better than we found it.

But then the reality kicks in. Life becomes a blur – helping clients, managing people, navigating the day-to-day chaos. Meanwhile, those grand plans for formalising your social impact often get treated like those leftover Ikea screws. We know they’re important, but we’re too busy patching up the wobbly wardrobe with gaffer tape to figure out where they actually go.

'Time to stop winging it'

This is exactly why Travel Trade Consultancy, The Travel Vault and Stonecot Trustees decided it was time to stop winging it and actually follow the instructions. In December 2023, like TTG Media, we officially certified as B Corps.

Now, if you haven’t looked into it, the B Corp Impact Assessment is the corporate equivalent of those Ikea instructions. It’s rigorous, it’s transparent and it’s brutally thorough. You can’t just say you’re a good business; you have to prove it across every metric from your carbon footprint to your staff pension scheme.

The process forced us to tighten policies we’d talked about for years but never formalised. It sharpened accountability at a board level. It made us quantify things we’d previously described in vague terms.

The discipline required to embed purpose properly makes you commercially stronger. Clearer governance sharpens decision-making, and proper oversight reduces risk. Transparency builds trust with clients who are increasingly doing their own due diligence.

In an industry built on trust, we think that matters.

'Our best recruitment tool'

People are asking tougher questions about who they want to work with. Buyers want more than a bland list of values on a website. They want evidence. An external, legally binding standard cuts through that conversation quickly.

It’s also turned out to be our best recruitment tool. Top candidates aren’t just comparing salaries, they’re looking at cultures and credibility. B Corp certification signals we’ve built something with proper foundations, not something held together by good intentions.

As we gear up to re-certify next year, I’ve realised being a B Corp hasn’t just made us better people, it’s made us a more sustainable, professional outfit. We’ve finally used those mystery screws, fixed the wobbles, and we’re much clearer on what we’re building.

Sometimes, it pays to follow the instructions.

Martin Alcock is a director of the Travel Trade Consultancy.

Interested in learning more about responsible travel? Applications are now open for the 2026 TTG Sustainable Travel Heroes programme