Barb Brown & Margie Flynn in the news!

Margie Flynn (left) and Barb Brown, Principals and Co-owners of BrownFlynn

Principals and Co-owners Barb Brown and Margie Flynn were featured in the Cleveland Plain Dealer this past Sunday in a special segment called “Talk with the Boss” in the Business Section.

Brown and Flynn were quick to point out that there is no ‘boss’ at BrownFlynn, but rather our culture is that of a collaborative team that has respect for each other. Brown defined leadership as: “Leadership is when you have set the foundation for how you would like your company to operate. We have developed principles (that) represent what we believe we would want to see if we held a mirror up to ourselves” (Funk, Plain Dealer).

Brown and Flynn credit an old boss for pushing them to think outside the box and doing things they didn’t know how to do to learn them. They look for passion and commitment when hiring associates, though they acknowledge finding the right culture fit is a challenge.

Brown and Flynn conclude with these words for their organizational vision: “It is very much about our commitment to making this world a better place. Yet if we were to continue to do the same things we are doing today five years from today, that may not get us to where we need to be. It is an ideal vision, of having the business world embrace these principles as a way of doing business” (Funk, Plain Dealer).

To read the whole article, please click here.

Letter from a Supporter

On December 29, The Plain Dealer published an article about BrownFlynn, focusing on the growth of our business despite a major recession.  While BrownFlynn is small, even for a boutique sustainability consulting firm, we have spent the last year developing a new training and education division—BrownFlynn Learning—that offers the nation’s first GRI-certified training program.  Additionally, BrownFlynn expanded its business to include adjunct consultants across the nation. 

In response to the Plain Dealer article, we received the following letter which we would like to share:

“It is difficult to believe that BrownFlynn ‘saw its business drying up’ a year ago according to the article featured in the business section of the Plain Dealer in December of 2009. I subjectively make the statement in response to the impressive information I felt compelled to gather about the company after reading the article. BrownFlynn’s mission ‘commits to create a world in which all companies operate in a manner that provides for the freedom of current and future generations’ ability to prosper.’ The poignant mission statement confirms my belief that the successful future of all domestic and international business is dependent on the awareness and implementation of sustainable practices. According to the World Commission on Environment and Development in 1987, ‘Sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.’ The notion that BrownFlynn appears to have formulated its mission statement based on this quote reveals its devotion to the practice. Further, they establish credibility by repeatedly stating on their website that they continue ‘walking the talk’ even if each action or effort might seem insignificant to others. In other words, all that may seem insignificant actually has a great lasting impact on the whole and it is critical to ‘practice what you preach’.