MIT Sloan Management Review Article on Shifting From B2B to B4B Can Build a More Sustainable Business

What’s the difference between B2B and B4B? It may sound simple, but we have found that reframing your business-to-business (B2B) company as a business-for-business (B4B) company can increase revenues, customer retention, and employee morale. And for one supplier to food companies, identifying as B4B has provided it with a deeper sense of purpose that has ignited innovation and creativity within the organization.

Luker Chocolate manufactures and sells chocolate as an ingredient to other food businesses; one of us (Sergio Restrepo) is the company’s vice president of innovation. A few years ago, he noticed that Luker’s salespeople were largely pushing commodity products with volume discounts and knew fairly little about their customers’ businesses. The company’s B2B mindset meant it measured success based on the tons of chocolate sold — but it didn’t really understand its customers or what could help them make progress.

About the Author

Sergio Restrepo is vice president of innovation at Luker Chocolate.

Efosa Ojomo is director of Global Prosperity at the Clayton Christensen Institute.