Understanding the Documentary Film Not Business as Usual

This reflective essay provides an understanding of the documentary film Not Business as Usual, directed by Lawrence Le Ram and Rik Klingle-Watt, which explores capitalism and its unintended consequences. It discusses the concept of benefit corporations and their role in solving societal problems while earning profits. The essay also highlights the challenges of implementing this alternative business model.

Running head: MEDIA COMMUNICATION
Media Communication
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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The film, Not Business as Usual is a well-known documentary made by directors
Lawrence Le Ram and Rik Klingle-Watt and written by the same film-makers. Recently, I
got to watch the documentary and found that the documentary is quite well-known among the
documentary film-makers. In the paragraphs below I will provide my own understanding of
the documentary that I had watched recently. I will also provide the things that I understood
from the contents that are provided in the documentary.
The purpose of this reflective essay is to describe my own understandings of the
documentary film “Not Business as Usual”.
The documentary, Not Business as Usual, directed by Lawrence Le Ram and Rik
Klingle-Watt is a documentary which takes an extensive look into capitalism and its
unintentional price of success. The film tells the story of the capitalists who have come up
with very different methods of bringing the humans back into the business activities. The film
can be considered as a valuable resource for people who wants to solve the problems in their
society by means of business. The film wants to convey the message that business can solve
any type of problems in the society as people will be able to earn more profits through their
business activities. Thus, the film states that more business activities will indeed solve the
problems in the society.
There are various things that I learned from watching the documentary of Not
Business as usual. Firstly, the most important thing that I learnt from watching the
documentary is that the metrics of sustainability are continuously evolving. This means that
there is always going to be a way to have sustainable lower impact products. This also means
that there are no direct ways to have zero impact products when they are being produced,
there can be various ways by which those effects can be removed. Another thing that I

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learned from the video itself is that the business can be used as aa means to solve any kinds
of problems in the society.
From the term, Business Responsibilities, I got to know the fact that there are certain
responsibilities that the businesses need to take. These includes benefit corporations which
operate in a different manner as opposed to the traditional business methods. It is these
corporations that work their business in respect to their community interests. The company
looks after the needs and demands of the society while performing the business so that they
can both earn profits as well as meet the needs and the demands of their society. Thus, from
the video, I got to learn the fact that Benefit Corporations are the new alternatives to the
business organizations which follows on the new business philosophy of both achieving
profits and solving the interests of the society.
As a future media manager myself, I got to have my own views on the subject matter,
which states that benefit corporations philosophy should be well implemented in the business
organizations the real world. This is done to ensure that that businesses can solve both the
interests of the society itself and earn profits in the marketplace. Benefit Corporations are
indeed important that as these can indeed solve a lot of problems as stated in the
documentary, Not Business as Usual. In the documentary, the makers of the movie
themselves focuses on the Benefit Corporations and its usefulness in the business matters of
the society. Thus, from the video and the facts presented in the video, it can be said that
Benefit Corporations are the new alternatives in the town.
I feel that as a documentary film, Not Business as Usual manages to successfully
achieve its meaning, but they still have a long ways to go before they can fully reach the idea
to the whole audience of the world. I feel that the documentary is successful in its message
because the fact that it presents, i.e. the concepts of B Corp. is really a good alternative to the

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traditional business corporations of today as these organizations can both earn their profits as
well as solve the needs and demands of the society. This step will make sure that more and
more people will be involved in the benefit corporations model of business. On the other
hand, the message that they present will take time to reach the audience because not
everybody has seen the documentary yet and therefore, they do not know about the concepts
of B – Corp. As such, it will be difficult for them to understand what the topic is about. I feel
that if they are not really able to understand the topic, implementing it can become difficult
for them. Therefore, the message presented by the documentary has both advantages as well
as disadvantages.
Thus, from the above argument, I feel that that Not Business as Usual has both its
successes and failures as a documentary. This is because although the content that they
present is a good alternative to the current scenario in the business, it can be difficult to
achieve as most of the viewers do not know about the concept at all. Thus, I feel that the
documentary needs to be more widely circulated for the audience to understand the subject
matter and to fully implement the concept of benefit corporations as an alternative to the
traditional business organizations.

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Reference List
André, Rae. "Benefit corporations at a crossroads: As lawyers weigh in, companies weigh
their options." Business Horizons 58.3 (2015): 243-252.
Hacker, Michael A. "Profit, People, Planet Perverted: Holding Benefit Corporations
Accountable to Intended Beneficiaries." BCL Rev. 57 (2016): 1747.
Hiller, Janine S., Scott Shackelford, and Xiao Ma. "The Firm as Common Pool
Resource:Unpacking the Rise of Benefit Corporations." (2016).
Robson, Regina. "A new look at benefit corporations: Game theory and game changer." Am.
Bus. LJ 52 (2015): 501.
Stecker, Michelle J. "Awash in a sea of confusion: Benefit corporations, social enterprise, and
the fear of “greenwashing”." Journal of Economic Issues 50.2 (2016): 373-381.
Stecker, Michelle J. "Awash in a sea of confusion: Benefit corporations, social enterprise, and
the fear of “greenwashing”." Journal of Economic Issues 50.2 (2016): 373-381.

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