Meilin Wong, Partner and CEO of Singapore at Milk & Honey PR, shared with Telum the motivations behind becoming a B Corp certified communications agency and how it aligns with their vision to foster sustainable and socially responsible practices in the industry.

What motivated Milk & Honey PR to pursue B Corp certification, and how has that impacted the agency’s operations and culture?
Being B Corp enables us to double down on our intention to be a business as a force for good and do it more effectively.

Milk & Honey created its values - energy, bravery, respect, passion, collaboration and loyalty - right from the beginning. These values have been engrained into the company’s DNA and culture, shaping our workforce sustainability priorities, what we look for in the people we hire across our offices in Singapore, the UK, the US and Germany, how we work with each other as well as how we conduct our business, the kind of partnerships we build, and how we deliver for our clients.

We understand that well-being, ethics, and sustainability are not barriers or tangential to competitiveness and profitability, but fundamental.

We wanted to ensure that our efforts to grow a business as a force for good are trackable and measurable, meaning benchmarks are different: staff satisfaction is as important as placements on PR power lists. We are united as a team across markets to further our intention of creating a business that benefits people, communities and the planet.

Five years of hard work have paid off - at 154.2, we’re the highest impact-scoring B Corp-certified communications agency in the world. We aim to prove every day, with every colleague, partner, client and campaign, that ‘good’ business is good business - building a bigger, ever-more profitable and always ethically-led agency. We believe that, in the future, all businesses will need to work this way.

What are some of the unique opportunities / challenges your team faced, especially in navigating the Asian market, since the agency's inception in Singapore a year ago?
Like any new and ambitious company, a critical challenge is establishing our unique brand and nurturing our reputation in a highly competitive industry with operators of all sizes and descriptions.

We want to be known as a mighty international boutique B Corp communications agency that connects businesses and organisations with audiences that seek purpose-led brands. What differentiates us is that our team comprises primarily tenured consultants; we are both strategists and activators who understand how to navigate a complex business and PR landscape - quickly and effectively.

This approach reduces costly ‘lost in translation’ situations and ensures senior counsel is highly accessible.

The second challenge is staying true to our founding principles, as values are the first casualty of a high-growth strategy.

Milk & Honey has three key growth focus areas:

1. Business - Balancing profitability and being a business as a force for good is a critical area for us, particularly in the early growth stages. It’s a key differentiator across all markets we operate in. We are building strategic partnerships with organisations that mutually support our respective missions. We will work with more innovative companies that are inspired by the idea of providing meaningful solutions to problems that change people’s lives.
2. People - Currently, 74 per cent of our people co-own 55 per cent of the business. We will welcome more people into Milk & Honey’s co-ownership through the Employee Ownership Trust (EOT). We are determined to prove that employee happiness, personal growth and belonging are essential to the success of all modern businesses.
3. Localising our global offerings - We will focus on establishing two of our global offerings and making them relevant for our clients in the SEA region: imPACT, a practice that provides purpose and ESG communications support to clients of all sizes; and Broadcast and Podcast, a division that addresses the unique challenges and opportunities presented by the transforming nature of media

How has your diverse and vibrant career experiences influenced your leadership style and strategic vision of running the agency?
Spending the past 20 years working with global brands and a decade working in the startup space has influenced my leadership style in three ways:

Go big fearlessly: We currently pursue new business opportunities of all sizes with the same level of gusto, earnestness, and confidence. We don’t get intimidated by big-branded clients whose incumbents are large-networked agencies, because there are real benefits an independent boutique agency like Milk & Honey offers.

Be adaptable and agile: Being ready to pivot when necessary is very real when leading a new company. We can have the most well-laid-out plan, but if things aren’t working, we must change course quickly based on industry feedback, market trends and new information. Since we started Milk & Honey nearly a year ago, we’ve refined our short and long-term strategies twice - this has led to us building a diverse and robust pipeline that includes SMEs, startups and some of the world’s most recognisable brands across diverse industries.

Be resilient: Setbacks will inevitably happen, and when they do, I encourage learning from them and quickly moving forward. Maintaining a positive attitude and resilient mindset when things aren’t going the way we plan is critical, or we won’t have longevity in the business.

Looking ahead, how do you envision Milk & Honey PR contributing to advancing sustainable and socially responsible practices within the public relations industry?
As a B Corp agency, we are dedicated to advancing sustainable and socially responsible practices in the public relations industry. Our certification underscores our commitment to high social and environmental performance, transparency, and accountability. Every year since our certification in 2019, we release a detailed People, Purpose Planet Impact Report, ensuring transparency and continuous improvement. This year, we released our fifth edition of this report.

We will also continue to prioritise and advance the following agency-wide initiatives:

• Integrating sustainability into our operations and client strategies, promoting transparent and ethical communication that avoids greenwashing.
• Ensuring our campaigns are designed to be inclusive, reflecting diverse communities and fostering social equity.
• Advocating for high ethical standards and transparency, both internally and with our clients - these are incorporated into all our contracts.
• Investing in the diversity of our workforce and that of the wider PR industry - our ‘250 to 2025’ initiative reaches out to diverse candidates to promote and break down barriers to careers in PR. We also run ‘Untick the Box’, our podcast that acts as a platform for diverse voices to inspire a new generation of creative practitioners in the industry. As of May 2024, Milk & Honey PR employs a diverse team that reflects the communities we serve:
  • 32 per cent of our global team have primary or secondary care responsibilities
  • Over 18 per cent identify as having some form of disability
  • 21 per cent of our people are aged above 50
  • 15 per cent of our people identify as LGBTQ+
  • 100 per cent female board in Singapore, the UK & at Group. 50 per cent in the US and 67 per cent in Germany

By championing these initiatives, we aim to set a benchmark for sustainability and social responsibility, driving positive change across the industry.