The start of a new year is traditionally seen as the season of the “Big Reset”. In boardrooms and home offices across the UK, leaders are staring at a blank calendar, identifying the major milestones they want to hit by next December and trying to formulate their business strategy.
Mental Health UK observe how New Year’s resolutions for individuals, “are often black-or-white, win or lose, and while healthy competition with others can also help us achieve our goals, our “failure” to achieve these goals can lead us to believe we are also “failures.””
The same can be said for businesses, especially Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs), with the prospect of gaining accreditations for key areas feeling like an unclimbable mountain. Developing a business strategy whilst facing down the paperwork, the audits, and the sheer volume of evidence required can be paralysing.
At the same time, there is mounting pressure for achieving the “big” recognitions: becoming a more sustainable business, proving a commitment to Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), or ensuring rigorous compliance with Modern Slavery statements. These aren’t just “nice-to-haves” anymore; they are key considerations for your business strategy around winning tenders, attracting top talent, and securing a place in modern supply chains.
The solution? Micro-accreditation. By breaking down massive corporate milestones into smaller, manageable “Ticks”, your business strategy can focus on achieving macro impact through a simple, month-by-month approach.
Understanding the “Tick” System
In the past, gaining a recognised business accreditation was often a “binary” process. You either had the certificate, or you didn’t. The journey to get there was usually a long, dark tunnel of administrative work, culminating in a high-stakes audit. Talk about a high risk business strategy.
Micro-accreditation changes the game. It treats a full corporate accreditation like a modular puzzle. Instead of trying to solve the whole thing at once, a business works through specific, bite-sized modules. Each completed module earns the business a “Tick”: a verified micro-accreditation that proves they have met a specific standard in one area of a larger framework.
For example, instead of a business trying to “solve” its entire CSR strategy in January, it might focus on earning a single Tick for its “Community Engagement Policy”. Once that is achieved, it moves on to the next Tick for “Environmental Impact”.
The Simplicity of the Monthly Target
The beauty of the micro-accreditation model lies in its simplicity. It perfectly aligns with the New Year psychology of breaking down large resolutions into actionable steps, allowing you to have a series of SMART goals.
When a goal is too large, it is easy to procrastinate. But when a goal is “Micro”, it becomes a task for the Tuesday morning meeting. As Atlassian describe, “it’s easier to succeed when you have clearly defined objectives that are based in reality.”
This modularity allows a leaders to develop a robust business strategy and plan their year with surgical precision:
- January: Audit and achieve the “Modern Slavery Awareness” Tick.
- February: Focus on the “Supply Chain Transparency” Tick.
- March: Finalise the “Ethical Labour Practices” Tick.
By the end of the first quarter, the business hasn’t just “talked” about its ethical standing; it has three verifiable Ticks that accumulate towards a full, industry-recognised accreditation. It turns a daunting annual objective into a series of monthly victories.
Scaling Impact: From Micro-Businesses to Global Enterprises
One of the most significant advantages of micro-accreditation is that it removes the “size barrier” to corporate excellence.
For the SME: Business Strategy for Accessibility and Growth
Many smaller businesses feel “locked out” of major accreditations. They have the passion and the ethics, but they lack a dedicated compliance department to handle a 100-page application.
Micro-accreditation allows an SME to build its credentials at its own pace as part of the overarching business strategy. It enables them to show progress to potential clients immediately. Earning two or three “Ticks” in the first few months of the year sends a powerful message to bigger partners: “We are on the path, we are compliant, and we are verifiable.” It allows small businesses to compete for larger contracts by proving their standards one module at a time, whilst also proving that they have a working business strategy.
(See our piece on ‘How SMBs Can Gain the Advantage With Microaccreditations’ to delve deeper into this topic.)
For the Large Corporation: Clarity and Momentum
For larger organisations, the challenge is often inertia. Implementing a new CSR or Modern Slavery framework across multiple departments is a logistical nightmare.
The “Tick” system provides a clear roadmap. It allows department heads to focus on specific, achievable milestones rather than getting lost in the “macro” noise. It creates a culture of continuous improvement, where the business is constantly collecting Ticks and strengthening its foundations throughout the year.
And as Harvard Summer School observe, “It can be difficult to see the bigger picture when you’re working toward a long-term goal. Recognizing small wins along the way is not only an important part of making progress, but can also help keep you motivated.”
Turning Compliance into a Competitive Edge
It can be easy to think of things like Modern Slavery compliance or CSR as “box-ticking” exercises (often in a negative sense). However, when you use a micro-accreditation framework, those Ticks become a massive competitive advantage.
- Transparency and Trust: In an era of “greenwashing”, stakeholders are cynical. Being able to show exactly which micro-accreditations you have achieved provides a level of transparency that a single, opaque certificate cannot match.
- Risk Mitigation: By breaking down areas like Modern Slavery into smaller modules, you are forced to look closer at the details. This granular approach often uncovers risks that a broader audit might miss.
- Tender Readiness: When a major contract comes up for tender in June, the business that has been steadily collecting Ticks since January is in a far better position than the business trying to rush a full accreditation in a fortnight.
Mapping Your Path for 2025
If you are currently planning your business goals for the year, consider moving away from the “all or nothing” approach to accreditation.
The most successful businesses this year won’t be those that set the loftiest goals, but those that find the simplest ways to reach them. Micro-accreditation offers a path that is sustainable, affordable, and (most importantly) achievable.
Start by identifying the macro impact you want to have. Do you want to be the most ethical supplier in your region? Do you want to lead your industry in social responsibility?
Once you have that vision, look for the Ticks. Break the year down. Focus on one micro-accreditation this month. Then the next. Before you know it, those small, simple steps will have moved your business further than a “big bang” strategy ever could.
Find out more about the accreditation standards and how to start your journey here.