B2H (Business to Human) is the New Mindset in Corporate Parlance

The timing couldn't be better for the new acronym

So there I was, sitting at a fancy SoHo hotel dinner with a group of smart, generous, and accomplished women when I heard a term that stopped me in my tracks.

“Have you all heard of B2H?”

One of the guests of honor at the dinner explained that it was all the buzz at CES.

B2H (Business to Humans) is poised to replace B2C (Business to Consumers) and B2B (Business to Business). And hopefully the ghastly B2B2C.

My product consulting practice is called Keep it Human, and is all about keeping tech work on a solid base of humanity and human skills and relationships.

It turns out that B2H as a label isn't brand new, but it has been picking up steam in the last few months.

It makes sense.

Design Thinking has taught us that solving customer problems should be a north star for product development teams. Your products should seek to help human beings with problems and challenges, meeting underlying needs. Human-centered design is more than a buzzword: it's a mindset.

American leadership culture has been shifting in a more human and relationship-driven direction for at least the last decade. And trust in corporations is at an all-time high, while trust in government is at an all-time low.

So what better time to double down on relationships in business?

To me, business to human means that companies will stop thinking about their customers purely as monolithic “consumers” or “businesses” and prioritize genuine human needs and problems.

I hope this is a genuine trend toward moving the needle and not just another label companies will use to virtue signal.

So what might B2H look like?

True Personalization & Customization

We've heard this battle cry before, but it's real now and it's here. Humans want solutions that work for them and they're showing it with their spending habits. Have you noticed how cable subscriptions are dwindling, but many households have multiple streaming subscriptions (we've got Netflix, Hulu, Disney+, and Acorn at the moment).

People-First Employee Cultures

Yes, we're seeing businesses execute mass layoffs, but we're also seeing a desperate attempt to keep good employees. Culture will matter even more in the coming years than it ever has before. Two of the biggest themes we'll continue to see: flexibility and civility.

Customer Experience

Have you ever had an extremely bad experience with a company that somehow wins all kinds of awards for customer service? That's got to stop. No more trophies for being the best at managing your Better Business Bureau complaints.

What do you think Business to Human should mean? Are you seeing any signs of change in your business or industry? Or is this all a lot of noise?

Maura Charles is the founder of Keep it Human. As a Product Leadership Coach and Consultant, she is on a mission to help teams and organizations embrace human skills like communication and emotional intelligence in their ways of working. 

She brings 25 years of experience as an editor, product manager, and digital business leader to bear on the challenges of building human-centered high-performing tech teams. 

If you'd like to develop more human business and tech teams that hum together to drive results, check out Keep it Human and follow Maura Charles on LinkedIn.