Five minutes with James Parkes

1. ImpactOS turns fragmented data into clear, measurable evidence of social value. What problem did you keep seeing that convinced you businesses needed a better way to demonstrate their impact?

We kept seeing valuable information scattered across organisations, sitting in spreadsheets, separate systems and unstructured documents. Businesses were doing meaningful work, but bringing the evidence together and understanding what it actually told them was difficult.

And this is a huge area. Social value sits within a much wider world of non-financial data: supply chains, equal opportunity, financial equality, sustainability and climate. Historically, that information hasn’t been managed with the same rigour as financial data, even though it has real implications for risk, how a business operates and its bottom line.

That was the problem we wanted to solve with ImpactOS: giving organisations a clear, consistent way to bring that information together, understand it and demonstrate their impact.

2. Social value can easily become a vague promise or a last-minute exercise for a public-sector bid. What changes when organisations can measure and evidence it properly—and what comes next for ImpactOS?

It becomes about accountability: are businesses delivering what they said they would, and are communities seeing the benefit?

When public money funds a contract, there should be a clear connection between the commitments made and the benefits delivered to the communities involved, above and beyond the core work. Proper measurement helps organisations see what’s working, where they’re falling short and where they can make a greater difference.

For ImpactOS, social value is one strand of the broader model we’ve built for accounting for non-financial data. Our direction is to bring that together into a single source of truth, supporting everything from mandatory regulatory reporting and investor relations to social value and climate reporting. It’s about making that evidence useful in everyday business decisions.

3. Most importantly, what’s in your cup, and how do you take it?

Coffee. Black. Red diesel only!

4. You spent years in professional rugby and coaching elite players. What lesson from that world has proved most valuable in business?

Hard work beats talent when talent doesn’t work hard.

Talent gives you a starting point, but it’s the effort and consistency you bring every day that make the difference. That’s as true in business as it is in rugby: prepare properly, keep learning and keep showing up for the people around you.

5. When the laptop is closed, and it’s time for a break, what does the perfect day with your family look like?

Together and outdoors are probably the two key things for us. We’re incredibly fortunate to live in Devon, with the moors and the sea within reach, and to look out of the window and see green—or brown, as it was this summer!

The perfect day doesn’t need to be complicated. A day out together, some good food and time to enjoy it. Good food, good times and everyone together.