We Have the Whole World in Our Hands

Posted on by Vince DiBianca

The World-Changing Potential in the Emerging Paradigm of Business.

Does footwear company TOMS Shoes give away a free pair of shoes to the needy for every pair they sell just because it’s good for their bottom line? Is Paul Polman, CEO of $70B Unilever merely a marketing maven or is he deeply committed to impacting the sustainability of our planet? Is mega-conglomerate Tata Group, really serious about their commitment to confronting climate change or are they just smartly presenting an environmentally responsible public image?

Some would argue that this is all merely a strategy for business to find ways to look good and seduce the consumer to buy more, a way of sugar coating the real intent to simply make more bucks. Other doubters say these corporate commitments are authentic but are rare and don’t reflect the heart of global business.

Having consulted with tens of thousands of leaders in large and small enterprises over the last 40 years, we at Praemia Group, have a different point-of-view of what’s happening. We see an authentic leap forward occurring in business’ commitment to take responsibility for our collective future — an emerging movement towards a new global consciousness where business is returning to its original mission of providing real value to the world. Although, many companies place their social responsibilities as one of many decision-making factors, the emerging leaders place it at the core of all of their decisions.

After taking the helm a few years ago, Polman immediately got to work developing a more sustainable culture at Unilever. That included promoting an end to quarterly reporting so that people could focus on long-term challenges like shifting “mindless” consumer consumption by providing real value to society.

Tata Group’s commitment to a sustainable environment spawned several new businesses such as green power from Tata Power, nanotechnology applications from the innovation center of Tata Chemicals and the supply of special steel for offshore wind farms by Tata Steel Europe.

TOMS’ vision to impact the greater good has taken its one-for-one program, which has provided millions of free shoes for needy children, and has expanded to now include free eyeglasses helping to restore sight for hundreds of thousands of people.

John Mackey, CEO of Whole Foods along with co-author Raj Sisodia point out in their recent book, Conscious Capitalism that dozens of companies are “suffused with higher purpose, leavened with authentic caring, influential and inspirational, egalitarian and committed to excellence, trustworthy and transparent, admired and emulated, loved and respected.” Their examples include: Whole Foods Market, The Container Store, Patagonia, Eaton, the Tata Group, Google, Panera Bread, Southwest Airlines, Bright Horizons, Starbucks, UPS, Costco, Wegmans, REI, Twitter, POSCO, and others.

Mackey and Sisodia say, “business has a much broader positive impact on the world when it’s based on a higher purpose that goes beyond only generating profits and creating shareholder value. Purpose is the reason the company exists. A compelling sense of high purpose creates an extraordinary degree of engagement among all stakeholders and catalyzes creativity, innovation and organizational commitment.”

This emerging corporate narrative may well be an authentic welcoming into “the heroic new world of conscious capitalism” as these authors assert, where leaders see the enlightened path to making a difference in a world facing immense challenge rather than a clever disguise to simply “get more”.

As activist and author Lynne Twist observes in her book The Soul of Money, “I’ve seen that business and entrepreneurial energy grounded in the principles of sufficiency leads to success and sustainable growth, while the notorious business affairs of recent years… offer ample evidence that business rooted in the get-mine and get-it-fast mentality of scarcity only creates financial instability and eventually proves unsustainable, even if the short-term gains seem highly profitable.”

We share the interpretation that at this time in history there are two different paradigms in the world simultaneously, one that is long established, dominant but declining, (and by declining we mean becoming less and less relevant to the changing realities of life on Planet Earth. A synonym might be: unsustainable) and another that is nascent, embryonic but growing stronger every day. This new emerging paradigm is more consistent with the realities of an interconnected world with dangerously diminished natural resources and a generation of young people demanding a new path.

Some companies operating in the old economic paradigm continue to put financial performance as the primary driver of their strategic decisions while others see financial performance as merely the scorecard for whether they are achieving their deeper mission of serving the betterment of humankind. In our view, there appears to be a marked shift in the tide of corporate consciousness – a true sea change where tens of thousands of leaders and organizations are stepping into an audacious sense of stewardship for the future of our planet.

A notable example of this paradigm shift is client Laura Roberts, CEO of Pantheon Enterprises, an alternative chemicals company, who declares, “We can’t keep blindly putting chemical toxins into our environment, our bodies and our children’s bodies with no accountability. It’s suicidal. We can change this by combining our industry’s creative resources with nature’s intelligence to develop safe, market-based solutions to our environmental challenges”. Laura stands together with other leaders from companies like: Seventh Generation, Arizona Chemicals and Ecologic Solutions in a commitment to transform their industry to non-toxic, environmentally safe products.

The case for this change

From a global point of view, the reasoning is straightforward and compelling.

If Planet Earth were a business enterprise, no executive could look at the metrics — whether melting glaciers or widening income disparity, whether disappearing rainforests or the global economic crisis — and not come to the same conclusion: we need a turnaround.

Business can either lead this turnaround or follow it. There is growing evidence that doing the right thing is good for business. Being purely driven by the quest for more – more growth, more profits, more market dominance not only adds to the ecological, social, spiritual and economic crisis we face, it has also contributed to the predominant view that business is untrustworthy.

A mere 2% of investors say the CEO is very trustworthy according to a Roper poll. Only around 20% of the American public has confidence in big business according to Gallup. Yet, people want to live in a better world and are attracted to companies who share that commitment and act accordingly.  All kinds of stakeholders – consumers, employees and their families, shareholders, suppliers, educators, students, and business partners — are responding to our global wake-up call. The research in “cause-marketing” confirms that people prefer to buy from and work for companies connected with a worthwhile social cause. The evidence is rolling in that well-run companies that are doing good are also doing well as reflected in the performance of “purpose based companies” compared to the S&P 500 cited in Firms of Endearment (Sheth, Sisodia and Wolf) and The HIP Investor (Herman).

A new dream is unfolding in our lifetime – a dream of an environmentally sustainable, socially just, spiritually fulfilling, economically thriving and life-enhancing future for all of us.  We are convinced that business holds the key to this global transformation and can provide the structure and leadership to get us there. Companies like TOMS Shoes, Whole Foods, Tata Group, Unilever, Pantheon and a host of others are showing the way and are living proof of our conviction that the future of business is making the future its business.

Vince Vince DiBianca is known for working with game-changing leaders who are committed to transform their companies and markets — leaders inspired to produce unparalleled results and hungry for self-discovery. He is a visionary who loves to work with people who are committed to play ‘big’ and deliver breakthroughs — no matter the apparent odds or market conditions. For over 40 years of working with several thousand senior executives, Vince has been on a journey to discover the mindsets, practices and designs necessary to realize breakthroughs and make something momentous happen. He was an early developer of an ontological leadership model proven to allow people to shift their relationship with circumstances so that the unprecedented is possible.

He has taught at many business schools and serves as a board member of the World Business Academy, member of the Transformational Leadership Council and a sponsor of the Conscious Capitalism Institute. He is currently spearheading an alliance of business associations and global affiliations to produce the tipping-point for business to lead us toward an environmentally sustainable, socially just, spiritually conscious and economically thriving future.

 

How to Compassionately Deal with Poor Performance

Posted on by Matt Tenney

Does being a compassionate, servant leader mean that we should keep team members who are not performing well? Using the approach below, we can often help an underperforming team member to improve and grow. And, when necessary we can use the approach to compassionately let someone go without having to fire them.

Addressing Poor Performance

I’ve certainly failed with this balance at both ends of the spectrum. I’ve been too quick to let someone go. And, as I’ve grown more compassionate over the years, I’ve not addressed an issue that really needed to be addressed because I didn’t want to hurt someone’s feelings. But being compassionate doesn’t mean that we don’t address issues that need to be addressed, like consistently poor performance. Sometimes the most compassionate thing we can do, which would be in the best service of all the stakeholders, is to let someone go. Are we really serving someone if we allow them to consistently do mediocre work? Or, are we actually hurting their long-term chances for success?

The Four Pieces of Paper

I learned the approach below from my friend and mentor, John Spence. He calls the approach The Four Pieces of Paper. Although variations of it can be used with any team member who is underperforming, the approach is very powerful when thoughts come to mind of letting someone go. When having a conversation with a team member who has been underperforming, we can frame the discussion by saying something like, “I expect really great things from you. Recently, I don’t think what you’ve been doing is up to your standards. What’s going on?”

Then we can let the team member know that we’d like them to have the greatest chance for success for years to come. Not encouraging them to reach their full potential is doing them a disservice. Then we allow them to create a solution, which they will write on four pieces of paper. The team member writes:

  1. What will they achieve in a given period that they feel adequately makes up for the previous poor performance
  2. What do they need from us, as their leader, to make that happen
  3. What the reward should be, within reason, if they hit the mark
  4. What the consequence should be if they fail

Using this approach, you might find that a team member you thought would have to fire suddenly turns around simply because you showed them you care about them. You’ll also find that if they don’t hit the mark, you won’t have to fire them. They’ll have written, “I should leave,” on the fourth piece of paper because they’ll see that they picked the goal and were given all the support they needed to accomplish it.

If they still don’t hit the mark, they’ll almost always see that they are simply not in the right place and voluntarily move on. As a compassionate, servant leader, we could then help the team member find a position within our organization, or even outside of it, where she or he could thrive. How could you apply this approach to your organization? Please share your comments below.

 

Your Greatest Risk Is Business As Usual

Posted on by Alexa Bach-McElrone

Psychologists say that pessimism takes root in times of stress. And we are swimming in a river of stress. I know because as companies are awakening to the need to grow instead of just survive, they are asking me to help change their mind-set. You see we’ve become a culture of pessimism, and pessimists don’t come up with creative ideas that create new value. For the past 20 years American business has been obsessed with efficiency and productivity. Do more with less. Root out waste. Work harder. Work longer. Avoid risk. Benchmark. Do what everyone else is doing only do it better. Become world-class at blah. It is leadership without imagination. And it is everywhere.

It is also completely out of gas as a business strategy.

Striving for super efficiency seems smart if your goal is to avoid risk. It’s a problem however when trying to avoid risk is the highest risk you can take. Think of it this way. Microsoft has become a big lumbering bureaucracy seemingly capable of only making me-too products. Years after more innovative companies have blazed a new trail and taken consumers by storm, the best Microsoft innovations are Bing, Zune, and new versions of Windows.

But these are second tier products next to Google, iPods, and cloud based software. But why try to copy someone else’s bright idea? The world doesn’t need another fake Rolex even if you can make some money selling them. For years the business world had a bad case of Apple envy. Apple just kept cranking out I-wish-I-thought-of-that products that seemed to ignite vast amounts of consumer lust for anything with a half-eaten Apple logo on it. Under Steve Jobs Apple had a swagger of optimism.

And it produced a stream of game changing innovations. When Steve passed I saw leaders try to mimic what they thought he would do. They picked up their megaphones, yelling at their sweaty palmed boat rowers, “Innovate, dammit, innovate!”

But telling people to be creative doesn’t produce creativity. Only purpose does. 

Yes, I said it takes purpose to generate positive innovation. It is driven by the confidence that your creative response to reality will optimize the future. Instead of wishing, it is doing. It requires intense focus on reality. But unlike pessimism it doesn’t seek to eliminate risk. It seeks to make a difference that matters. This is a whole new skill set for leaders who have become addicted to saving money instead of investing it.

It’s a prime reason why our economy is stuck.

It explains why corporate treasuries are overflowing with trillions of unused capital. Leaders are wary. For the past several years most companies have struggled to keep profitable rather than grow.  But leading for profitability is a “solved problem.” It takes no imagination to shrink costs faster than sales, just ask H-P.

What I see are fear-driven leaders that are too scared to imagine innovation and too tired to deal with complexity.

It’s easier to just drive their old business model with less people and fewer expenses. I call it fake productivity. It’s crazy. We live in an age where we all know that with growth comes innovation executed with speed and agility, and yet most of our global enterprises are tangled in risk adverse bureaucracy leading to decision constipation and employee exhaustion. The antidote of this slow motion leadership is not to grow by buying and destroying valuable acquisitions but to reignite internal talent to create new value propositions, attract new customers, and solve problems people care about. It means re-designing business structures as hives of entrepreneurship.

It means growing cultures of optimism — agile, adaptive cultures capable of rapidly testing, learning and scaling success.

How? We we must personally take charge of our inner voice of purpose.

We must seek future – changing opportunities to create sustainable abundance instead of waiting for the world to change.

And we must edit the pessimistic voices that scare us into being small. It is a time to be bold. If Tesla, an electric car company, can launch in the recession, if TOMS shoes’ can sell 10,000,000 shoes so they can give away 10,000,000 shoes… hell, if Costco can pay their average employee $40,000 a year… anything is possible. The time to shake our fists, mutter and complain about dumbness and greed has long past.

It’s time to take some risks to create work and enterprises that help create the best future we can imagine.

 

Extinction Inspires A New Breed of Human

Posted on by Real Leaders

We have a front row seat for the Sixth Great Extinction in the history of the Earth, and the only one caused by humans. Let’s face it, the planet will long outlive our fragile species, so any focus on “saving the planet” misses the point. We need to protect the delicate ecosystem that humans need to thrive and survive. It’s all about “nurturing our ecosystem in order to save our species.” Can the clothes we buy make a difference? Peruvian, Eduardo Balarezo thinks it can.

A small cluster of islands off Ecuador, with no history of an indigenous population, had one resident that inspired a Eduardo to start a business around his legacy. It began with a tortoise. After living in Ecuador for over 10 years and visiting the Galapagos Islands on several occasions Eduardo Balarezo came across Lonesome George – a 100 year-old resident of the island and a famous worldwide conservation icon.

As the last surviving Pinta tortoise, Lonesome George’s cautionary tale of extinction became evident to Balarezo as a result of human actions and mismanagement of scarce resources. Lonesome George died last year but Balarezo was so inspired by his story he began Lonesome George & Co., an apparel company with a youth development academy, to educate tomorrow’s youth about environmental issues and to prevent other Lonesome George situations from happening at a time of frightening and increasing extinction rates.

“When Lonesome George passed away his whole species became extinct,” says Balarezo. “It’s a sad story, but he leaves an incredibly legacy, one which I intend to keep alive.” The lone tortoise, which even has his own Wikipedia page, had such a profound effect on Balarezo that it inspired him to think how he could structure a business around it.

He leaned towards a social enterprise model, having explored multiple bottom lines in his various businesses in early 2000 and found them attractive. These initiatives not only focused on profit, but on bringing together a more balanced focus of people, planet and profit– a multiple bottom line – that has since evolved into several business ventures.

“I combined my business background with my passion for adventure, learning and social enterprise and came to realize that this is the best combination you could wish for to foster the creation of shared value,” explains Balarezo.

“Creating shared value is our model, which basically calls for leveraging your personal and professional assets into creating competition. This is basically business, but with a high regard for social benefit and environmental concern.” Lonesome George & Co. has a business model that ensures that 10 percent of gross sales of their clothing range goes directly to youth education programs that teach and empower future generations, to help make better choices in our interdependent world.

The online store, one of many sales channels Balarezo is exploring, stocks a relaxed range of clothing that have names such as Limits to Growth, Passport Flock, Biodiversity, Evolution and Cycle into Change. Their line of shirts and hoodies for men, women, and children are produced using high-quality Organic Peruvian Pima cotton and cutting-edge design elements. Balarezo has created each garment to tell a story, make a statement, and rally the community around a cause.

“By wearing a T-shirt or dress, your garment communicates the value your choices have in conserving one-of-a-kind treasured species, indigenous peoples, languages, cultures, art, and heritage spots around the world,” says Balarezo.   Ninety percent of their products are manufactured using certified organic cotton grown in ancient cotton fields in Peru.

“It’s about showing you care with the clothes you wear,” says Balarezo with a grin.

The Academy of Agents of Change, founded by Balarezo, is the beneficiary of the clothing sales, and is aimed at young people who are aware that their decisions have direct consequences in their local communities. “We make them aware that they are a vital part of the system in which they live, and as a result of that awareness, are capable of having a positive influence within their communities,” he says.

Speaking from London, where Balarezo is a guest speaker at the Sustainable Brands conference, he reflects on one of the main ingredients needed to bring about change. “Choosing wisely is not a difficult thing to do, but it requires character to make the right decisions,” he says. One of the ways he has done this is through a partnership with Outward Bound, a global organization in 36 countries, started in 1941 by German educator Kurt Hahn. Balarezo realized that developing character meant self-awareness and tapping into positive personality traits that he was sure existed inside everyone.

Hahn is once quoted as saying, “There is more to us than we know. If we can be made to see it, perhaps for the rest of our lives we will be unwilling to settle for less.”

The Outward Bound model was a good fit for Balarezo and he founded the Outward Bound Ecuador school that seeks to create individuals that can make wise decisions, beyond what is taught in school classrooms. “You need people to get out and experience hardship,” says Balarezo.

“It’s painful to overcome your fears, but this builds character. When I came across Lonesome George in the Galapagos, he had the exact opposite effect on me to how other people reacted when they saw him. Most said, ‘Oh poor thing, let’s find him a mate,’ my view was, ‘Don’t let this happen again.’ He seemed to say to me, ‘Take my example and use me to show others how to make wiser decisions.” “When you combine courage and understanding, by putting yourself in someone else’s shoes, that’s called compassion.

When you combine courage and compassion you build character. This is then an individual that makes wise choices. If you can have this individual sitting on the board in every company, you’re going to havea very different world out there, says Balarezo. “It’s a new version of capitalism.”

The vehicle Balarezo could have used to highlight this plight could have been anything, but he came to the conclusion that clothing was a main purchase in the Galapagos, driven by tourism that accounts for 51 percent of this tiny cluster of islands economy. Clothing would also be worn around the world and become a “wearable billboard” for his message. He also realized that a clothing range alone would not effect change, just raise money, and needed to plug his venture into local communities.

Many conservation NGO’s existed that supported the diversity of the Galapagos Islands, but the community had been left behind. “You can’t just bring in programs and money to conserve animals, wildlife and the eco system, because the community is part of the this eco system too. If we don’t educate and include the local population, they can become our greatest obstacle in promoting the cause,” says Balarezo.Using the consumer to monetize this cause and to support the not-for-profit side has been Balarezo’s greatest achievement.

“Once you’ve sent a message of change out with your brand, you have to align your value chain with that message too,” says Balarezo.

“We looked at sourcing from mainstream, big markets to make our clothing as affordable as possible for the consumer, but then realized that our best source was right next door, in Peru.” Peru has one of the best quality cottons in the world as well as the organic production of Pima cotton, the main material for the Lonesome George & Co. brand.

It took Balarezo three years to structure the supply chain from companies in Peru, as he wanted to look into these companies and ensure they were looking after their own communities in a sustainable manner too.  Lonesome George & Co. has their main stores in the Galapagos, an online store and will be open their first U.S. shop in 2014 in South Florida. Their first flagship store outside Galapagos, in Berlin, Germany has been hugely receptive to their message and impressed by the quality of the apparel.

“There’s been a shift from businesses only being controlled by shareholders, to one controlled by stakeholders, and increasingly consumers are becoming far more interested in making sure their purchasing power is doing good,” says Balarezo. “If you’re listening carefully as a company, and want to become successful, you’ll need to show a responsible change in values, innovative products and create development clusters within communities you serve.”

The US is probably the largest “light green” consumer market according to Balarezo. A light green consumer is a person who likes to know that their purchasing power is doing good, but is not likely to give up their comforts. He’s of the opinion that this will become the mainstream attitude as this sector grows.

“Companies will need to embark on this new sustainability growth curve in order to put their brands and companies ahead of their competitors and in front of these new consumers,” says Balarezo. Creating this business model has taken Balazero over five years and they’ve finally made enough noise to get the attention of a global media partner. Lonesome George & Co. now has distribution partners knocking on their doors seeking distribution deals or partnerships. “A global rollout of our brand will take another five or ten years,” says Balarezo.

“But I view this as a next generation business model. Its mission is to generate the next agents of change for the next generation.” George would be proud of him.

 

Jessica Alba: Hollywood Heroine To The Rescue

Posted on by Real Leaders

Better known for her role as the Invisible Woman in The Fantastic Four, and being voted “Sexiest Woman in the World” by FHM in 2007, actress Jessica Alba has an entrepreneurial side that aims to redefine the idea of the family brand.

In 2008 Alba became the mother of a little girl, Honor, and three years later gave birth to her second daughter, Haven. Call it maternal instinct or a new insight on life; Alba felt her priorities in life shift immediately. “I felt this intense responsibility to create the safest, loving and healthiest environment for my children,” says Alba.

Her inability to find baby products that didn’t have toxic chemicals in them, or even diapers that weren’t tainted with dyes and nasty substances that caused allergic reactions alarmed her as a parent.

Alba experience this first-hand one day when she did a load of washing, using “baby safe’ laundry detergent, and broke out in a rash. Knowing that this couldn’t be good for her baby she began educating herself about untested chemicals found in baby products and household cleaners. She found alternative, “safer” options, but they still contained other chemicals that were unsatisfactory.

She calls this a “social injustice” and was determined to create a range of products that made it easier for her, and others, to find safe and attractive products that worked. She met Christopher Gavigan, author of Healthy Child Healthy World, who also ran a non-profit aimed at children’s health, and they teamed up to source and sell the very products they saw lacking on supermarket shelves.

The company raised $27 million in venture funding in March this year, giving the company a healthy start, and bring total funding to date to $52 million.

To ensure sales and availability where made as easy as possible, they brought on board Brian Lee, a veteran of ecommerce, as their CEO, who also has kid’s the same age as Alba’s. As a business-minded entrepreneur Lee was aware that alternative products needed to be priced affordably, for consumers to buy into them. With many health and eco products charging a premium, he wanted to ensure that The Honest Company could challenge mass consumer goods at a similar price point. A customer service team now listens to customer requests and they have already launched 13 new products based on this direct feedback.

Alba’s celebrity status, and having over 6.8 million followers on Twitter, has also helped in creating a meaningful dialogue with customers.

Gavignan was aware of a growing trend among the Hollywood A-list that saw celebrities aligning themselves with tech startups and was at pains to avoid it. With household names lending their money and fame to products and commercial ventures outside of their entertainment image, Alba and Gavignan were aware of positioning The Honest Company differently. They didn’t want Alba’s fame to distract from the real differences they were trying to make.

Coming from a non-profit world, Gavignan wanted to found a business that had goals that went beyond profit, that didn’t have non-financial goals tagged on as an afterthought. He wanted it integrated into the DNA of the company. The star studded line-up of other celebrities who’d ventured beyond the entertainment spotlight include Magic Johnson, who has invested in Stylecaster and Sociocast through his Detroit Venture Partners, Leonardo DiCaprio who has invested in photo sharing service Mobli, Edward Norton backing fundraising site Crowdrise, Bono, who bought a 1.5 percent stake in Facebook, netting him a cool $1.5 billion profit and Justin Timberlake who is an investor and brand ambassador for social music sharing site Myspace.

While many of these ventures fit into traditional investment models, Alba and Gavignan wanted a company that would help transform the quality of life for millions, through education and choice. “Before you have children, there’s a classic selfishness about life with many people,” says Gavignan. “After you have children, you develop a new attitude that is prepared to do anything for this new, little being. Todays parents are facing new, and increasing, realities of autism, allergies and childhood cancer, without really understanding how to protect their children from these chronic diseases.”

“There’s an assumption that everything on a store shelf is safe,” says Gavignan. “This is not always the case. There are many toxic chemicals, found in everyday products that are linked to chronic diseases”

“There is so much information around about what you should be doing, that many parents are so confused, they can’t figure out the right choice anymore,” says Alba. “We started The Honest Company to make it easier for parents to buy safe products for their families.” And not happy to simply focus on her own business, Alba travelled to Washington D.C. in 2011to participate in a two-day lobbying effort in support of the Safe Chemicals Act, a revision of the Toxic Substances Control Act of 1976.

From inception, The Honest Company has placed corporate responsibility as a core part of the company’s DNA. They are constantly working towards innovative solutions to reduce their collective impact, causing no unnecessary environmental harm, and making products that are as safe as possible. Alba and Gavignan continually invest in eliminating supply chain waste by delivering directly to customers, using plant-based ingredients in their products to eliminate toxins, and using 100% renewable or recycled materials in all their packaging.

Their ultimate goal to positively change the way people, companies,and even governments make impactful decisions related to health and safety, social goodness, environmental protection, and sustainable business practices. “We are committed to operating with integrity and transparency, and with humble honesty, as we strive to always create better, do better, and be better,” says Alba. Far from crafting feel-good, marketing slogans, the partners have initiated real change in every part of their business. Some of these proactive measures have included donating a percentage of proceeds towards addressing critical health and social issues affecting children and families.

The Honest Company range is made from natural, organic, sustainably harvested, renewable, pure raw materials and they track the production journey of all materials so they can report on what’s known as cradle-to-grave impact. Electricity used in making their products is even from renewable energy sources. Customers are encouraged to choose ground shipping fortheir orders whenever possible, as expedited air freight generally uses six times more energy than ground shipping.

To highlight their sustainability point, Alba and Gavignan have registered The Honest Company as a B-Corp, a business accreditation in the U.S. that shows you’re serious about looking after the triple-bottom-line. And not content to be the only one’s doing the right thing, they have introduced a code of conduct for their suppliers too, making sure they comply with human rights, environmental and non-harmful practices.

A major reason for Gavignan wanting to start the company was a belief that what he wanted to accomplish couldn’t be achieved by a not-for-profit. His goal was to create an avenue through which parents could safely purchase products for their babies, and in so doing, change their behavior – to start using non-toxic chemicals and eating organically. An unseen benefit of this approach has now emerged, as they eye expansion abroad. Stricter chemical regulations in Australia and the U.K. mean they are now able to meet these legal requirements.

In the U.S. around nine chemicals are banned from baby products. In the U.K. this number is 1,000 and The Honest Company’s products avoid them all.

The Honest Company have an active focus on minimizing the presence of petroleum in their products and packaging, and are striving to one day be 100% plant-based. The online shop makes a point of listing all ingredients, where you’ll even find dishwasher pods made from minerals and plant extracts.

Even their floor cleaner, usually just below paint stripper in harshness, has shown an effectiveness that you would not expect from natural ingredients, showing that natural products can actually be highly effective. Generations of parents using harsh chemicals has created ignorance among consumers of what is possible. Alba and Gavignan hope to change all that… for the sake of the children.

 

Business-For-Purpose Pioneer Awarded Order of Australia

Posted on by Real Leaders

Audette Exel, founder and Chair of The Adara Group, has been awarded an honorary Order of Australia for her work with women and children living in extreme poverty in Nepal and Uganda. Exel established The Adara Group 18 years ago after witnessing appalling conditions in Humla, in the Himalayas, and in the Nakaseke district of Uganda.

Since then, the Foundation has raised AUD$21.9 million for life-saving education, health care and infrastructure in both countries. Exel, who was Telstra NSW Businesswoman of the Year in 2012, said she was honoured and humbled to receive the award, which was announced by the Governor-General Quentin Bryce. The award is for service to humanity. “The Adara Group is the product of the dreams and hard work of thousands of people, and it has been a privilege to work with all of them. This work has enhanced my world beyond measure,” said Exel. “In my lucky life, I have worked with extraordinary people in the developing world who are almost always unsung heroes. For me, this award recognises of all those people.”

Before establishing The Adara Group, Exel worked as a banker and lawyer in Australia and Bermuda, where she was Managing Director of the Bermuda Commercial Bank and Chair of the Bermuda Stock Exchange. She is one of the youngest women in the world to have run a publicly traded bank. She was also on the Board of the Bermuda Monetary Authority, where her signature graced Bermuda’s $5 note.

New Zealand-born Exel is a pioneer in the business-for-purpose field, setting up a unique partnership between a non-profit foundation and an Australian corporate finance business, which advises companies on large international transactions and raises money for global fund managers. All profits go to The Adara Group to cover running costs, meaning every dollar from donors around the world goes directly to projects on the ground. The finance side of the business has provided AUD$7 million in funding for The Adara Group, which supports more than 30,000 people each year.

“I spent years advantaging the advantaged. Now The Adara Group advantages the disadvantaged,” said Exel. “I profoundly believe business is capable of greatness. Business can serve the whole community, not just shareholders. It is inspiring to see so many more non-profits and corporates finding creative ways to tackle poverty together. “I am delighted to be part of this evolving conversation about how business fits in the new world, and to share my mistakes and successes.“

Exel said Australia was conducting an important national debate about its responsibilities to people living in poverty. “This is when we see the best of ourselves – when we reach out to others in need. It makes us better people and a better nation,” she said.

 

Is This The World’s Most Affordable House?

Posted on by Real Leaders

Forty percent of all energy demands comes from real estate, so if you can solve that, you will be richly rewarded. After all, the cleanest and cheapest energy is energy saved.

A zero energy house that guarantees no energy bills for 10 years is capturing the attention of communities and may redefine home ownership. “Our mission is to make every home a zero energy home, that’s smart, stronger and affordable for the masses,” says David Goswick Founder and CEO of Houze, a man on a global quest to  build the most energy efficient homes possible. In addition, he’s aiming at a $250,000 price point for his homes, making them affordable to the widest market possible. While his take on the spelling of “house” is attention grabbing, the companies full name, Houze Advanced Building Science, suggests a far more serious mission.

Goswick has even engaged scientist from NASA in the Houston area to create new technologies that change the performance of homes and transform them from energy eaters to energy generators. “Homes are the last American product to embrace the technology revolution,” says Goswick.

“With the greatest technologies the cost reduces and performance improves. With our new construction techniques, the total cost of  home ownership is now less than renting an apartment,” says  Goswick. “In addition, our houses are stronger, safer and more durable.”

In 1983 Goswick started a public relations and marketing firm.  Interests rates were sky-high and the economy had nose-dived. The turbulent times gave Goswick a chance to experiment, and he learned how to steer his company through the most difficult of times. Three years later he noticed his clients were starting to  outperform their competitors and the firm won some marketing  awards.

American General Life Insurance, one of the biggest master plan developers in America, approached them on one of their largest projects with the president of the company asking Goswick what he could do to improve a community in West Houston. Goswick’s innovative thinking and initial success soon saw him representing all their developments across the U.S.

Nothing focuses the mind like a great recession, and the real estate market collapse of 2008 was a major setback for Goswick. The subsequent years of market turmoil caused Goswick to pause and reassess what real estate was all about, and more importantly, what problem could he solve that could become the next big thing. He identified low energy homes, buildings and communities as being the future and realized that if he could accelerate this trend by five or ten years it would be a powerful catalyst for change.

He rethought everything he knew and struggled to come up with an alternative way of building a home. Eventually the idea of Houze was born, the result of Goswick working with some brilliant minds in the real estate, energy and space industries. The “ze” of Houze stands for zero-emmission, and that’s exactly what Goswick

eventually revealed to the world – a house with no energy bills.Houze integrates disruptive technologies into real estate developments and buildings, and has launched a first-of-its-kind, affordable, zero-energy home into the U.S. market. Houze construction costs are about 10% higher than conventional homes, but the energy savings make homeownership cheaper.

“I needed to clarify our product and our mission,” says Goswick. “Our idea was to make every house zero energy and self sufficient. This was a big goal and we decided to start small with an Under-serviced area. We found a suburb called Independence Heights, just outside Houston, that was perfect for this purpose.

Realizing that similar communities to Independence Heights existed across the U.S. inspired Goswick to make his first test area a success. “If we could make it work here, our idea could move anywhere,” says Goswick. “Houze is completely revolutionizing the way homes are built, how they consume and generate energy and the overall total cost of ownership,” says Goswick. “Our approach of combining durable, efficient building materials, innovative energy management systems, advanced energy-saving and storing technologies are fundamentally redefining the American Dream,” he says.

The original homes at Independence Heights involved consultation with the community on suitable architectural styles and even what constitutes good community leadership. To keep the character of the area, some of the Houze buildings look as if they were built 70 years ago. The idea is not to restyle a suburb, but rather to work with it.

Bloomberg TV called Goswick earlier this year and told him they had identified Houze as one of only a handful of companies globally that had the potential to reinvent the home. A home, of course, has hundreds of components and building materials and it was natural that companies related to construction, fittings and finishings would come knocking on the Houze door.

Leaders in the building, technology and energy industries are already showing their support, resulting in an impressive coalition of strategic brands. Some partners include AT&T, Carrier, CHASE, James Hardie, Pella, Murff Turff, and the American Gas Association.

Together they are helping  Houze accelerate the transformation of the residential and commercial building industry, from being one of the largest consumers of energy, to zero energy ones, leaving a near zero carbon footprint on the environment. AT&T has implemented their Digital Life product into Houze homes, a wireless-based home security and automation service that enables users to access, monitor, and effortlessly control devices in their home using a smartphone, tablet or PC.

Natural gas has been identified as a core energy source of the new Houze homes and Goswick is working closely with The American Gas Association, that already pipes gas to 71 million residential and commercial customers. Most people don’t realize that natural gas already meetsalmost one-fourth of the United States’ energy needs.

Goswick is seeking manufactures who will design household appliances that tie into the new technology he has created in his homes. “We’d love to have a line of appliances that work with the way we’re building these homes,” he says. “We’re bringing together every building and technology relationship we’re aware of to create something new.” Building manufacturers and system developers from around the world are approaching Goswick with ideas on how to integrate their products with Houze. Instead of seeing them as competition, Goswick says, “Bring it on!”

“The numbers are staggering when you realize the implications for both energy and financial savings,” says Goswick.

“One of my key strategies is to promote the category of energy sustainability, ratherthan just my business, as this new category promotes national and energy security and helps avoid global conflicts over oil.”

Goswick believes that by becoming a central player in developing new energy alternatives, he will benefit regardless. “We’re the friend of any company that is innovative, wants to reduce their carbon footprint, and delivers energy independence,” says Goswick.

The trademarked Houze Power Cell is the heart of the new homes and produces both on-site electricity and thermal heat from 100 percent natural gas. Unlike traditional renewable energy technologies, which are intermittent, the natural gas power cell provides reliable power 24/7. Roughly the size of a traditional air conditioning unit, the power cell generates more energy than the home requires, using natural gas. This surplus is then stored in back-up batteries and sold back to the electricity grid, providing increased energy security for the homeowner and offsetting the cost of the natural gas.

The Home Energy Rating System (HERS) is used to measure efficiency. Typical American homes have a HERS rating of 130, with the government-backed Energy Star program requiring a rating of 85 to gain accreditation. Houze homes currently have a HERS rating of 44 (the lower, the better), based on the structure alone. With the addition of the power cell and advanced heating and cooling technologies, Houze homes will ultimately achieve a HERS rating of 0.

These construction, energy and technology advancements lead to discounts and incentives from leading mortgage and insurance companies, including reduced mortgage rates and down payment assistance, as well as significant insurance discounts, ranging from 40 to 70 percent. In addition to these third-party incentives, Houze also provides homeowners with a world first – the Zero Energy Warranty, guaranteeing no electricity or gas payments for the first 10 years of home ownership. Building a Houze home cost around 10 percent more than an average home, but the energy savings quickly make up for it.

Presently, where things all began a year ago, at Independence Heights, Houze is busy construction ten new homes, each using a different advanced building system and eight of them using different power sources. “It’s like a laboratory out there at the moment,” says Goswick. “The data here will help consumers make more informed decisions.

Back in 2008, during the housing crisis many people who bought houses had no idea of the hidden energy costs of running a home. By cutting these cost, and even allowing owners to sell power back to the grid, it changes the entire value of their asset.”

Goswicks 20 staff are running, “A living laboratory of advancement,”as he put’s it. Scaling the business through alliances with global partners and local builders will gradually create more demand for Houze homes as people realize the cost effectiveness and savings. Goswick feels that his personal journey in life has been more rewarding than his days as a marketing executive. “It’s the opportunity to apply all I’ve learned over the last 30 years and makea positive impact on lives,” says Goswick. “Improving  national security through energy independence would be a great legacy to leave behind.”

 

The Way The Cookie Crumbles

Posted on by Real Leaders

Wendy Ruiz Cofiño has turned her creativity and technology into solutions for real life problems.

If you where to learn that one of the top apps of the last ten years to be honored by the United Nations World Summit Award was not from Palo Alto, but from Guatemala, would you be surprised? Many are, when they discover that a digital and marketing agency MilknCookies, run by founder Wendy Ruiz Cofiño, is behind the educational app for kids called Mini Mundi (Little World), an educational game that teaches kids about recycling (shown above).

The app is already in use in classrooms across Spain with many teachers using it as a teaching aid. The kids in class learn while playing and many times are unaware of the positive, subliminal messages that are suggested to them about caring for their planet. The game consists of a round, bubbly, “baby” earth, full of life and bright green. Kids need to care and nurture Mini Mundi and follow daily tasks. If Mini Mundi is neglected, the world starts to develop real enemies and turns grey, sad and unhappy.

The idea for the game came about when Cofiño was working with one of the largest recycling companies in Spain.

“A problem they had was the great cost they had to pay to reclassifying all the waste they received,” says Cofiño. “People didn’t know what color-coded bins to use for disposing their waste. We came up with an idea to educate kids, because as we all know, when a kids gets to know something, their father is sure to hear about it too.”

Cofiño is a firm believer that future generations should be adequately prepared to go out into the world and take care of it. She also believes that parents need to know it too, and become part of the solution. Most children in Guatemala go to school as part of a normal school program, but many found it impossible and unsustainable to learn many topics in the curriculum. The idea of the digital platform came about and became a great success.

“Mini Mundi has won many awards and has become a showpiece for us to promote our message about the environment. The app proves that real life problems can be solved through technology,” says Cofiño.

Much of the other work produced by MilknCookies follows a similar path. Not content to just produce creative solutions for clients, the agency believes in helping to change the world for the better.

Cofiño came from a world of tech development and software platforms, surrounded by people pursuing digital solutions. She found it boring and knew that she wanted to be different, to stand out from the crowd. Four years ago she embarked on a new identity for her venture.

“We wanted a name that was not related at all to the tech industry,” says Cofiño. “We also wanted it to be something that appealed to non-tech marketing managers, still involved in traditional media. Yes, the name MilknCookies is a funny one, and was mostly chosen to acknowledge that many people we would deal with would not understand everything we suggested to them,” explains Cofiño. But when clients feel they’re not understood or are frustrated, we’re going to become that place from your childhood, at your Grandmother’s house, getting milk and cookies, as if to say ‘everything’s going to be alright.’

“We know we’re the generation that can change the world, that can make a difference,” says Cofiño. “In short, what we try and convey to our customers and  the people around us is that you can create the greatest apps or the greatest creative work, and it doesn’t matter if you’re in Guatemala, because you can let the world know about it. That’s the great thing about technology – it has no international borders. When we speak at universities and institutions we try and steer away from saying that we only do websites, apps and content. We try and inspire others to see the global possibilities.”

Many young Guatemalans invite MilknCookies to talk to them because they have achieved international exposure, and people like to see that.

It gives them hope, that they too can achieve the same. “We’re trying to be contagious,” explains Cofiño, with a touch of humor.

Guatemala is a mere 40,000 square miles with a population of around 13 million. This sense of geographic intimacy is played out in the offices of MilknCookies everyday, with staff and clients. “Every single day, we try and establish a relationship with our clients, to let them know that we’re doing the best we can.  In addition to doing our respective jobs, and making money from our customers, we’re also interested in promoting good. Good things can take our country out of poverty, and change it from being a dangerous place,” says Cofiño.

MilknCookies have shown people that if you believe in what you do, and do it well, that you can become whatever you want to be. Cofiño started the business by sharing one desk between them and because they were passionate about what they wanted to do they’ve now become a globally recognized  company.

When Cofiño went to the World Summit Awards to be honored for being one of the eight best digital developments of the decade, it was very emotional for her. “For us it was an award for the whole country, not only for MilknCookies, and that’s how we communicated it to everyone, and in all our interviews,” says Cofiño.

She also believes that if you want to attract investment for a country, the focus should not only be on MilknCookies for their great work, but also on the people of Guatemala.

Proving to the rest of the world that they exist, can find great tech development, great design and responsible people who are fluent in English is something Cofiño wants the world to know about.

With the business thriving from a winning recipe of social and environmental awareness, Cofiño has developed a new business unit called MilknCookies Recipes. Here the team makes business assessments of their customers and try and make them socially aware. Cofiño strongly believes that her generation is focused on issues beyond just being familiar with companies, brands and products. When a brand campaign is launched and they’re fully aware that they need to talk to people as if the brand is a real person.

“You need to show them what good you’re doing in the world,” says Cofiño.  This aspect is integrated into our assessments all the time. We try and build a consciousness into the companies we work with. If a consumer can buy something that is, at the same time, creating good for the environment, the world and the community, they will buy it for sure.

“We are fond of using the example of TOMS shoes, the socially inspired shoe with a purpose, that has sold over 10 million pairs worldwide. They’re not very nice to look at, they’re not very fashionable, but everybody wants them. This is the idea that we try and put into each of our customers minds. If they’re not doing something good – they need to start,” asserts Cofiño.

As a creative agency of 45 people, MilknCookies need to bill their clients, like any other business, to stay profitable and to create these social strategies for their clients, but have found it impossible not to become a part of it themselves.

They also explain to their clients that looking good is only one part of the campaign, they need to believe it too.

Other ingredients in the MilknCookies recipe include storytelling. A good, social story is considered a key part of any campaign and included in any strategy. Cofiño has yet to hear a customer say they don’t want to implement it.

“Many companies we work with have some great stories, which would help them grab attention in the market,” says Cofiño. “Yet many don’t want to communicate these stories, because it feels like they’re trying to be pompous, and they don’t want to look that way.

We create a look for them that allows them to feel comfortable enough to communicate their stories.  We spend much time studying the younger generation. They care about far more than you’d imagine and we try and communicate with them as a priority. You need to prove to them that you’re doing something else, aside from just selling them a pair of jeans.”

MilknCookies have also been collaborating with Wakami, a social enterprise that markets products from the rural areas in Guatemala. Indigenous, and largely uneducated, women create bracelets, necklaces and accessories for sale in a network of Wakami shops around the world, even reaching the shelves of a Ralph Lauren store. Wakami educates the women on how to make the items and  also educates them on ways in which they can educate their kids.

MilknCookies have been working with Wakami on developing strategies for content and promoting their products, but in the process, learned a lot themselves. Cofiño and her team are getting paid to help Wakami and they’re in turn getting paid to help other people.

“Wakami have changed entire communities,” says Cofiño.  “The women work together and the money they earn, they put into schools. A couple of years ago, they even had their first generation of graduate students.

Cofiño has clearly developed a winning recipe with MilknCookies.

 

The Rise of the Human Age

Posted on by Real Leaders

Jeff Joerres has identified a new era that will put unprecedented value on talent as the main driver of business success, forcing governments and business leaders to re-examine how they leverage human potential in an increasingly volatile world. 

At a time when the average tenure of a public company CEO is typically measured in months rather than decades, you have to wonder how it could be that the current CEO of ManpowerGroup was only the 3rd CEO in 65 years. Joerres has a playful, fun attitude about him, an unexpected characteristic in someone who deals in global workforce solutions and the accompanying frustration that must exist in the currently volatile labor markets.

He leads a $21 billion Fortune 500 company that has been around since 1948 and which uses words such as “unleashing human potential” and he eschews the way some competitors  refer to people in need of jobs as “inventory”. In 2012 ManpowerGroup connected 3.4 million people to opportunities and purpose, helping more than 400,000 companies meet their business objectives. They have grown from a single office in Milwaukee to 3,500 offices in 80 countries, and this global perspective has recently had Joerres declare a new era for humanity – The Human Age.

“Previous eras were defined first by the raw materials that transformed them: stone, iron and bronze,” says Joerres. “Then they were characterized by the domains people conquered with ever-improving technology: industry, space and information. Now, it will be human potential itself that will be the catalyst for change and the global driving force economically, politically and socially.”

This long-term, big picture view of business seems a good fit with ManpowerGroup, that can boast a grand total of three CEO’s in its history; in a time when the lifespan of a typical CEO is measured in months rather than decades. A clue to the current success of Joerres is that he’s big on optimizing human potential, and believes that it will be the single most important determinant of future business success and growth in the future. Yet, how does a company trade in human capital on such a large scale, and still nurture individual aspirations?

“Everybody brings their personal backgrounds into a job,” explains Joerres. This can be sanitized to a degree, based on what a company allows or what’s possible under different corporate circumstances.” A clue to the empathy and sense of service to others, that Joerres has instilled at ManpowerGroup, might be found in his own background.

Raised in a classic working class family, his father worked three jobs and his mother worked two. Yet his father still found time to paint the local convent on the weekends and take food to people who couldn’t get out, creating a clear role model for his son in later life. Back then you’d call this volunteer work, today people have created whole businesses around it. Joerres was the first in his family to ever enroll in a university.

It was pretty clear from the start that it was going to be tough going. Without any close relationship with his peers, Joerres felt lost and made some mistakes. This led to him groping his way through a series of institutions, continually seeking one in which he felt right. One morning, his dorm roommate at the time, suggested that he take on part-time work at IBM installing typewriters. Unknown to Joerres, this was to become the start of his career. The next few months were filled with instructing secretaries (as they were called then) on how to use one-line memory, the backspace key and correction tape when making an error.

This developed into coaching office workers on display writers, the original word processors, and by the time Joerres graduated, IBM had offered him a job. This break gave him the ability to get up to speed quickly in business, but most significantly, IBM gave him an account to manage in 1982: ManpowerGroup. As the display writer started fading and the PC emerged, that offered early document management such as WordPerfect and other revolutionary software, ManpowerGroup came up with a concept that Joerres helped refine. The company would train secretaries to use the new computer software, installed in each of their offices around the world, in weekly cycles, while filling their positions with temporary help for that week. Your job was covered and you learned new skills, a win-win situation that added to your value in the marketplace.

“It gave me a real sense of how important ongoing training is in a company, and how important learning is,” recalls Joerres.  “While I sold an awful lot of hardware, went to fun places to attend IBM award ceremonies, the real impact for me was how much this new approach meant to so many people. I saw first-hand how employees were shown how to survive the barrage of new technology of the time, as well as how a company has a duty of keeping people trained and employed.”

Joerres recognized the value of staying close to ManpowerGroup and when he left IBM for his own start-up a few years later, he asked the CEO of the time, Mitchell Fromstein, to sit on his board, to which Fromstein agreed. Two years later, in 1993, he approached Fromstein for a position at ManpowerGroup that saw him run sales and marketing and then become senior vice president of European Operations. Finally, in 1999, Joerres was named CEO of ManpowerGroup, the same company that had struck such a deep chord with him as a young, part-time worker at university. Almost 15 years later Joerres still marvels at company co-founder Elmer Winter, who remained at the ManpowerGroup head office up until his death at age 97.

Fromstein, too, passed away in early November this year, having been CEO from 1976 to 1999. “I recall discussing with Winter why he founded the company in 1948 and we’d talk about our long history of showing people that work is honorable, and about the big role we’ve played in bringing honor to people’s lives,” says Joerres. This honor has grown recently to include presentations on employment by Joerres at The World Economic Forum and the G20 Leaders’ Summit. “Our ability to train, place and put people in the right jobs, allowing them to take a paycheck home, put it on the table in front of their family and say, ‘We can eat today’ is still a big part of our business.”

The company also has $250 dollar an hour software developers who are certainly not concerned about having enough to eat for the day – more like “hey, we can buy a new vacation home today” – but the idea of finding people honorable work still applies. “We’re a New York Exchange stock company, and of course we need to make money,” says Joerres. “We make money to create flexibility for ourselves, but we don’t do that at the expense of our mission.”

The mission can sometimes create contention within the company, as demonstrated by some employees who will interview a candidate for two hours, knowing full well that there is no job for them. The sense of duty, responsibility and honor and that they must find someone a job runs deep, and many employees continually fight an internal battle between hope, and the reality of a situation.

“We don’t want to turn things into a conveyor belt,” notes Joerres. “We don’t’ have to engage people at the expense of who they are. We coach people, we train people, and we bring them into a better life. In a world where unemployment and youth unemployment are at the forefront of many economies, our mission has served us well. When Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) came into fashion, we didn’t know what it was, but we were already doing it. At the time, we just called it ‘that’s what we do.’ When we finally wrote our first CSR report, we were pretty proud of ourselves,” beams Joerres.

After the devastating Indian Ocean Tsunami in 2004, Joerres took an entirely different approach to aiding the affected countries. Rather than rush in as a first reliever, he looked at his company’s strengths, and beyond the disaster, to future needs.

“We weren’t going to try and be first on the scene, because that’s not what we do. We didn’t have much money to donate as we’re thin on margins, and that’s also not us. We weren’t simply going to give a million dollars to Southern India and say our obligation is done,” says Joerres. Joerres realized that after the tsunami there was going to be a great need for skills, and jobs. This was ManpowerGroup’s strength and the management team rolled up their sleeves and spent the next five months developing an action plan.

The result was the establishment of two schools in the Indian coastal state of Tamil Nadu, that is still the most productive school in the state. The first women masons have come from the school and the town has gone from a fishing community to a commercial one. “It’s more about brains than brawn.” Explains Joerres. “It’s about building muscle in communities. We’ve done this in the U.S. through our Techreach program, we have a disabled program, and we’ve taken women out of prostitution in Mexico and into secretarial work. Some of these initiatives come with hazards, but our staff want to do it.

I sometimes have to remind people that we’re not an NGO, but a mission-based company that can still make a lot of money.” 

As many executives know, many companies can talk a good story at a corporate level, but their compensation structure still leaves something to be desired. While company policy asks them to act in a certain way, their compensation is telling them to behave differently. Joerres has implemented the Power Award at ManpowerGroup, the highest award at the company, which cannot be won by just hitting the numbers.

A combination of sustainability, community and numbers will help you on your way to this award, which is clearly stated in writing in company policy documents. 10-20% of all bonus compensation is discretionary based on community building success. That’s putting your money where your mouth is! One of the most common challenges for a founder is not being able to let go to allow a successor to step in. Joerres has company co-founder Winter to thank for guidance on this.

“He never spoke about the business, about our margins or why we opened an office in Abu Dhabi, for instance. All he cared about was trying to find people jobs. While he never left the office until the day he died, he stayed out of the business. When he spoke at an event he would always talk about why he founded the business, never about our gross profit. When I took over from Mitchell Fromstein, who’d been here for over 20 years, all we ever talked was the health and soul of the company, not how I’m handling squeezed margins,” says Joerres.

Being only the third CEO of ManpowerGroup in 65 years has allowed Joerres a rare opportunity to make wise decisions based on the long term and to realize his career wasn’t going to be a flash in the pan. Figuring out how to jack up the stock valuation, make millions and cash out with an early exit is not in his game plan.

“I’m not an imperial leader and being a custodian of the brand and of the company DNA makes you think differently about the moves you’re going to make,” says Joerres. When the economic meltdown of 2008 hit, Joerres was moved when some staff offered to work for free, simply to keep the team intact.

“I read those emails and realized that I had a different responsibility, other than simply cutting costs. I had a trust that had been built up with people that you couldn’t just axe.

So I re-enforced their behavior, and they re-enforced my behavior. We’ve now developed a symbiotic relationship between our 3,000 offices in 80 countries.” A new term that Joerres has recently coined is “talent sustainability.” His participation in global conferences around the theme of youth unemployment has allowed him to see the interdependency of the talent pipeline between communities, businesses and governments.

“The way we look at talent sustainability is that if it’s good for both ourselves and the community, then it’s got to be really good, so we’ll step it up. We’ve become thought leaders and known for building and sustaining talent, which means, of course, that we can keep the conversation going around ourselves, and attract new business opportunities.” Providing free online training for around 10 million people a year also helps to keep the conversation going around ManpowerGroup.

A training and development portal on their website allows people to submit a resume and begin training. You might find yourself working with an NGO, such as the school in Tamil Nadu, or simply learning another language. Joerres’s view is that they’re building a workforce, with candidates now being able to charge $2 an hour more for the additional skills they’ve learned.

They might get $1.90 from it and ManpowerGroup might get 10c from this deal, but multiply that by 3.4 million new employees and the numbers start stacking up. “If you hold dear something that is important and needs to grow, mature and be cultivated, you automatically have a long term view,” says Joerres.

“If you have a vision or mission statement written by some Harvard Graduate, and the rest is all about the numbers, you have a problem.

I’ve never mentioned the stock price of ManpowerGroup in the 15 years of delivering an employee message. I talk about earnings, performance and good performance,” explains Joerres. All this is helping Joerres attract and retain the best talent. Displaying what they stand for gives potential employees a sense of security and expectancy of how well they’ll fit into company culture.

The current trend of young people seeking socially minded employers with a clear future vision has also played into ManpowerGroup’s favor. At no point are they confused about what to do with savvy Millennials, wanting to help save the planet.

“We don’t have to make up anything to appear that we have a social conscience, because the core of our business is already that,” says Joerres. “Even if you computerize everything, it’s still going to be about ‘humanly possible,’ which also happens to be our tag line. It’s still going to be about the Human Age, about putting people to work – just different kinds of work.”

Tips For Writing About Social Change From An Award-Winning Author

Posted on by Beverly Schwartz

Storytelling can indeed influence social change. And the time is now. Thanks to the social Web, the creative pen comes in many shapes and sizes and we have massive distribution channels right at our fingertips. Today, each of us has the opportunity, and the platform, to not only share our stories but also to play a role in creating positive impact by informing the global conversation.

People from all walks of life seem to be asking how they can best use new media to tell a story that will inspire their community, employees or audiences towards positive action. That much was evident during the Future Forum in D.C., a gathering of innovators and leaders in business, philanthropy and media, who made storytelling for social change a central theme. New York Times columnist and author David Bornstein, TED Executive Director June Cohen (pictured above, left), and Jonathan Wells of the Christian Science Monitor discussed trends driving the future of media in their opening plenary.

In a time when journalism is “problem-focused news,” how do we create space for sharing stories of hope and solutions? How can each individual, regardless of their location, use storytelling to share ingenuity and ideas powerful enough to influence global innovation and policy?

To try to answer some of these questions, I sat down with Beverly Schwartz, VP of global marketing at Ashoka, author of “Rippling: How Social Entrepreneurs Spread Innovation throughout the World,” and a long-time expert on storytelling for social good. Here are Beverly Schwartz’s three (and a half) suggestions:

1) Be your own change

“Since my book was published a year ago, I’ve been surprised by the friends, colleagues and people I meet who have confided to me that they have been dreaming of becoming writers – they want to share their stories. Most have asked me for advice on how to get started. The first thing I tell them is to write an outline. That sounds simplistic and obvious, but an outline forces you to put your ideas and your vision down on paper.

This works for any type of writing (a book, a blog series, an article). Outlines make your ideas and objectives for storytelling real and helps you clarify them. Once written down and readable, your ideas are easier to discuss, revise, and edit. It helps you take the first step, create your own change, and step from dreaming about it to storytelling reality.”  

“If you feel a story in you, and you want to let your inner writer out, start a blog and post consistently, regardless of how many times a week that may be. If your inner creative is still not satiated, tell your story through social media, video, photos, murals, or animated comic books. Whatever. It’s your story, your message. You need to find the format that works best for you and your audience.”

2) Speak from your heart and share your truth

“Writing is a balancing act—often between your heart and your head. People don’t necessarily want to know how smart you are, but rather who you are, what you stand for, and what you believe is most important. People are looking for stories of change, stories about social entrepreneurs, and things that inspire them to make changes in their own lives. It’s important to keep in mind that as you become the messenger, your role becomes a facilitator of changemaking around social issues. It’s a significant job and it plays an important role in nudging societal change.”

3) Accessible, relevant and realistic examples allow others to see their own power

“Create an actionable space for people to get involved and help them construct a new future for themselves. As I was writing ‘Rippling’, I was careful not to make the social entrepreneurs ‘heroes’ that people could admire, but not identify with. So, I interviewed students, farmers, single mothers, and others whose lives had been changed by an entrepreneur’s social solution and who then went on to make changes in other people’s lives as well.

I was fascinated by the virtuous cycles created in each one of their stories and included them as a way for readers to identify their own potential as changemakers. I wanted people to think, ‘Gosh! I could have done something like that.’ Throughout your story, create spaces where people could visualize possibilities for themselves that didn’t exist before. “A few weeks ago, when I was in Istanbul, a Turkish entrepreneur told me, ‘When I read your book, I realized that what I was doing now would never create enough impact in the world to be good enough to be a story in your book.

So I decided that I was going to re-think my career so that my story could be good enough to put in your next book.’ I thought that that was the best feedback I could ever have hoped to receive. My reason for writing ‘Rippling’ was realized. My story is actually changing lives.” For Schwartz, helping people see their role as a changemaker is the most gratifying part of storytelling.

When dealing with stories of social change, she wants to pass on the goodness that exists in people around the world. She wants to coax the reader to channel their annoyance, their outrage, their empathy, or their sense of sadness into a positive, constructive action – no matter how small.

“Your story is a bridge that connects your audience to the highest level change they are willing to tackle,” Schwartz said. “It helps them step out of the impossible box into what is possible for them.”

By Ashoka’s global digital media strategist, Tsega Belachew (@tsepeaces)

 

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