Blog bloc

As anyone who knows me will attest to, I am not known to be short of opinions even, some may say, in areas that I am not nearly qualified to have them in (pls don't listen to these doubters).

So why after launching our Good Business blog have I not blogged?

I can't seem to muster my first few words. Well I have been racking my brains as to why and I think I have the answer. Its because it gives me the chance to write about anything - its just too broad - I just don't know where to start.

So my solution, because I have to start somewhere, is to start with the name of our blog.

In the 16 years since Good Business came together in a conversation between myself and ex-business partner Steve Hilton many things have changed from the macro/external (I'm sure I don't need to tell you this) to the internal - what we do, the work that Good Business generates, the people we work with, and the businesses and NGOs involved have all changed.

But one thing has never changed - we wrote on a scrap piece of paper 'Value + Values = Good Business' and 'Good Business = Value + Values'.

No business will succeed without a great product and a great price but, increasingly even with that, it does not give you the right to succeed. The product must also be a positive contribution to society in a way that also makes me, the purchaser, want to be associated with it (think Toyota Prius, Innocent drinks, Dove, Green and Blacks...).

In 16 year this has gone from a nice to have to an absolute must have. In fact I would go so far as to say that I don't believe any new product can really be launched in the future that doesn't think as much about the impact of the broader society and environment as to the person that they want to buy it.

So you heard it here first (or sometime in the last 16 years). Business, and most importantly marketing, must evolve its obsession with just focusing on the end consumers in a vacuum, to thinking about the end consumer a part of the broader community, who matter as much.

Onwards and upwards.

Humble walking boots

In my last carnation I worked as part of the Tomorrow's Company team - a business-led think tank looking at the future of business. One of the most interesting projects I worked on was an inquiry exploring the critical success factors for tomorrow's global company.

In the final report we included a set of recommendations for tomorrow's sucessful global leaders. Humility was one that made it onto our shortlist. If only this was an attribute that made it on to the shortlist, or even the long list, of global leaders in the world of finance we might not be where we are today...or at the very least we might have seen some real changes to the banking world.

Thinking about this made it all the more refreshing to read a blog written by Jeff Swartz, President and CEO of Timeberland. From this short blog not only do you get a feel for a man at the top that is not only passionate about creating a profitable and sustainable company, but also one that listens to others and is happy to admit he doesn't have all the answers. It may only be about bottled water, but I can bet you see the same approach throughout his leadership.

Could bankers learn a bit from being in Mr Swartz's shoes (or boots)?

C is for Cat, S is for Sustainability

Sustainability is not a word that featured in my vocabulary when I was a child, but it is a sign of the times when Disney includes the word in its scripts, especially a film with very little talking anyway! I am talking about Wall-E, which I finally got round to watching the other night. I was surprised by the number of social and environmental issues that it deals with – waste, pollution, obesity, breakdown of society, role of technology and the list goes on. Disney films have often been argued to be more than ‘bland populism’ – Snow White actively fought against discrimination through her relationship with seven dwarfs did she not? Therefore I shouldn’t really have been surprised that sustainability came up - it is only logical that modern Disney films cover issues that are current in society today - as long as the messages are clear and children don’t now expect a small robot to come along and clean up the world…

Good Business

Having been helping out at the Good Business office for one week on work experience, I have seen how the industry functions and what the enviroment in the office is like:

The Good Business team is very much united and everybody is extremely friendly to one another which I believe is essential in making progress in a company. The working atmostphere feels positive and driven, which makes one feel good because you know you are getting somewhere.

My experience at Good Business was very enjoyable and I feel extremely lucky to have worked for such a good cause in such a unique company.