All mission statements seem to sound the same, don’t they? In this episode, we discuss how to scale purpose in a way that’s relevant and responsive to changes in the marketplace. We explore how to make creating a purpose more than just a check-the-box exercise but an integral part of your business strategy and how you conduct business day-to-day.

Hosted by Shad Raouf
With Cari E. Guittard from Purposewerx and Joyshree Reinelt from Innate Motion

In the latest episode of the “Business in the Age of Empathy” Podcast we spoke to Alexia Michiels, Managing Partner at The Resilience Institute, about the return of resilience.

Alexia takes us through her learning that resilience needs to be cultivated on a daily basis using all our resources: body, heart, mind, and spirit. She shares her journey with Innate Motion partner Muriel Soupart and our host Shad Raouf.

Rupen Desai and Subodh Deshpande discuss how to build brands with a conscience. Do brands really have a conscience? Well, if they shouldn’t then now is the time for that to change. On today’s show, we discuss the ins and outs of how brands can be a tool of leadership and drivers of change rather than merely aesthetic or romantic. We explore how brands can come alive by radically changing a company’s business model.

Prefer to read instead of listening? Check out our blog post on the lessons we’ve learned from this episode.

You will learn:

1. Why brands should be the conscience of every company’s business model
2. How people, the planet, and profit can exist harmoniously side by side
3. How to convert business slogans into business behaviors

You will hear from:

• Rupen Desai, Global Chief Marketing Officer at Dole
• Subodh Deshpande, Partner and Business Humanizer at Innate Motion
• Shad Raouf, Show Host

5 Key Takeaways

1. We are expected to fulfill the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals no sooner than 2073, rather than 2030.
2. A company needs to live the progressive values it ascribes to its brand by changing its business model. Otherwise, it’s just building a facade rather than partaking in genuine change.
3. There is a need to move from degenerative growth that is centered on hyperconsumerism to a slower more conscious generative growth.
4. Businesses should use their purpose as their north star. Profits should be guided by the north star. The north star shouldn’t be compromised for the sake of profit.
5. As a business, you have to make money to survive. However, your profit should not come at the cost of people or the planet.

Timestamps

(01:00) Who is Rupen Desai?

(02:02) When will we actually reach the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals?

(05:20) Taking a pay cut so that he can wear jeans to work (becoming an accidental marketer)

(07:30) Getting Dole to build a startup: The Shed 28

(10:11) The 170-year-old startup

(11:28) What does it mean to build brands our conscience can live with? OR How to genuinely build a brand our conscience can live with (rather than a superficial PR play).

(14:39) Consumerism and degenerative growth: buying more, making more, what for?

(16:40) Balancing purpose and profit: how do companies thrive while staying purposeful?

(21:27) Should businesses ever prioritize purpose over profit?

(23:37) Fighting systemically degenerative business models.

(25:22) The Shed 28:

(27:58) Good nutrition should be as accessible as sunshine: 6 Dole Promises #SunshineForAll 6

(31:43) Converting business slogan into business behavior: Making  #SunshineForAll more than just another slogan

(35:29) Using brands as a leadership tool: going beyond extractive and seductive brands

(04:51) “Our conscience is taking quite a backseat on a day-to-day basis, or our conscience almost comes once we’ve kind of worked our backside off on the profit at the cost of everything else.”

(12:21) “Unless the why changes what you do and how you do it as a company. It ends up becoming a conversation or an advertising or a piece of PR. A purpose needs to be lived in its actions, in how a company does business in what the company makes in, how the company brings it to the market, in how the company ships it, in how the company sells it, in how the company packages it.”

(22:59) “If you’re a business you do need to make money. However, money at the cost of everything as a method to thrive is what we are against.”

Links

Prefer to read instead of listening? Check out our blog post on the lessons we’ve learned from this episode.

The Shed 28: https://theshed28.com/

Deep Purpose by Ranjay Gulati: https://www.amazon.com/Deep-Purpose-Heart-High-Performance-Companies-ebook/dp/B094JLM579

Connect with Rupen Desai: https://sg.linkedin.com/in/rupendesai

Connect with Subodh Deshpande: https://sg.linkedin.com/in/subodh-deshpande-4160083

We spoke to April Adams-Redmond, Global Brand VP at Unilever, about Fixing the Broken Food System.

April lives her purpose as a driver of bold actions to fix the broken food system and is one of the visionaries behind the Future 50 Foods report developed in conjunction with WWF. She shares her journey in business and her passions with our host Shad Raouf.

In “Building Bonds for a Regenerative Future, Benoit Greindl, founder and CEO of the Regenerative Alliance and Muriel Soupart, business humanizer and partner at Innate Motion. share how to accelerate our transition to a more regenerative economy by strengthening our bonds with self, others and nature. They reflect on the importance of surrounding yourself with other believers and the role of empathy in moving from ego to eco mindsets.

This episode invites Joyshree Reinelt from Innate Motion and Miriam Sibide, Mission Officer and Founder of Brands on a Mission. Hosted by Shad Raouf.

This episode invites Emily Klooster, marketing director at the LiveKindly Co and Femke van Loon, Chief Growth Officer of Innate Motion.
Hosted by Shad Raouf.

This episode invites Molly Harriss Olson, CEO of Fairtrade Australia & New Zealand, Nicholas Lambert, Director of Fairtrade Belgium and Christophe Fauconnier, Chairman of Innate Motion.

This episode invites Molly Harriss Olson, CEO of Fairtrade Australia & New Zealand, Nicholas Lambert, Director of Fairtrade Belgium and Christophe Fauconnier, Chairman of Innate Motion.