How meaning and profit belong together. By Bethany Koby
Competition is rising across markets globally, while the recession seems endless. Government regulations are becoming more restrictive as natural resources continue to be depleted. Social networks connect millions of people despite billions living in poverty and disconnected. What freedom can businesses find in this complexity to differentiate and stay relevant? Some brands are looking deeper than their images and communications to do this – they are changing the fundamentals of how they work to re-invent their industries. They are creating unique business models and searching for their purpose not just for freedom.
At a recent conference, The Feast, in New York City, 400 leading social entrepreneurs, change agents and creative thinkers met to discuss the future of industries. During this two day event, they discussed everything from completely re-inventing government by creating experimentally governed communities floating in the sea, to the rise of collaborative consumption models and a resurgence of businesses focused on sharing, swapping and bartering. It was evident that the people and businesses at this event were creating a kind of freedom for their organisations; creating space to play, explore, experiment and take huge risks all in the name of doing good. These businesses were seeking purpose and profit and were having fun while addressing some of the most pressing needs in the world – from food and nutrition to education reform.
Most brands of the 20th century were built on strong images, clever communications, endless growth and an insatiable appetite for profit and scale. Although such behaviour is not disappearing from the business world, there seems to be a new collection of brands that are challenging the status quo and are era defining – reinventing their industries and the way we understand business with purpose and focus. Some of these transformative brands are big and some are small, but what they all have in common is that they exist at the intersection between creativity and impact, and they care as much about people and the planet as they do about profit.
Here are some observations of the qualities that these businesses demonstrate. They are exploring freedom in all aspects of their businesses, from the ways they work to the relationships they have with their employees and customers.
1. They are category-defining, need-based organizations – they use creativity and impact to identify real needs and create inventive, inspiring and transformative products and services. They are generally not playing cat and mouse with price and product variations, rather they continue to push the edges of their industries.
2. They have created definitive customer experiences that make the world a better place – they spend their energy and resources innovating around clear principles related to their purpose in the world which includes people, the planet and profit (all of these are important and part of their missions).
3. They have unique business models – these frameworks help them manifest this purpose though an exchange of value with their customers, time, content, participation and community are equally valuable and measurable in these businesses.
4. They value transparency and openness.
5. They love their people and focus on creating a working environment focusing on the conditions needed to get the best out of each other. From legendary perks to total mission buy-in. Their employees love going to work.
6. People love them, viscerally. Emotional reactions to their products and services are not uncommon.
7. Collaborating and sharing are common practice – even within the same industries.
8. They use technology smartly to drive their business not just as PR and advertising exercise.
9. Design is important – from the logo to its website to the user experience. Design is a fundamental part of the way these business work not just how they look.
Brands like Google (organising the world’s information), Skype (dismantling barriers to communications), Zipcar (enabling simple, responsible urban living…), River Simple (building and operating cars for independent use, whilst systematically striving to eliminate environmental damage caused by personal transport), Better Place (providing electric vehicles and network services globally), Naked Pizza (helping American get healthy), Kickstarter (the largest funding platform for creative projects in the world), Etsy (helping people to make a living making things, and reconnecting makers with buyers) and Zopa (a smarter, fairer and altogether more human way of managing your money, where both borrowers and lenders get better rates) – to name only a few – have a freedom and focus that most businesses only dream of, and they are having fun while doing it. These brands challenge and even overturn old businesses based on pure transaction. They give people something useful, meaningful and socially relevant through services and experiences – not merely though consumption. And they do this not on the surface but through their business models and radical ways of working in the pursuit of something good for people, the planet and their bottom line.
BUSINESS MODELS, CREATIVE TOOLS AND FOCUS
Some of this may not sound like the typical freedom of business we once knew. It is not the hedonistic ad world of the 1960s, nor it is the ego-driven profits of some of the CEOs of the 1980s and 90s, and it’s surely not the picture of sacrifice and restraint that some environmentalists once painted. The kind of freedom these brands are demonstrating is abundant and creative. But it is not a free for all. It has frameworks, values and models which help these businesses know their limits and boundaries. And these models also help them to make money. Real freedom for businesses today lies in these kinds of tools and models that help bridge people around common goals, and create shared understanding for all to act on. Creative tools further help brands understand how their purpose should drive everything they do and to consider a holistic view of the business.
One such tool is called “The Business Model Canvas”, initially proposed by Alexander Osterwalder. This tool helps businesses to sketch out a new or existing model and see their business model as a visual puzzle. It helps create a shared understanding across disciplines by making it visual and helping people from different areas to speak a similar language. It takes into account the purpose of the business and how its proposition to customers should influence everything from the channels they use to communicate to the revenue streams that make them money. This way of looking at business models is both visual and creative. It allows for an integrated view of a business that is not always easy to see.
This tool and many others are where the freedom for brands may lie. It is through a deeper and interconnected understanding of the business and its impact that brands can understand the intended and unintended consequence of their products and services – and act accordingly with intention and purpose.
Bethany Koby is an American born designer, art director and artist creating brands, businesses and experiences to help imagine a positive and more collaborative future. She is currently based in London and divides her time as a design director at the international Wolff Olins brand consultancy, as well as collaborating on participative models with art institutions, communities and businesses. At Wolff Olins, she has been an active contributor to brand-led innovation projects, which are redefining categories of business in new and more relevant ways. Bethany Koby holds a BFA in communication design and in art history from the Rhode Island School of Design and an MSc in responsibility and business practice from Bath Universi
