When flipping through the news in the morning (whatever your medium), do you get the 'geez' moment? It's the moment where you feel a little overwhelmed; as if the world is incapable of producing good news. Obviously, this feeling is completely reasonable given the spin of the media, but factually untrue. We like to focus on a different story. The one where people all over the world engage everyday in the pursuit of betterment. This is inspiring.
It's intriguing to watch this pursuit by people and businesses. People care deeply about living a fulfilling life and providing for the future. All of us care about influence, progress, and being better (why do we exercise, care about career advancement, and volunteer?).
Businesses care about providing value to customers, shareholders, employees, and society at-large. More and more, businesses are focusing on ways that their operations can create good for society at-large. Sometimes this good is inherent to their business model (like TOMS shoes), and other times it bubbles up as a cool experiment (think Disney's Give a Day, Get a Day program). Both are equally awesome and should be applauded. Both represent people and businesses teaming up to create good. TOMS uses purchasing power, while Disney focuses on people's real-world action.
The potential power in people teaming up with businesses to create good is immense. We believe this relationship has to be facilitated in an easy, replicable way if the true power is to be realized. In the future, people and businesses will think about each other differently. Not as separate, but as one, with a common mission - making a positive impact on the world. What do you think?
well. maybe moving company can donate the furniture and clothing there customers don't want or give a discount on moving jobs to there customer for taking these things for donation
ReplyDeleteYou're absolutely right. My coauthors and I wrote about this new approach from the corporate perspective in Good for Business: The Rise of the Conscious Corporation (2009) and from the consumer perspective in Consumed: Rethinking Business in the Era of Mindful Spending (2010). Companies no longer operate on a separate plane from consumers. There is much more of a sense of a shared destiny and shared goals--whether those goals are related to the environment, poverty eradication, health, or something else. It simply is in everyone's best interest to work together--as a team, as you said. It's actually getting difficult to find companies that aren't moving in this direction. For anyone interested in the discussion, we have lots of info at www.thenewconsumer.com, including findings from Euro RSCG's new global survey on mindful consumption. We'd love to see you there:-)
ReplyDelete@john - love your ideas, especially discounts for accepting unwanted things. Would keep more used items in the system and could be a nice way to find some unique items. Kind of like a delivery vintage shop!
ReplyDelete@Ann- Haven't read your books, but in a quick search it appears they've done very well. Inspiring! We look forward to continuing the discussion with you. Have a great weekend
Nice post guys! MiiR totally believes in using purchasing power to benefit the common good.
ReplyDeleteRight on, even on the sports field, people quickly forget the ill-gotten gains, but long remember the great achievements of integrity
ReplyDelete