What I do

Partners & Clients

Working together makes everything better. Whether it's my co-creative approach with clients or close collaboration with partners, my goal is to improve results and amplify potential.

HOW TO ADD VALUE

A sustainable strategy only works if people believe in it, especially the people working for you. And most of all you need to believe in it. Change only works from the inside out. New legislation and public opinion may be forcing you to consider social or circular solutions, but that doesn’t mean it has to feel like like an oversized chore on a housekeeping list. Sustainability is not something to retrofit onto your business. In my experience, it’s an opportunity to strengthen and expand your brand identity and a way to organize your workforce behind a common goal. A good sustainable strategy builds on a company’s heritage and leverages the drive of the people working there.

My process covers 3 phases:

Align
The first step is perhaps the most important one, but also the one most companies overlook. This is about understanding your workforce and what drives them. Tapping into that drive is they key to unlock your business’ true potential. You want to know when they’re proud to work for your company, where in their lives they’re already making a positive impact, where they might see the company make an impact. This is also the moment to take stock of your company’s history so far. Undoubtedly there are examples and stories to build on for the future.

1. Align the values of your workforce to your company values and heritage.

2. Align your business purpose to eco-social goals that people actually want to achieve.

Define
The insights from your workforce will be diverse, but you will be able to recognize themes. There will often be some surprising suggestions that make you look at the potential of your company differently, especially when you match them with your company’s heritage. It’s now time to direct these insights into new focus areas: ideas to make positive impact.

1. Categorize and combine insights into themes.

2. Rate themes based on company heritage and values.

3. Define the top 3 eco-social themes to research further.

Design
You’ve defined themes for impact based on the internal drive of your company. Now it’s time to explore these themes further and create a comprehensive strategy that will truly set your company apart and energize your workforce. In this phase we take a systems-view of the problem to understand where your time and resources are used most effectively. This is also the place where business opportunities are spotted that others may be missing.

1. Analyze your stakeholder system to spot opportunities for change

2. Apply social and circular business models and design strategies to develop your new strategy.

3. Apply design thinking to validate and execute your plans

My 5 Principles 

In 15 years of purpose-driven entrepreneurship, I’ve seen why things go wrong and why they go right. It’s tempting to cut corners for short term success, but time and again I’ve seen it pays off to take a beat to consider: are we doing what we should be doing?

1. Change happens from the inside out
Start with who your are, as a founder/owner and as a company. Understand what drives you and what drives your employees to do better. A motivated workforce is one that believes in the good a company is trying to achieve.

2. Question your beliefs
What you believe defines how you act, whether it’s fiction or fact. Limiting beliefs shut down innovation, empowering beliefs break down barriers. Set the conditions to make things work by questioning your beliefs about how things work. You’ve got experience, but you need fresh insights to innovate.

3. Process brings progress
Creativity is chaotic and deadlines always loom. It feels counterintuitive, but by taking time to get the process right saves you time, money and energy down the line. Slow down to speed up.

4. Unity in diversity
Excellence is a diamond polished by many hands. Co-creation is key. Strict top-down decision making ignores the expertise of people on the floor and deters the younger generation who understand this fast-changing world better than you do. Include input from across your workforce and stakeholder system to develop the solutions that deliver value to everyone, not just some.

5. (Don’t) take it seriously
Be relentlessly principled about your values and ideals, but play freely within their boundaries. A playful mind is a creative mind. Also, it’s just a lot more fun.