Purpose Inspired: by Wayne Visser

Hello. I’m Professor Dr Wayne Visser and in this podcast series, I share my reflections on what it means to be purpose-inspired, whether as an organisation, an individual or even as a whole society. It is really the story of my own exploration over the past 20 years of how business can be a force for good in the world, and how individuals can make a positive difference. I have organized the podcast chronologically, so you join me on the journey and see how key ideas evolve over time. As we go, you will notice the ebb and flow of global trends, the entry and exit of pioneering companies, and the twisting kaleidoscope of responses to the world’s greatest challenges. Over the past 30 years, I have travelled to more than 75 countries and captured my learning in more than 20 books on topics like corporate social responsibility and sustainable business. For each series, I have selected one book that synthesizes the emerging ideas, practices and lessons learned on the journey to being purpose-inspired. And I have tried to make each podcast a bite-size chunk of around 15 or 20 minutes. Some of you will be faithful companions for the entire trip, across multiple series. Others will tag along for a while, dipping in and out according to their interest. All of you are most welcome.In the inaugural series, we begin with my very first book – and one that I am in many ways still the most proud of. The book’s title is Beyond Reasonable Greed: Why Sustainable Business is a Much Better Idea, although I originally wanted to call it Shapeshifting. The reason is because I use a fun wildlife metaphor throughout the book, arguing that companies need to shift from acting like predatory lions to being more like elephants, which are wise, gentle and highly collaborative creatures. We end by exploring two scenarios for the world, called Oases in the Desert and Plains of the Serengeti. In subsequent series, I will share different approaches and ideas that emerged from other books of mine, like Business Frontiers, Making a Difference, The Age of Responsibility, The Quest for Sustainable Business and Sustainable Frontiers. I look forward having you along for the ride. Please do invite your friends to join us – the more the merrier. We are at a crucial time in our history where the problems are urgent, complex and in desperate need of innovative solutions. So the more we can share our ideas and knowledge – and the more we can all be purpose inspired – the better our chances of creating a future in which our children, and the other life we share this planet with, can not only survive, but positively thrive.

1/11/19 • 03:01

“Greed is good”. Some of you might remember the phrase immortalized by Michael Douglas who played Gordon Gekko in the 1987 movie Wall Street. Well, the world has more than lived up to these words by pursuing the principle that excessive greed is even better. In a critical analysis of the principles driving modern business, Series 1 of the Purpose Inspired podcast by Wayne Visser demonstrates that the predatory behavior of the lion is symbolic of the way most companies are run today. But the world cannot go on like this. The podcast, which is based on the book “Beyond Reasonable Greed” by Wayne Visser and Clem Sunter, argues strongly for an alternative and more positive vision involving sustainable business in both a social and an environmental sense. In order to achieve this, companies will need to change – to shapeshift – from the tooth-and-claw logic of lions to the more caring, holistic philosophy of the elephant.But what does this mean in practice? The podcast unpacks what is really meant by sustainability and sets out seven steps to create sustainable commerce, including a renewed focus on values, vision, work, governance, relationships, communication and services. We also look at what is required for sustainable economics, through new perspectives on measures, externalities, markets, investments, money, banking and trade. And then we look to the future, exploring two scenarios for the medium to long term: Oases in the Desert, where the corporate lions continue to rule, but their kingdoms are increasingly restricted by their own destructive behavior and popular discontent; and Plains of the Serengeti, where companies shapeshift into elephants which strive for a proper balance between cooperation and competition and a continuing diversity of species, large and small, strong and weak. The podcast concludes that multi-level shapeshifting is required for sustainability. Apart from corporate transformation, it is up to governments on the one hand and each and every one of us as individuals on the other to adopt the persona of an elephant in order to pass on a worthwhile heritage to our children. Join us on the journey, as we transform business fangs and claws into tusks and trunks.

1/11/19 • 02:36

Magic is the revelation that results from a profound change in perception or understanding. And as with everything in life, there’s good magic and bad magic. Bad magic has moved many companies into a state that is beyond reasonable greed. This podcast introduces the call for a Reformation in business, along the same lines as the one precipitated by Martin Luther in 1517. Reform is critical for business to restore its reputation, particularly as its presence in society rivals that of the Church in the sixteenth century. At the heart of this reformation is sustainability - a new way of perceiving business: its purpose, its methods and its impacts. For those companies that can adapt and respond quickly and intelligently enough, there are new markets to capture and profits to be made. For those that are ill prepared, sustainability is going to become a significant financial burden, even a threat to corporate survival. 

1/11/19 • 13:58

The best chance for companies to survive an accumulation of changes to the environment is to develop a better understanding of how evolution itself works. The popular Darwinian notion of a slow, incremental process of continuous improvement by random trial and error is only partially accurate. Evolution also happens in great leaps of sudden transformation, so-called discontinuities. Small changes have a cumulative effect so that when certain thresholds are reached, dramatic metamorphoses are triggered. This kind of step-change is often called the hundredth monkey phenomenon. The emergence of the corporate social responsibility and environmental movements over the past few decades, culminating in the slippery slogan of sustainability, is a prime example of the hundredth monkey phenomenon. Environmental and social concerns have risen like a tide over the intervening decades so that, today, sustainability stands on the brink of transforming the underlying business model that has been so successful over the past few hundred years. 

1/18/19 • 16:43

There is a common driving force in all creation and evolution - a golden thread which Jan Smut called holism. Holism is a fundamental tendency within nature (including human society and its institutions) to form wholes of ever-greater synergy. Synergy is the now well-known concept of the whole being greater than the sum of the parts. What characterises these wholes is increasingly complex relationships between their diverse elements, resulting in progressively higher levels of intelligence and creativity. The relationships between things are therefore as important as the things in themselves. The central argument of this podcast is that the current model driving business has outlived its usefulness. It is not holistic. So we need a new approach - starting with a new narrative. At the moment, the majority of business embodies the characteristics of a lion – an impressive predator. However, the future calls for different strengths, such as those displayed by the mighty elephant – a wise leader. 

1/25/19 • 16:43

The lion as an inspirational role model is neither new nor unique to business. But the role of business is changing and the hunting lifestyle is proving to have a number of weaknesses in the new landscape of sustainability. The modern capitalist company, while it continues to portray itself as a lion king, has a number of blindspots with reference to sustainability. These fatal flaws or false assumptions, that are beginning to challenge the supremacy of this kind of regal thinking, are discussed in this podcast. Companies constantly shrug off their social and environmental impacts because their economic contribution and financial profit are seen as more important; in fact, the latter are seen as an end in themselves. And business has been extracting resources and impacting the environment at a rate and a scale that could only be sustainable if the planet was infinite and contained ecosystems that were able to regenerate themselves rapidly irrespective of the damage they incurred - which is not the case.

2/1/19 • 17:41

Physical growth is inherent in nature, but it doesn’t continue ad infinitum. And yet, there is a widely held belief that economic growth is always good and should be continuously strived for. Now business has to face the fact that economic growth does not automatically benefit either society or the environment. The UNDP puts this qualitative difference in a nutshell when it identifies the following five damaging forms of growth: jobless, voiceless, rootless, futureless and ruthless. When the lion pride grows, it may well be at the expense of other species and the environment. Many companies claim and believe that society and the environment will automatically be better off if they simply focus on maximising value for their shareholders and increasing the packages of their directors. But in lion companies, the benefits always seem to trickle upwards. The incentives in our current economic system make it almost impossible not to choose profits over people and the planet. But the landscape is changing.

2/8/19 • 17:09

What if, in business, Lion was no longer king? What if Elephant was king (or queen) once more? For, according to the theme of this podcast, in the corporate bushveld of the future where social equity and environmental sustainability are the watchwords of society, Elephant has all the right characteristics to be the leader. Elephants are the epitome of sustainability. They have shown themselves to be supreme survivors and masters at adapting to different regions, climates and habitats. As with companies that wish to endure, adaptation is the key. As a rule, the elephant’s relationship to other species and Nature is highly cooperative and symbiotic. In the complex world of wider accountability to stakeholders, sustainable companies will need to learn to survive not by their ability to hunt and kill, but by their capacity to identify, nurture and sustain cooperative relationships. Elephants’ awesome size and strength inspires respect and admiration. The key for sustainable companies is not only to learn to find this grace and flexibility despite their size, it is also to be creatures of inspiration.

2/15/19 • 20:31

Before exploring how sustainability will change economics and business, we need to understand what sustainability is and what it is not, and how it came about as a force in our society. Sustainability began as an ideological crusade about 50 years ago when a few voices in the wilderness gave a clarion call about how our civilization was on a path to self-destruction. They were ignored as fringe fanatics or doomsayers. Nevertheless, many of these early sustainability prophets were scientists who had done their fair share of homework before shouting their apocalyptic warnings from the hilltops. The 1980s and 1990s saw a number of thoughtful leaders further the cause of the early sustainability prophets. Among them was a whole generation of new economists who questioned the sustainability of our prevailing economic theories and practices. There have been a number of pioneering scientists calling for progress towards an elephant economy and business approach. Finally, there have been a number of influential business consulting pioneers, who have sought to translate elephant ideas into a vision of the sustainable economy and the sustainable company. 

2/22/19 • 20:23

In the 1970s, it was thanks to the zealous efforts of the sustainability prophets that a new social phenomenon was born – the green movement. However, with the spate of industrial accidents in the 1980s, from Bhopal and Love Canal to Chernobyl and Exxon Valdez, the spotlight began to shift from wildlife conservation to industrial pollution. It was not until the politicians were enticed into the debate that sustainability became a mainstream concern. In 1992, 178 country leaders paraded on the world stage at the United Nations Conference on the Environment and Development in Rio de Janeiro, more familiarly referred to as the ‘Earth Summit’. Finally, by the 1990s, it had become clear that the environmental and social movements were here to stay and getting stronger by the year. The last decade of the twentieth century saw the green trend being backed by politicians, consumers, religious groups, community organisations and business. We are including here what we believe are a few of the more helpful attempts to develop sustainability criteria – guides to elephant spotting if you like. 

3/1/19 • 25:26

In this podcast, we start going beyond the ‘why’ to the ‘how’ of sustainable business. We explore seven critical dimensions in which shapeshifting needs to occur in order to create sustainable companies. These are: values, vision, work, governance, relationships, communication and services. We begin with values. Values are exactly what they say they are – a reflection of the things we value. They are not motherhood and apple pie statements in annual reports, or candyfloss principles framed on the boardroom wall. In other words, companies’ values are betrayed by their actions, not their words or their spin doctor’s marketing material. We illustrate the prioritisation of values with two examples: America’s popular ice-cream chain, Ben & Jerry’s, and Brazil’s largest marine and food-processing machinery manufacturer, Semco. Of course, corporate values seldom exist in isolation from broader cultural values. For example, the culture of the West/North is highly focused on individual performance and rewards hierarchical authority and rational decision-making, while the East/South’s emphasis is more about social harmony and cohesion, participative decision-making, creative expression and motivation. 

3/8/19 • 17:35

Shapeshifting seldom happens in countries or companies without visionary leadership. Like the revolutionary philosophers and scientists of centuries past, somebody has to be able to step outside of the parochial present and see the bigger picture of the future. And like those historical reformists, today’s innovative leaders walk a tightrope between being recognised and celebrated as a visionaries and being regarded as crackpots to be locked up or heathens to be burned at the stake. The great thing about creating a sustainable future is that it is an inspiring ideal: something that, like the elephant, is bigger than ourselves - a little frightening, somehow magical, an exciting challenge at the very least. And in today’s barren desert of materialism and secularism, people are crying out for something inspirational, even sacred, to quench their thirst for meaning. Sustainability is that oasis shimmering on the horizon. 

3/15/19 • 15:42

Having a leader’s inspiring vision is one thing, but it is like whistling in the wind unless people in the workplace are able to express their own inherent magic – their creativity and imagination, their values and passions. As Anita Roddick says: “People become motivated when you guide them to the source of their own power.” Sustainable companies do something that is almost unimaginable. They accept humans as humans. They don’t try to turn us into machines. In fact, they encourage us to express all aspects of our humanness. This is not is about becoming completely scattered and ineffective. It is about being flexible, discovering the most appropriate times to work and play and socialise, or to do a combination of these. Being human at work is also about being able to be ourselves – our whole selves. One thing that would help with the existential crisis in business would be a switch from the present focus on ‘jobs’ to the old idea of ‘vocations’. 

3/22/19 • 16:52

Over the past decade, for example, numerous corporate governance codes have emerged, which require companies to give a more transparent account of how their business is being run and the impacts on the various stakeholder groups. One of the most recent and progressive documents is South Africa’s revised King Report which even makes explicit recommendations on sustainability reporting and social and ethical accountability. Shapeshifting goes beyond putting ticks into boxes, however. At the end of the day, it is once again about values and behaviour. In order to implement governance at a practical level, shapeshifting needs to occur in at least three areas: company incentive systems, decision-making processes and communication methods. In exploring these issues, it is instructive once again to contrast Western and Southern cultural dynamics. 

3/29/19 • 13:03

Companies have cultivated relationships only from pure self-interest – mostly with shareholders, financial analysts, customers and suppliers. And usually, these interactions have been a pure power play – wining and dining the influential few, while ignoring the rest or pressuring them into conformance. The idea of genuine dialogue with communities, NGOs and government for the sake of enduring symbiotic relationships, rather than as a short-term bargaining tactic, is still somewhat unpalatable for most companies. With their quarterly eye on the skittish profits, spending time and energy on building long term friendships without any immediate reward seems, well, a costly indulgence. But to survive in the sustainability era, companies have to move beyond their aggressive, competitive tendencies. They need to learn to be not only sociable, but genuinely concerned about the perspectives and wellbeing of all of their stakeholders. 

4/4/19 • 13:07

Communication for sustainable companies is a dialogue: an ongoing, two way, interactive process which involves listening as much as talking, and includes non-verbal as well as verbal exchange. These companies are far less opportunistic when it comes to communicating with stakeholders. The reason they enter into dialogue with their employees, or communities, or environmental NGOs, is the fact that these entities are interconnected in some way, be they interested in, concerned about, or affected by the company’s operations. The ingredients of effective communication are good, basic common sense. Be open. Share information. Not just the good stuff, also the bad and the in-between. And not just the boring facts; also the hopes and dreams, the passions and emotions. Talk about the serious things (the so-called hard facts) when they need talking about. But don’t forget to share the lighter moments as well. Very important – don’t tell lies (or even bend the truth). But once there is a track record of honesty, trust what the other says. 

4/11/19 • 13:12

Products and services will need to shapeshift radically in a sustainable world. It will no longer be acceptable or successful to follow the old approach of producing widgets and flogging them to a market brainwashed by advertising, whilst ignoring the damage they cause along the way. The new generation of sustainable products and services will focus on adding value over their entire life cycle. In so doing, they will incorporate design characteristics inspired by the genius of Nature. In fact, many products will become obsolete as they are replaced by ‘leased benefits’ instead. There are various manifestations of this new philosophy, including life cycle assessment (LCA), eco-efficiency, supply chain integrity and take-back schemes. While these are mainly aimed at the environmental elements of life cycle accountability, supply chain integrity auditing begins to address social impacts as well. But the biggest shapeshift has less to do with new methods or models, and more to do with inspiration. That is the potential for products and services to be inspired by the genius of Nature. 

4/18/19 • 12:46

The world we live in is exceedingly complex. We use indicators to simplify things. Indicators work in the same way as a map. They are meant to be a guide, a representation of reality, which help us to understand the lie of the land. The scale of the map and what it is trying to measure will determine how accurately and completely it approximates reality. Except that sometimes we get lazy. In the midst of our information overload, we are tempted to oversimplify. This is the main problem with economic indicators today. GDP is the classic example of a blinkered unsustainable approach to indicators. This podcast looks in more detail at the concept of indicators, the limitations of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) as a measure of progress as well as some of the more sustainable alternatives, like the Index for Sustainable Economic Welfare (ISEW) and the Genuine Progress Indicator (GPI).

4/25/19 • 16:23

This podcast introduces the economists’ useful notion of ‘externalities’ or spill-over effects. In the unsustainable economy, companies impose costs on society and nature without paying for these damages – these are negative externalities. For example, we look at what happens if we decrease the stock of biodiversity, either by a wetland being drained for development, tropical forests being cleared for agriculture, or a valley being flooded for a hydro-electric power scheme. On the other hand, lone sustainable companies may make contributions to the community or the ecology, without being financially rewarded for these benefits – these are positive externalities. The sustainability trend is forcing companies to internalise their social and environmental externalities, i.e. account for them in their own books. Climate change provides excellent examples of the application of economic instruments to promote sustainable commercial activity.

5/2/19 • 11:16

The explosive growth of this global casino of financial markets is largely as a result of introducing two new games: futures and derivatives trading, beginning in the 1970. Not so long ago, the grave warning of economist John Maynard Keynes echoed loud and clear above the chaotic din of frantic stock market traders: “When the capital development of a country becomes a by-product of the activities of a casino, the job is likely be ill-done”. Modern critic, David Korten who is author of When Corporations Rule the World, calls this phenomenon “de-linking money from value”. He argues that capital is being diverted away from long-term productive investment in the ‘real economy’ in favour of short-term speculative investment in the ‘virtual economy’. It comes as no surprise that those who are grabbing the lion’s share of the benefits from speculative trading are the same ones that have been roaring for greater deregulation of capital flows over the decades. We look at the worrying side effects of speculative trading and deregulated financial markets.

5/9/19 • 11:05

The ‘sustainability investment’ phenomenon can be traced back to the beginnings of the corporate social responsibility movement in the United States in the 1930s. But it only really became visible in the 1970s when church and university groups set up funds, such as the Pax World Fund, to avoid investment in any companies which supported the Vietnam War and the Apartheid regime in South Africa. The trend continued to spread and settled into two basic approaches – shareholder activism and screened investments. And surprising though it may seem, evidence is mounting that many sustainability investments actually outperform the market. According to Russell Sparkes, author of the book, The Ethical Investor, there are good reasons for this unexpectedly superior performance of sustainability funds. But the ‘real returns’ of sustainability funds is in directing money towards the fulfilment of social and environmental goals which usually get under-funded in the marketplace. 

5/16/19 • 09:14

economic growth is no longer (if it ever was) a guarantee for creating jobs. Jobless economic growth is the new reality. Therefore a fundamental re-perception needs to occur about the way that we structure work and welfare - and especially the way we think about money. We have to move our focus from creating employment to creating livelihoods. We have to empower people to put whatever skills and talents they may have to good use. People should not have to spend all their energy and resources on struggling to survive. Nor should they have to wait to be offered a job or to be told that they are economically valuable only when they engage in productive work for someone else in the private or public sector. But how would a more universal model of empowerment be achieved? There are three powerful avenues that merit further explanation: barter networks, parallel currencies and the basic income grant. 

5/23/19 • 13:22

It is one of the great ironies of the unsustainable economy that those who most desperately need money are denied it, or made to pay an exorbitant price to get it. Most banks consider the poor as ‘unbankable’ and focus their appetites on ‘high net worth’ individuals. In the sustainable economy, however, equitable access to finance is high on the list of priorities, as is ensuring that the banks invest their money in sustainable activities. An example of financing a healthy society is the growth of the community development banks in the USA. Social banks are the European equivalent of America’s community development banks. Another issue that concerns sustainable finance types is the potentially perverse effects of interest on the most vulnerable sections of the population. While charging interest on loans dates back more than 4,000 years, so do critiques of its negative impacts.

5/30/19 • 12:08

In the present era of globalisation, it is sacrilege to criticise unrestricted free trade when in the company of the pride. Somehow, questioning free trade is equated with being anti-democratic, pro-communist and an all-round sour-grapes loser. And yet evidence of the negative impacts of free trade on vulnerable communities, small economies and fragile environments is precisely why sustainability thinkers do question deregulated free trade. The critics of globalisation cite various reasons for their discontent. The prime argument is that such an environment leads companies to seek out investment destinations with the least number of obstacles to profit-making. The end-result is what US ecological economist and author Herman Daly calls ‘standards lowering competition’ and others have called ‘the race to the bottom’. Those wishing to shapeshift global trade towards something more sustainable have led the charge with a counter-movement of fair trade.

6/6/19 • 11:29

The rules of the game are the conditions that we are fairly certain will apply within the foreseeable future. They govern our behaviour and up to a point are beyond our control. Unlike the rules of sport which are conveniently written down in a rulebook somewhere, the rules of business are normally unwritten. At times, they are subject to intense debate – particularly when they change as they are doing at the moment. However, there are certain rules that never change such as the moral rules of the game. Many lion companies either ignore or fail to understand that business is as subject to the moral rules as an individual is. Nor are they sensitive to those changes in the rules which are taking place as a result of alterations in the environment around them. We have identified seven rules of the game that underpin the world that is emerging through the mists of time. These are: (1) Spaceship Earth; (2) the demographic multipliers; (3) pervasive poverty, growing resentment; (4) declining ecosystems; (5) a techno-scientific boom; (6) the networked planet; and (7) a renaissance in values.

6/13/19 • 16:10

In constructing scenarios for the future, key uncertainties are those variables that could go one way or the other; they are the pivotal points on which the future swivels. It is critical that we explore these because often their outcome depends partially on our choices and actions over the short term as well as longer term factors beyond our control. However, it is just as crucial to realise that the future contains ‘unknown unknowns’. These wild cards come out of the blue and can make a huge difference. In other words, beware of placing too much faith in our powers of foresight. The future can always surprise us. With the qualification just expressed in mind, we have identified seven key uncertainties: (1) willingness to share power; (2) the direction of innovation; (3) economic and trade policy developments; (4) political maturity; (5) the rate of environmental decline; (6) social unrest; and (7) lifestyle choices.

6/20/19 • 16:46

Given the rules of the game and key uncertainties just described, we have chosen two contrasting scenarios to illustrate how the future landscape of business and the world could turn out. As mentioned already, the actual outcome will partly depend on the options we choose over the coming decade. The two scenarios are: (1) Oases in the Desert; and (2) Plains of the Serengeti. Remember scenarios are stories of what can happen in the future – they are not forecasts of what is going to happen. Their purpose is to educate rather than prescribe.

6/27/19 • 16:40

Having depicted the possible paths that the future can take in two mainline scenarios, we must now consider the options within the control of the principal actors which will increase or reduce the probabilities of either scenario materialising. While we will concentrate on the options facing companies, multi-level shapeshifting makes it essential to bring countries and individuals into the picture. At the business level, we have nominated the three options: (1) Catwalk; (2) Leophancy; and (3) The Charge of the Heavy Brigade. Our choices today will to a large extent shape our future landscape, whether it be Oases in the Desert or Plains of the Serengeti. Nevertheless, it bears repeating that our own choices as company executives and individuals are undeniably influenced by the direction of the choices being made at a political level. But governments can’t do everything. Ordinary people also hold the fragile destiny of our globe in their hands. Individuals do make a difference, little things do count.

7/4/19 • 18:31

Season 2 of Purpose Inspired is based on the book Business Frontiers: Social Responsibility, Sustainable Development and Economic Justice. Why business frontiers? Well, business operates at the frontiers of society – seeking out new territories to explore and exploit, imagining fresh new ways to meet age old needs, innovating the artefacts that become the legacy of civilisations, reinventing the rituals which shape acceptable social behaviour, and changing the way we spend our precious time. But what happens when the landscape itself changes? As the world globalises, power is shifting – from the plush boardrooms to dusty streets, from the financial market casino to the internet connected community, from the annual general meetings to the mass activist campaigns, from the office towers of the North to the crowded pavements of the South. Business faces its greatest challenge yet. Confronted with the triple imperatives of social responsibility, environmental sustainability and economic justice, business will need to adapt or die.

7/11/19 • 02:07

When I think back on all the writing I have done over the years, it strikes me that much of my creativity has been the result of tension. All of these tensions I have felt, and continue to feel at a personal and professional level, are illustrative of the subject of this book. Business Frontiers are the points of tension inherent in current models of business and capitalism which are bringing massive benefits on the one hand, yet still failing the majority of the world’s poor and alienated people. There is a palpable tension between the realities of today and the possibilities of tomorrow. I trust that by sharing these words, you will be inspired to find your own threshold of dynamic tension, and join me in the search for creative solutions. For we can all, in our own way, make a meaningful contribution to the lives of others and the legacy of business in society.

7/11/19 • 07:58