When looking for inspiration I turn to a story. A personal struggle against adversity or a moment of epiphany after years of careful preparation; a triumph where there should be none. I need a heroine, or a hero, with a hill to climb.
I am not alone. Story telling is the glue which has held together generations since the beginning of time, knitting people into a culture and common past. It first crossed over to the boardroom in the 1980s when it became fashionable as a management tool with the likes of Peter Drucker and Tom Peters. From the annexing of the Greek myths as inspiration for advertising creatives to the video diaries of chief executives, stories are ubiquitous.
When we began to plan this website, knowing that we wanted to create a resource to inspire individuals to engage with business as a force for good, we realised that we needed to find our own stories. To help the conclusions of the Tomorrow's Company report find voice we needed to identify individuals who are not only doing what is profitable with their business, but what is honourable, too.
We needed to tell you about individuals acting with enlightened self interest; showing the rest of us it could be done.
We wanted to demonstrate that the false polarity - that has placed principles at one end of the spectrum, profit at the other - is over. That instead it was time to return to a golden age typified by the great industrialists, the Kelloggs and the Cadburys, who had combined doing good with doing well.
This is where the 'force for good' pioneers come in.
Together our two organizations searched our contact books to find the people who inspired us. We asked our colleagues, our clients, our associates.
We took the debate to Davos and our Chief Executive, Kevin Kelly, engaged with other leading business leaders there. What does it take to do what is right? Who do you admire? Who is already doing this well? Where are our pioneers?
We wanted to find the people who had created a positive impact for society or the planet in the normal course of their business. We wanted them to tell their stories.
From members of Tomorrow’s Company, to the World Economic Forum, from the Haymarket 35 global women under 35 to The Glasshouse entrepreneur community, we asked. We were looking for people from all over the globe, not just in the US and the UK. We wanted a mix of entrepreneurs and corporations, big and boutique, to ensure their stories spoke to the broadest audience.
We could never have attempted a ranking, nor would we have wanted to. This was never about awards. But I suppose it is about recognition. We don’t want to stop at this first group either. If this web site does its job, it will be bursting with stories of people who are doing inspiring things through the course of their normal business. And eventually, if these stories stop being quite so inspirational, we hope it’s because we have accepted as fact that business has to be a force for good if it is to thrive.
On behalf of Heidrick & Struggles I would like to thank everyone who took the time to share their thoughts with us. And of course thank you to the Pioneers. Not content with words, we also asked them for photographs too, meaning more distraction from their work.
We hope you like the first instalment in the story of the force for good pioneers. Let us know. This is not a one way broadcast, let’s start a conversation.
Tashi Lassalle, VP, Strategic Development, Heidrick & Struggles