Socially Useful: Simplicity in an age of Complexity

Can you succinctly describe what your company does without simply explaining the business strategy? What do you do for people, businesses, or society beyond selling a product or service? What is your Purpose?

Transparency, authenticity and social responsibility are watch words for the new age of Purpose. We have never seen a bigger push by brands to clearly demonstrate their value to the world beyond adding to their bottom line. Yet, even with all of the positive noise being made about CSR, social investments and staff wellness initiatives, we still see these undertakings isolated from, and largely irrelevant to the core business strategy.

This begs the question, is there a contradiction between the commercial interests of brands and what customers expect in terms of social responsibility? Or is it simply that the existing initiatives are a shallow attempt to retrofit a conscience on a commercial enterprise?

Patagonia seems to be on everyone's lips when we talk about sustainable responsible business practices. But why is Patagonia still our go-to example in the search for the socially useful? Are we that starved of genuine socially useful brands?

At Siegel+Gale we want to unwrap the idea of being "socially useful" through our unique lens of Simplicity. Join us for our interactive breakout forum to share ideas with industry leaders and inspire positive change within business that has a real impact on the bottom line.