Launching my new company

After almost two years at Prophet, I am reconnecting with my entrepreneurial spirit to start up a new social-good consulting firm called Fruitful. The focus is on aligning business strategy with social good to achieve triple-bottom-line results. I'm really excited about it... I've been wanting to use my skills to help make the world a better place and I think this will be a great vehicle through which to do so.

I'm a "glass is half full" kind of person, and I believe this is the perfect time to start a business like this. Here's why:

• Change equals opportunity. We're seeing a convergence of market forces that indicate that the era of “business as usual” is coming to an end (more on this in my next post.) Game-changing opportunities are being created for businesses to be powerful and profitable catalysts for good. Yet the recession is causing wide-spread, knee-jerk reactions to cut or eliminate spending. Businesses will either be seen as a leader or a me-too in their respective categories when times improve.
• Perception is reality. There’s a lot of skepticism towards companies jumping on the social-good bandwagon. Accusations of greenwashing abound. Socially good business is not about PR programs or legal checklists. The only way to succeed is by embedding social good initiatives throughout your entire organization in a way that supports and extends your brand and business strategy. It’s about walking your talk.
• There's a smart way to prune. Many larger businesses have numerous philanthropic efforts that don’t align with their brands or support their business strategies. This is a good time to eliminate scattershot programs in favor of a strategic, focused approach that can effect greater change and drive future growth. And hey, maybe even be profitable. 

I'll be writing a lot more about socially good business here on this blog until I get my new website (with an integrated blog) up and running. So stay tuned...

Comments

[Simon Cerezo]

Hi Jennifer,

Congratulations on the new business. I wish you the best, i also hope this crazy economy turns around for us all.

[Antonio Gould]

Good luck! It's an important field and one which is growing both on the environmental and ethical sides of things.

I did some work last year with an interesting ethical trade consultancy called Impactt - you may be interested in checking out their blog and hooking up with them in some way.

http://impacttlimited.com

Good luck with it all, I'm signed up to the blog so look forward to seeing how it goes.

Antonio

[Robert Paterson]

Jennifer - how nice to see you back as your own boss. Johnnie Moore gave me a shout that you had done this
Yours Rob

[Tea Silvestre]

Hi There! Glad to see there are more of us out there. Congratulations on your new beginning and please feel free to contact me to discuss how our two Social Good endeavors might collaborate.

[Alain Thys]

Hi Jennifer,

Congratulations. You might want to hook up with Stefaan Vandist at Trinity, who's on a similar track.

See: http://www.trinity-planning.be/

Hope all is well

Alain Thys

[Patrick Carmody]

Have we made any progress by allowing brands into a space previously filled with human contact and community?

Production and consumption used to happen intimately. Almost all groceries and durable goods were made within a 100 mile radius of your domicile by people who you generally knew socially. This means that commerce and community were very closely linked, providing a human and visceral sense of value with each transaction. A personal relationship between producer and consumer was the basis for trust. How many ‘lifestyle brands’ existed when you dealt directly with the producer?

More than ever there is a huge geographical gap between consumption and production. Put simply – hard stuff is made in the east and emotion is made in the west. So more than ever brands are filling the emotional gulf that we feel when production is far removed from consumption. How have they filled the gap? Brands have wired most of our consumption experiences to social acceptance, piggybacking on the new master narrative of 'buy me and you will be _______ (beautiful/popular/happy/saved).

An interesting way out could be to replace consumption experiences with production at an individual level...veggie gardens r us?

[Chris Wilson]

Congratulations! Looking forward to more details.