For Purpose/For Profit Orgs

Is there a Business Model behind that Values Statement?

March 1, 2012

There are many fledgling businesses that have laudable intent and shaky commercial foundations.   This is a problem because, in an ideal world, the businesses that stand for values we share should also be able to sustain themselves as businesses. That’s the key premise underneath social entrepreneurship and conscious capitalism. Purpose-driven organizations need compelling values, but they also need coherent [...]

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Communities of Commerce: Where the Marketplace is also the Meaning Place

January 11, 2012

Networks of people and organizations are usually either “markets” or “communities”. It bothers us that networks fit one or the other model of working together, because we envision something more –something both market and community –  in one network. We are often disappointed when markets don’t exhibit a commitment to any values other than maximizing [...]

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The “New” Crisis of Meaning?

October 4, 2011

What’s up with the word “new” in the phrase “meaning is the new motivator”? From all corners of the interwebz conversation about ‘business’, I see mention of this idea that meaning at work is something new, something that we have just begun to desire. Seriously. It seems to come as a surprise, or as a [...]

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Purpose is the Killer App: Why Organizations Need Social Business Tools

July 12, 2011

What will it really take to get organizations to adopt social media tools inside the enterprise? Mere numbers won’t compel us, so don’t count on ROI. The shiny object syndrome won’t hold our attention, so back off with the bells and whistles. And, please, don’t work on us with peer pressure. We’re above trying to [...]

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Make Distinctiveness Matter by Linking It To Organizational Purpose

June 14, 2011

Does it really matter if an organization is “distinctive”? When an organization’s distinctiveness (identity) is linked with the organization’s purpose (greater social goal), the organization’s unique qualities provide the unique resources needed to achieve that purpose. Organizational Distinctiveness is more than Positioning Managers often dismiss the concept of organizational “distinctiveness”, thinking that distinctiveness is only [...]

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CSR that Improves the World But Leaves Your Damaging Business Model Intact: Authentic or not?

February 9, 2011

How can your organization claim to be making the world better, when your business model depends on making the world worse? This question about corporate social responsibility efforts has bugged me for decades — pretty much since I learned what capitalism was. The question came up again for me Tuesday during the conversation at the [...]

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Insights about Authenticity from the Open Community Book Tour

December 22, 2010

I’m taking part in the virtual book tour and are doing to explore concepts from . Maddie and Lindy, along with their colleague Jamie Notter, have long been some of my favorite bloggers. “Even though” they write about communications strategies, and focus on a very specific type of organization (associations), their ideas are big, broadly [...]

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Facebook for Women vs. Facebook Designed by Feminists: Different vs. Revolutionary

October 5, 2010

What would Facebook be like if it were designed by women? In my earlier post, I proposed that Facebook would look, feel and function differently if it had been designed by “women”. [What I actually was writing about what what Facebook might look like if it had been designed by Feminists-- but I used "women" [...]

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Balancing Profit and Purpose at Whole Foods: Red Fish Blue Fish

September 24, 2010

Jessi Schoner, a researcher at University of Minnesota’s eWorkPlace and a reader, sent me an interesting article about Whole Food’s efforts to nudge customers towards more sustainable choices of seafood. Whole Foods … is launching the first in-store color-coded sustainable seafood rating program this week. … The system relies on three colors–green (“best choice”), yellow [...]

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Is your organization flourishing or withering?

September 22, 2010

Organizations are organic things — they are born, they die, they suffer and they thrive. But very few organizations flourish. Organizations that flourish are rare creatures. We find them where business goals are tied to larger purpose, where larger purpose is linked to community needs, and where individuals’ authentic selves are nourished by and engaged [...]

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