For Purpose/For Profit Orgs

Homophobia and (In)Authenticity at Omnicom: What can a leader do?

July 24, 2008

Tweet I am struggling to understand the pattern of reactions to a recent critique of an organization’s authenticity. Bob Garfield, writing in Monday’s (7/21) Advertising Age, has an Open Letter to Omnicom President-CEO John Wren, asking Wren to look at the contradiction between Omnicom’s public Statement on Corporate Responsibility and the homophobia represented in three […]

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“Loving” my Authentic CSA? Good to know I’m not crazy….or alone!

June 9, 2008

Tweet Every now and then, when I think about what thinking about Authenticity does to me, I start to wonder if I’m crazy. Does anyone else get excited by “Girlcotts”, corporate shills, rice pudding, or bad branding plays? Well, here’s some perspective on my recent post, re: ‘Loving my CSA‘: Data point: When I googled […]

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B Corporations: Video Clip

May 10, 2008

Tweet Here is a video clip of Andrew Kassoy, a co-founder of the B Lab (the non-profit that has set up the B Corporation structure) speaking at a Stanford Entrepreneurship seminar in February of 2008. It’s interesting to hear the argument behind the B Corporation straight from the folks who thought of it! Marrying Socially […]

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B Corp Identity: An Opportunity for Organizational Authenticity

May 1, 2008

Tweet What are for-profit organizations to do, if they want to pursue social purposes and be authentic? Until recently, organizations facing this authenticity dilemma had three options. They could: Attempt to manage the incongruence between their actions and their identity, and forgo authenticity, Resolve the inconsistency by giving up for-purpose actions and become an authentic […]

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Can a for-profit business organization that also pursues a social purpose be authentic?

April 24, 2008

Tweet There are so many examples of for-profit organizations whose for-purpose actions are suspect that it’s a little scary to bring up the subject. Where do we even begin? We should probably start by acknowledging that the questionable relationship between a ‘for-profit’ organizational identity and ‘for-purpose’ actions (aka: non-profit, socially responsible, charitable, philanthropic, etc.) is […]

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Honey is really bee vomit: Why we should label “NonProfit” Organizations “For-Purpose” Organizations

March 28, 2008

Tweet “You catch more flies with honey than vinegar.” Would this advice make any sense if, instead, it was: “You catch more flies with bee vomit than vinegar”? Heck no. That’s why it makes a difference when organizations have positive, attractive, and descriptive names. Names matter Names convey identity. They can be crafted to emphasize […]

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Authentic Organizational Partnerships: Organizational Brands, Names, the Columbus Children’s Hospital, and the Abercrombie & Fitch Trauma Center

March 19, 2008

Tweet + = ??? In an earlier post, I mentioned that authentic organizations might find it hard to find appropriate partner organizations, because the qualities of the company you keep are often inferred to be the qualities of your organization itself. And now, in the news , is a great example of this very problem: […]

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The New York Junior League: To be more authentic, practice what you preach

February 9, 2008

Tweet If an organization wants to be seen as inauthentic, all it needs to do is to say one thing and do another. When an organization creates a gap between ‘who we say we are’ and ‘how we act’, it creates a common and avoidable authenticity challenge. This authenticity challenge is made even worse when […]

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