Speaker 1: This is Bloomberg Business Week with Carol Messer and Bloomberg
Speaker 1: Quick Takes Tim Stinovich from Bloomberg Radio. A little more
Speaker 1: than a year and a half ago, we heard from
Speaker 1: the business roundtable. They came out, They talked about the
Speaker 1: purpose of a corporation, multiple stakeholders, yes, shareholders, but so
Speaker 1: much more understanding all of them. And uh, that has
Speaker 1: really come into focus big time during the pandemic the
Speaker 1: past thirteen months. As we thought about inequities, we thought
Speaker 1: about racism, we thought about the gaps getting wider in
Speaker 1: our society, and as a result, we've seen brand stepping up,
Speaker 1: speaking out and how that is more important than ever.
Speaker 1: Our next guest gets that. We welcome Scott Goodson. He's
Speaker 1: founder and CEO of the advertising and marketing agency Strawberry Frog.
Speaker 1: Has worked with Walmart, sun Trust, Emirates, PNG, so many companies,
Speaker 1: Coca Cola. Scott is out with a new book, Activate
Speaker 1: Brand Purpose, How to harness the power of movements to
Speaker 1: transform your company, and he joins us on the phone
Speaker 1: in New York City. It's got so nice to have
Speaker 1: you here with us. Um. First of all, how are
Speaker 1: you and what's the past year been like? For your world.
Speaker 1: I mean, you talked to a lot of companies and
Speaker 1: I'm just curious what it's been like over the last
Speaker 1: thirteen months. Well, very pretty much appreciate being on the show. UM.
Speaker 1: We wrote Activate Brand Purpose because of what we experienced
Speaker 1: over the last year. UM. A lot of CEOs and
Speaker 1: you know, heads of HR have been grappling with this
Speaker 1: concept of purpose for the last you know, couple five
Speaker 1: years or so. Everyone's been talking about it. The problem
Speaker 1: is that, you know, it hasn't really been activated, and
Speaker 1: then all of a sudden, you know, everything changed. The
Speaker 1: sky fail and people who had activated purpose had a
Speaker 1: rudder in the in the water. They were able to
Speaker 1: kind of navigate the seas, but those that didn't were
Speaker 1: kind of thrashing about. And I think what we're seeing
Speaker 1: coming out of Purposes that company, coming out of the
Speaker 1: last year, is that companies with the purpose that is
Speaker 1: activated at the core of business strategy are thriving well.
Speaker 1: And I want to go right to I love that
Speaker 1: you start with HR because it's one of the things
Speaker 1: that caught my attention in the book about COVID nineteen
Speaker 1: and the changing role of HR. You right, the old
Speaker 1: HR model is no longer fit for purpose. I do
Speaker 1: feel like employees consumers really looked at companies differently. Employees
Speaker 1: looked at their employer very differently during COVID. How has
Speaker 1: that changed? And I know you've had a lot of
Speaker 1: conversations with CEOs about this. We we had a wonderful
Speaker 1: opportunity to connect with the CEOs of some of the
Speaker 1: largest companies in the country. Uh spoke the Times of
Speaker 1: Sterburg and also Christie to who's the chr O of
Speaker 1: Verizon UM. Well, you've spoken with some of you know,
Speaker 1: rogers of Truists UM and the companies are getting it right.
Speaker 1: Understand the importance of activating purpose at the cultural level
Speaker 1: within the organization. And the people who really know that
Speaker 1: are the people directors. And I think historically the hr
Speaker 1: group has been almost an extension of the legal Department
Speaker 1: and that they really focused on risk management. But in
Speaker 1: today's world where we have so many emotional, physical, and
Speaker 1: financial well being issues based by American workers, to see
Speaker 1: that it's really the hrro's moment in time. It's really
Speaker 1: their opportunity to shine and stand up and and many
Speaker 1: of them are doing just that. And the book, you know,
Speaker 1: looks at how and how do you deal with a
Speaker 1: number of issues. How do you deal with the fact
Speaker 1: that people are coming out of the past year with
Speaker 1: um concerns about their health and welfare. How do you
Speaker 1: deal with the fact that, you know, people are joining
Speaker 1: companies and working for companies that work remotely, who haven't
Speaker 1: ever been inside an office. So the importance of culture
Speaker 1: bringing to life the vision of the CEO is really
Speaker 1: a challenge. And there's another element, which is we're living
Speaker 1: increasingly in this peer to peer world where people are
Speaker 1: getting you know, their inspiration and there, let's say they're
Speaker 1: being um moved by that appears. It's a time when
Speaker 1: you can't really lead with mandate from the top anymore.
Speaker 1: You know, those days are gone. You know, you really
Speaker 1: need to lead a corporation by creating a movement inside
Speaker 1: the organization that people feel like they're belonging to something bigger. So,
Speaker 1: you know, mandate, top down mandates just don't work anymore. Hey, Scott,
Speaker 1: in your book, uh and some of the research you
Speaker 1: guys shared with us ahead of time talked about how
Speaker 1: recent stats prove that more than eighty seven percent of
Speaker 1: consumers would purchase a product because a company advocated for
Speaker 1: an issue they cared about, and more than two thirds
Speaker 1: would refused to do so if the company supported an
Speaker 1: issue contrary to their beliefs. I know that is very
Speaker 1: much the case with my teenage daughter, my nieces who
Speaker 1: are in their twenties and thirties, and I know I
Speaker 1: increasingly look at what a company stands for. This is
Speaker 1: what you get to and this is why it's become
Speaker 1: such an important issue for leaders and for anybody who's
Speaker 1: running a company. Yeah, if you're running a company today,
Speaker 1: you've got to move from toothless purpose to actually you
Speaker 1: need to activate your purpose um and show galvanize people.
Speaker 1: Your own people and as well as consumers. They're looking
Speaker 1: for that, that's what they're asking for. And where you know,
Speaker 1: you have to look outside in politics and in the
Speaker 1: world around us. In culture. We're living in age of activism.
Speaker 1: You know, this is the age of the conscious consumer.
Speaker 1: They're socially aware, they're connected. So you know, CEOs that
Speaker 1: are going to succeed are really going to need to
Speaker 1: move from being woke CEOs to being warrior CEOs. CEOs
Speaker 1: can actually put purpose at the core of their business
Speaker 1: strategy and activated and that's that's what we focus on
Speaker 1: in activate around purposes, helping CEO, cmos rs and even CFOs.
Speaker 1: Like if you think about this idea of UM taking
Speaker 1: equity and moving into what I would describe as a
Speaker 1: m share or a movement share. You know, if you're
Speaker 1: launching a movement, your company does have a purpose and
Speaker 1: you're activating that with movement thinking, then why couldn't you
Speaker 1: launch an m share that people can buy into because
Speaker 1: already buying into the idea, and that's highly motivating to
Speaker 1: your daughter or your son and the younger generation. Well,
Speaker 1: and you know what's interesting. I recently I mentioned talking
Speaker 1: with the CEO of Tapestry and it was a CEO
Speaker 1: panel Imax, Mozilla, Hyatt Hotels, and we were talking about
Speaker 1: disruption as an economic driver that you were forced your
Speaker 1: businesses were you didn't have a choice, were disrupted by
Speaker 1: the pandemic. But in some ways it expedited some of
Speaker 1: the initiatives that you had in place. But maybe we're
Speaker 1: going to take longer, whether it was a digital strategy
Speaker 1: or what have you. What is it about activating though
Speaker 1: a brand purpose is really important in terms of an
Speaker 1: economic driver. And I think it gets back to what
Speaker 1: I said before about consumers care right, clients care about
Speaker 1: that purpose. We just completed uh, the second Purpose Power Index.
Speaker 1: It's the world's first empirical measure of purpose brands. We
Speaker 1: had seventeen half thousands consumer responses in the United States
Speaker 1: and it's absolutely clear this is what consumers are rewarding.
Speaker 1: Their rewarding brands that are activating their purpose and they
Speaker 1: see through brands that only put purpose in their advertising
Speaker 1: or you just use it as surface. And it is
Speaker 1: of you know, a very high um importance to the
Speaker 1: consumers who are you know, looking into the world right now.
Speaker 1: The enormity of the challenges that we face in the
Speaker 1: planet are coming home to the younger generation millennials, you know,
Speaker 1: more than others. Of course, it's rells into everyone, but
Speaker 1: particularly in this younger generation, they think that, you know,
Speaker 1: companies have messed up the world, and they're looking for
Speaker 1: companies that are willing to put it out there that
Speaker 1: they're willing to tackle some of these bigger issues that
Speaker 1: are threatening the planet, the civilization, or our community, and
Speaker 1: they're rewarding them for it. And that's why you're seeing,
Speaker 1: you know, company leaders coming out strongly for things that
Speaker 1: you know, historically would never come out or whether it's
Speaker 1: legislation or it's for sustainability and climate change, they are
Speaker 1: coming yet because their consumers are demanding that there's action.
Speaker 1: And that's why you're seeing some CEOs doing it and
Speaker 1: they're being highly rewarded for it. And those that aren't,
Speaker 1: those who, as I said, have embraced what I think
Speaker 1: is a toothless purpose in other words, of purpose that
Speaker 1: they frame and they put it on the wall to
Speaker 1: wrap rapturous applause by their own leadership or executive that's
Speaker 1: not going to do anything in this through the world.
Speaker 1: You can't just put your head in the sand like
Speaker 1: an ostrig and hope everything goes away. You know, there's
Speaker 1: there's also councel culture which is a strong motivation for
Speaker 1: leaders to activate their purpose. Well. And it's interesting too though,
Speaker 1: and we talk about this a lot, Scott. When it
Speaker 1: comes to E s G. You can't just kind of
Speaker 1: slap a label on something, do greenwashing when it comes
Speaker 1: to s G, but not actually walk the talk. And
Speaker 1: that's a lot of what you get into. And I
Speaker 1: guess that's what you mean by activating purpose. Right. You
Speaker 1: can just you can say we're a good company, we
Speaker 1: stay them for this. But then then what well you
Speaker 1: have to you know, you can't just to your point,
Speaker 1: you know, greenwash or purpose wash. I mean, we worked
Speaker 1: on Proctor and Gamble strategy, sustainability strategy. We developed um
Speaker 1: a approach called future Friendly which took you know, elements
Speaker 1: of that company's where where they were actually making significant
Speaker 1: progress in sustainability, and we turned that into a strategy
Speaker 1: that could be embraced by everyone inside the company. And
Speaker 1: if you ask people inside that company today, they will
Speaker 1: tell you that they are making significant impacts in water
Speaker 1: usage as as a core pillar of the strategy. Before that,
Speaker 1: you know, if you would have just ran an ad
Speaker 1: and said, well tide saves you water. Okay, that's a benefit,
Speaker 1: I guess because it's cheaper. You don't have to spend
Speaker 1: so much money with hot water in your washing machine.
Speaker 1: But if you have consumers that are actually looking for
Speaker 1: sustainability e s g. Proof that companies are actually making impact,
Speaker 1: you need to figure out a strategy that you can
Speaker 1: take your c s R, your actual sustainability products and
Speaker 1: decisions that you're making and put in a blender and
Speaker 1: develop a purpose and then activate it with a movement.
Speaker 1: Hey listen, just got about forty seconds here. Forty five
Speaker 1: unfortunate because we're running out of time. Our audience is
Speaker 1: a smart audience. It's investors right there looking for trends,
Speaker 1: are looking to understand things. What do you think they
Speaker 1: need to understand about what you were saying and what's
Speaker 1: in your book? And again, just got about forty seconds here.
Speaker 1: I think the key thing is there are a lot
Speaker 1: of companies out there that are doing the same kind
Speaker 1: of thing. The ones that are going to break through
Speaker 1: are the ones that have a purpose. Companies and leaders
Speaker 1: who don't just start a business but actually try to
Speaker 1: solve the world problem are going to end up doing
Speaker 1: extremely well, and those are the companies that will will thrive.
Speaker 1: So you know, I would invest in a company that
Speaker 1: has a purpose that is at devating it. You know,
Speaker 1: if all things being equal, if you have, for example,
Speaker 1: ten different financial lots that are helping you pay for things,
Speaker 1: and one of them is taking a stand for something
Speaker 1: that is highly motivating to a large group of people,
Speaker 1: that is going to do better now, I agree, and
Speaker 1: I think the conversation has definitely shifted a lot towards
Speaker 1: more of this uh and we're seeing it in certainly
Speaker 1: institutional investors are talking a lot more about this kind
Speaker 1: of thing. Scott, thank you so much. Scott Goodson. He's
Speaker 1: founder and chief executive officer at Strawberry Frog. Check out
Speaker 1: the book Activate Brand Purpose, How to harness the power
Speaker 1: of movements to transform your company. This is something you know.
Speaker 1: You've been listening the CEOs that we talked to, This
Speaker 1: is on their minds big time. Have a good evening, everybody.
Speaker 1: This is Bloomberg Radio.