There is a new business strategy that is creating big profits and big changes to how we do business around the world and it is the Heart-repreneur® Impact strategy that is creating the most success. For decades now CEOs have steered their company toward strategies that maximize shareholder returns.
This focus has created high performing companies that produce goods and service, solid profits, and economic strength around the world. It would appear as if this would be a good system with the exception that this type of corporate thinking has created challenges on the planet that consumers are no longer willing to support.
Because there has been some societal uproar, new Heart-repreneurs are rethinking their business’s leadership role in the world. Of course, there are some reasons why companies are changing as pressure from the consumer, governments, and employees are pressuring leaders to think differently about future challenges such as climate change, gender equality, diversity, and economic inclusion such as fairtrade.
Consumers are watching the actions of business owners and are supporting those companies that are choosing to change their social and environmental practices because evidence shows that companies who make these changes create stronger returns over the long haul.
Companies are now using the Heart-repreneur® Impact strategy as part of their startup development because it attracts a community of consumers that support their social awareness programs creating a stronger global impact and more stable profit margins. According to BCG Consulting, “New companies are looking at ways they can create societal impact” by:
Increasing transparency
Support a cause
Create societal impact for the better
Ken McArthur bestselling author of Impact: How to Get Noticed, Motivate Millions, and Make a Difference in a Noisy World says, “We all make a difference whether we want to or not.” Consumers have now embraced this impact concept and are willing to support conscious CEO’s and vote with their dollars.
Consumers and CEO’s are now working together to create societal well-being. Business owners who embrace this impact strategy mindset are now being called Heart-repreneurs as they are creating business for the benefit of and heart-based connection to humanity and not just their bottom line.
However, as this impact strategy and Heart-repreneur® movement continue to gain momentum at a rapid pace, companies and leaders will benefit most by adding a lens to their strategy sessions. One that considers what we call Heart-repreneurial Impact. It will be looking at the total benefit that your company will produce, not just the causes it supports.
It is looking at the Heart-repreneurial Impact strategy from the products, the services, operations, core values, core business strengths, capabilities, and activities of the company. Tony Hsieh and Zappos.com is a perfect example of using this type of heartrepreneurial impact strategy to disrupt and impact how business is done, how employees work, how leadership responds and acts, how products and service are delivered and how valued the consumer is.
This often means looking at what we can do to disrupt and innovate an industry to make it more responsive to consumers, less stressful to employees or kinder to the environment. It means spending time with your idea and looking at how every aspect of your business can bring or use a more heart-centered way of doing business. This requires some contemplation, evaluation, and understanding of your company and what it does. Ask yourself this question:
How can I scale out my business and it’s products or services as a movement or a cause that betters the well-being of society and supports a global community?
The sharing economy produces the some of the biggest change makers in this area. Companies like Uber or Airbnb are taking on this societal shift of having an impact mindset. We-Work is creating the largest global community working space connecting us together around the world. They started with just one place and scaled out their business with a cause and movement.
When we look at becoming a Heart-repreneur®, it is because we want to have an impact and change the way business is done in the world. We want to have a heart-based conscious business where everyone from the vendor, employee and client has a relationship with us and our company. When you use the impact strategy in this way, you will grow your success for the long haul and you will create the kind of heart-repreneur impact that powers profits.
Vickie Helm is a founding partner at SmartGroupFirm.com. She’s a business development strategist and the bestselling author of Ultimate Freedom, Unlock the Secrets to a Life of Passion, Purpose, and Prosperity.