Dave Alder, who leads our media and entertainment practice was recently telling me about when he opened a 30,000 square foot Virgin store in a small British town—the likes of which had never been seen in that community. The interior was beautiful and it housed countless cool brands. On the day the store opened to the public great bands played in the entrance, local celebrities were on hand, and the well-supported hometown football team was there in all its glory. The PR plan was in full swing.

Opening day was a huge success. Significant column inches (as was the primary PR goal back in the day), along with some great full color shots were generated in the local media. But the largest proportion of print coverage wasn’t generated by any of the store features, merchandise or star power, it was driven by and focused on an old stone owl.

This little guy had stood on the top of the building for over a century and a half. At about 11” tall, he’d scared countless flocks of pigeons away, and in the process, fulfilled his job of stopping them from tainting the Victorian façade of the building.

During the recent renovation, a workman had asked if they wanted to keep the owl. Of course they did. After all, he’d seen many store owners come and go during his unrelenting watch. So the idea arose to build him a cool perch, suspending him over the store’s main stairway, giving him his own slightly tongue-in-cheek commemoration plaque as a small, but extremely unique, local historical character.

All in all, to clean, mount, install and brand the little owl, it cost about thirty pounds, versus the million or so invested in the store itself.

Not only did that thirty pounds give them some great local publicity coverage, it gave them an ongoing talking point. Despite the store being part of a large nationwide chain, the brand was recognized as being respectful of the city’s local history, for having a warm personality, and a wry but fun sense of humor.

At 11” tall and for the price of two pizzas (or six English pasties), the little bird had achieved what years of traditional brand approaches, and PR tactics in particular, find extremely hard to achieve.

Less can certainly be more.

One billion people without access to clean water and 80 billion plastic bottles sold annually

Access to clean water is one of the most complex global issues that humanity faces today. On one side of the equation there are the haves­–the billions who take it for granted, waste it, and pay too much to drink it from plastic bottles when they can access it for free. On the other side, there the nearly 1billion have nots in the developing world who don’t have access to clean water. Put another way, the average American uses about 100 gallons of water per day and the average African uses just 12 gallons a day. Don’t you think this has to change?

THE HAVES
The problem started with the French, when Perrier and Evian convinced their fellow countrymen to switch from free-flowing water out of the tap to labeled bottles that cost up to $5 a gallon. They started a global marketing war that inspired the creation of hundreds of bottled water brands claiming purity and substance, with hundreds of millions of marketing dollars driving the purchase of some 80 billion plastic water bottles that all get thrown into the waste stream. The plastic industry loves the water folks. Let’s ignore the enormous waste of dollars, the waste of energy and raw materials, our insatiable desire for convenience and instant gratification and just look at the basic human stupidity. Brilliant marketing has led us all to believe bottled water is cleaner, safer, and healthier than its counterpart. In a recent report, 20/20 took five national bottled water brands and a sample of tap water from a drinking fountain in the middle of New York City and sent them to a microbiologist for testing at the University of New Hampshire. It’s no surprise that the tests came back showing no difference between the tap and bottled waters. In a blind taste offering, people in New York City tested tap water and five other bottled waters­, and tap water came out on top for taste. So if you’re buying bottled water because you think it’s healthier than tap water, test after test shows no evidence supporting that claim.  And if you’re buying bottled water because you think it tastes better, you’ve been had by the world’s biggest marketing coup. There needs to be a total rethink on the whole issue as restaurants are offering filtered tap water in beautiful glass bottles, and in-home filtration systems are gaining popularity.

THE HAVE NOTS
Clean water is a key foundation for a healthy life. It’s a basic human need, yet around the world far too many people spend their entire day searching for water. Clean, safe drinking water is currently out of reach for over 1 billion people in the developing world. It makes no sense that more people have access to a cell phone than to clean water. With approximately 3.6million people dying annually from water-related diseases, this situation needs to be reversed. There is no shortage of amazing not-for-profits like water.org, winetowater.org and charitywater.org bringing the issue to the public eye and making a significant difference. And like any major issue, the ingenuity and scale of corporations engaged in the issue will drive change. Ethos is a valiant attempt to connect sales to social responsibility­–but they could give and do far more for the issue given that their entire proposition rests on attacking the issue. But to be fair, they are like every other bottled water brand making money by repackaging something we should all have access to. Like 1% for the Planet, the major water brands who have an abundance also have a responsibility to come together to fight the issue on behalf of the have nots. Imagine what could be done if all of the bottled water brands worked together to address the issue.

Gracie Jiu-Jitsu is the Nike of self-defense. It has reached a level of notoriety as the most effective, fastest growing form of self-defense that people are learning to protect themselves. Executives are starting to reference Jiu-Jitsu moves in business conversations and it’s not because they’re practicing the art. Gracie Jiu-Jitsu is the titanium standard, built on a foundation of effectiveness, confidence, humility and a world-class teaching methodology. There is much CEOs can learn from the Gracies.

I recently spoke with Rener Gracie, a third generation master of Gracie Jiu-Jitsu, about what CEOs can learn from his style of teaching. In 2008, Rener and his brother, Ryron, were entrusted with the task of making Gracie Jiu-Jitsu easy to learn in every country of the world. Together, they produced the top three home study self-defense programs of all time: Gracie Combatives, Gracie Bullyproof, and Gracie Women Empowered. In addition, they launched GracieUniversity.com, the interactive online learning center of the Gracie Academy, which now has over 45,000 active students in over 189 countries. His remarkable knowledge base and his passionate teaching style make Rener one of the most sought after instructors in the world. When he’s not devising new training programs or teaching classes at the Gracie Academy, Rener spends his time traveling the world teaching people of all kinds, from U.S. Military and Law Enforcement personnel to bullied children and Hollywood celebrities.

Shawn Parr: What is Gracie Jiu-Jistu?

Rener Gracie: Gracie Jiu-Jitsu is a system of self-defense that was created by my grandfather, Grand Master Helio Gracie, and brought to America by my father, Rorion Gracie. In 1993, my father created the UFC to showcase the effectiveness of the system to the world. It worked. Gracie Jiu-Jitsu was adopted by the U.S. Army and virtually every federal law enforcement organization.

SP: How is it different from every other form of Jiu-Jitsu or MMA?

RG: Gracie Jiu-Jitsu is widely considered the most effective self-defense system on the planet, specifically because it is the only one that has proven, over three generations, to enable the weak to defeat the strong.

SP: How have you become the fastest growing martial art in the world today?

RG: It works and anyone can learn it. While most other disciplines rely on the physical attributes of the practitioner, Gracie Jiu-JItsu is based entirely on leverage and timing rather than strength, speed, and flexibility, so anyone can learn the techniques and be successful. Since it’s so easy to learn, students become instantly addicted to the techniques and the lifestyle.

SP: What does the Gracie brand stand for?

RG: Efficiency.

SP: Tell us how you started your business?

RG: In America, the journey began in a small garage in Hermosa Beach, California. My father taught private classes for 10 hours a day, 7 days a week, for 11 years. In 1989, he decided to open a school to accommodate the growing number of students, bringing his brothers from Brazil to help make it happen. In 1993, he created the UFC, and the rest is history.

SP: What does Gracie Jiu-Jitsu promise its participants?

RG: Confidence, on the mat and in life.

SP: What are the key principles you teach as a foundation to the art?

RG: When fighting a giant, don’t worry about how you’re going to win, focus on not losing. At any given time, be more concerned with what your opponent is trying to do to you than with what you are trying to do to him. If you don’t lose, you will eventually win.

SP: Why do you think you have such successful results?

RG: For three generations, we’ve continuously sought out a more effective and efficient way of doing each technique.

SP: What do you think a CEO can learn from these principles?

RG: Learn to be comfortable in the worst case scenarios because once you are, they cease to exist.

SP: Why is your teaching methodology so successful?

RG: It has been refined over a span of 85 years and we really care about the students.

SP: What do you think CEOs can learn from the Giant Killer move?

RG: Anything is possible.

SP: What do you think CEOs can learn from the rear naked choke move?

RG: Leverage your strengths to yield optimum returns with minimal investments.

SP: How do you think the idea of “less is more” applies to business?

RG: Instead of investing more to make more, focusing on making the same with less invested. Once you figure that out, then you can scale up from there and benefit much greater in the long run. The same idea applies to everyday life.

SP: Explain why you started the Gracie Bullyproof program?

RG: Realizing how privileged my siblings and I were to be brought up the way we were, I wanted to give parents around the world a step-by-step road map to follow to raise their children the Gracie Way. A child cannot verbally assert him/herself against a bully if he/she feels like they might get hurt. By giving children the skills to neutralize physical attacks, we are giving them the confidence that they will not be hurt by a bully. That confidence will then enable them to speak up against bullies, which, in turn, will lessen their chances of being targeted. The more a child learns to fight, the less likely they are to ever use physical force.

SP: Do you think people get bullied at work? How do your principles apply here?

RG: Exactly the same as with children—as long as a person fears physical or emotional injury, they will not assert themselves. With Gracie Jiu-Jitsu in your back pocket, you have nothing to fear, so you can speak up and confront bullies without violence and that will almost always put an end to it.

SP: If you could change one thing about Gracie Jiu-Jitsu what would it be?

RG: Make it available in more countries around the world. We developed GracieUniversity.com, an interactive online learning center for Gracie Jiu-Jitsu, and we have over 45,000 active students in 189 countries. However, there are 195 countries in the world, so we still have some work to do.

SP: What’s the best advice you were ever given?

RG: Help enough people get what they want, and you can have ANYTHING you want.

Garry Ridge, the CEO of WD-40, is a bold Australian and the steward of one of the world’s most iconic and unusual brands. Garry is the proud and attentive guardian of the WD-40 brand, and of a tribal culture he’s nurtured. He leads the WD-40 “tribe,” as he calls them, with a Global Tribal Council, comprised of country leaders from around the world. Garry’s a leader who feeds his entire organization with values and emphasizes them with companywide messaging, daily quotes from leaders in history and from insights from people he meets. He believes that effective leaders have a clear, teachable leadership point of view and are willing to share it with, and teach it to others. Following are ten leadership traits, as told to me by Garry:

1. Do what you say you’re going to do:

Organizations don’t pay much attention to what we say. Organizations pay intense attention to what we do and the examples we set, particularly if the actions are inconsistent with the words. Any inconsistency is corrosive.

2. You are expected to be competent:

Organizations expect their leaders to be competent and act with integrity. (I mean integrity in the broadest sense of the word to include team play and respect shown to subordinates.)

3. Have high self-esteem and self worth:

Leaders need to have a strong sense of self worth. This means the ability to accept failures and criticism, but without being so egotistical and hubristic that the person is not open to opinions of others. I’ve heard it said that good leaders have a level of self confidence that is slightly more than what is justified by the facts. 

4. Leaders move forward:

Leaders are not afraid to act with a sense of urgency. They pay attention to the details (not by micromanaging but by taking the occasional deep dive to test what they’re hearing.)

5. Good judgment comes from healthy learning moments:

Leaders exercise good judgment, usually a result of learning from mistakes. Our successes normally don’t bring with them the introspection that mistakes do. Good judgment is also a result of a wide variety of experiences. Good judgment comes from experience, experience comes from bad judgment.

6. Leaders are connected, aware and tuned in:

Leaders outwardly act and display what they believe internally. Leaders are particularly tuned in to the people around them and to subtle behavioral clues. They read a room well. This is akin to a good sixth sense about how to act in foreign cultures. They listen well. They have high EQ.

7. Leaders value the gift of contrarians and resistors:

Good leaders don’t like yes men and sycophants. They know these people will cause them to fail. They are not afraid of surrounding themselves with strong people.

8. Be a leader of hope:

Leaders of hope have a belief that “this too will pass”. They keep the passion of their people and they exercise patience against panic. They gather the facts in a sense of calm.

9. Involve your people:

Involve the people. The best ideas and greatest support will come when people are involved and contributing. In the end, every decision will be made by the person who can make that decision – an informed decision-maker has the people involved.

10. Always stay in servant leadership mode:

Remember leaders are there to serve. The shepherd is there on behalf of the sheep – the sheep are not there on behalf of the shepherd. Beware that a good quality, such as self confidence, becomes fatal when carried to excess.

A conversation about the future of food with the CEO of Annie’s Homegrown Foods

There is no doubt that we are living in one of the most revolutionary times in history with significant changes in economies, demographics, democracies, energy, communication, creativity, connectivity, technology, and food supply. And while I know John Foraker, the CEO of Annie’s Homegrown Foods, has opinions about all of these subjects, we focused our conversation around food. The backdrop to this conversation is that we’ve got a domestic crisis with obesity—consumers are becoming more educated and aware of what is going into their food, society is becoming more creative and social in how it shares and consumes food, and we’re more engaged with those who lack sufficient food in third-world countries compared to the extreme indulgences of how food is consumed domestically. In our rapidly changing and complex world, one trend we’re seeing is a return to simple, homegrown, fresh food and it’s with this in mind that I wanted to find out what John has to say about the future of food.

Where do you think we are heading with food and how we eat in this country?
We are at the beginning of a very exciting time in food history. Consumers in every kind of community are starting to pay more attention to what’s on their plate, and asking questions about how their food is made. Every day mainstream media stories are talking about food. I’m heartened by the rise in popularity of the Food Network, Jamie Oliver’s Food Revolution, and the fact that “rock star” chefs are inspiring kids to cook at home. At Annie’s, we’ve watched the number of requests for our Grants of Gardens program increase by 300% over the past four years, as more and more schools look at gardens as a way to teach kids about science, health and wellness. Though organic foods are still a small part of overall food consumption, the percentage is growing, and I think we will see momentum around healthier eating continue to grow.

What’s your biggest frustration about the way Americans eat today?
I think there are big issues with education, policy, and funding. However, what’s really frustrating is that convenience is so often used as an excuse for poor eating decisions. As a busy parent and CEO, I completely understand time crunches and hectic schedules. But, I don’t think being busy is an excuse to eat poorly. Annie’s specifically tries to provide solutions for busy times, to be an option for parents when there’s no time to cook from scratch or pack a full lunchbox of homemade snacks.

If you were the CEO of Eradicate Obesity what steps would you take?
Obesity is a symptom of much larger problems. We need to really step back and teach people how to nourish themselves and their families. Eating is about so much more than feeling full. Battling obesity requires everything from grassroots community education, to policy changes that put healthy food in schools, to support for organic growers to put limits on GMOS, to bringing grocery stores back to urban centers – we need an entire system change. Our Root 4 Kids program is one small way in which Annie’s is educating our fans on how to get kids excited about real food, and giving parents and teachers tools to help teach their families about making good food decisions.

Do you think we are making any progress with obesity?
We’re making progress towards raising understanding of the interconnectedness of food and overall health, but there’s still much work to be done.

What do you think is going to change about what and how we eat five years from now?
Overall we’ll be eating more healthy foods in five years. The consumers who are reading labels now are going to demand that food companies clean-up their ingredient statements – we’ll have fewer artificial colors, flavors, and less high fructose corn syrup. I think you’ll see more companies pursuing Non-GMO certification. And, the trend of home gardening or shopping at farmer’s markets for fresh, seasonal vegetables will continue to grow.

Where does your love of food come from?
I grew up in a farm community, and studied Agricultural Economics at UC Davis, so understanding where food comes from has always been an interest. However, it wasn’t until I became a father that I really started thinking about how critical food is to our overall health, and the importance of making good food choices. My wife was the first organic adopter in our household, something she did to protect our kids from synthetic growth hormones, pesticides, and artificial ingredients and colors. I’ve taken that inspiration and it’s brought incredible personal meaning and urgency to my work at Annie’s. We try to instill a real love and appreciation for healthy eating in all four of our children.

What’s your biggest joy as the CEO of a rapidly growing natural food company?
One of the biggest joys of being at Annie’s is knowing that we’re nourishing families for the long-term, not only with our actual products, but also because of the care we put into sourcing our ingredients.

What’s your biggest frustration?
Our biggest opportunity is education – helping to teach current and potential Annie’s fans why they should be thinking about what’s in their box of mac and cheese or box of fruit snacks. The natural and organic industry has a responsibility to translate everything that we know and understand about the benefits of choosing healthier foods for our consumers.

Where will Annie’s be in five years?
At Annie’s, we push ourselves to continually improve our company and our offerings. In five years, we will offer even more options to nourish families throughout the entire day. We’ll have a much bigger impact as we touch millions more families every week, and serve as a positive example to others in the way we do business. We will have supported 60 more leaders through our Annie’s scholarship program, and grown Root 4 Kids to impact millions of children across the country.

What does ‘less is more’ mean to you in the context of how we eat today?
Annie’s has always been about straight from nature ingredients, as minimally processed as possible. That’s the essence of “less is more.” It’s best to choose real, simple foods—not ingredients that originated in a chemistry lab.

What advice do you have for anyone starting a new food company in the natural products space today?
A major factor of Annie’s success is that we have an authentic story, and have always tried to run the business by doing the right thing. We take pride in doing the right thing even when no one is looking—it’s embedded in our company DNA.  Even before it was trendy to talk about community giving programs or sustainability, Annie’s was trying to be more than just a food manufacturer. My advice to new companies is to clearly define their values, and never compromise for the sake of additional profit. Consumers seek long-term relationships from brands they can trust. Trust is our most important asset, we cherish it and everything we do must build on that.

THE ISSUE
People in America shop at their local grocery stores, purchase food, return home, turn on their stoves with no fuss and cook dinner. Not everyone shares this same luxury. Traditional cookstoves and open fires are the primary means of cooking and heating for approximately three billion people in developing countries and The World Health Organization says harmful cookstove smoke is one of the top five threats to public health in poor, developing countries. Exposure to smoke created from these stoves causes 1.9 million premature deaths annually, and contributes to a range of chronic illnesses and acute health impacts such as early childhood pneumonia, emphysema, cataracts, lung cancer, bronchitis, cardiovascular disease, and low birth weight. The extended reliance on biomass for cooking and heating inevitably increases pressures on local natural resources such as forest and natural habitats, and ultimately on the climate.

THE SOLUTION
By providing fuel-efficient cookstoves exposure to harmful smoke can be drastically minimized, combating respiratory illness, deforestation, and climate change in the process. Today there are 82 entities fighting to reduce the number of inefficient stoves used in developing countries but there is one we’d like to take our hats off to; The Paradigm Project. Paradigm has adopted the increasingly popular triple bottom line philosophy, which extends the focus of profit, to people and the planet.

THE IMPACT
Currently, The Paradigm Project has delivered 25,341 stoves impacting approximately 126,705 people, saving 1,445,974 hours looking for wood, 11,137 tons of C02 emissions thus reducing the overall carbon footprint and increasing local income from $3,804 in 2010 to $367,770 in 2011.

STOVEMAN
Stoveman is an inside look into a passionate humanitarian effort, a load of wisdom, intellectual enlightenment, and a bit of entertainment. Through the lenses of Austin Mann and Greg Spencer, people are invited to be a part of their mission, their purpose, and a sneak peek into their life-changing experiences.

Episode 1: Woodwalk from The Paradigm Project on Vimeo.

The video portrays the power of social entrepreneurship and pushes the boundaries of social norms to create an opportunity by presenting solutions to the problem of inefficient stoves. Watch, learn, and become a part of the oversized efforts of The Paradigm Project.

Not sure about you, but I couldn’t live in a world without hope. A life without optimism, imagination and hope would be like a life without a smart phone. Think about it. We live in a world where individuals and governments are constantly providing the media with opportunities to create a mood of negativity, fear and anxiety, but the one driving force that gives us renewed energy is hope. Hope that situations will improve, that there is a better way. Hope can move us from a negative state of mind to a positive one. It is a gift for moods and a force for change.

I recently heard Dr. Beach deliver a commencement speech at SDSU’s graduation centered around the power of hope. Don’t leave home without it…

The value of hope
Dr. Beach understands the value and meaning of hope at a deep and transformational level because he’s been researching it in all of its manifestations for the past 10 years. But, his journey researching and writing about hope by started by happenstance.

As part of a wider research project, he and his team were studying the reactions of family members during phone calls where they were receiving news from doctors about cancer. Dr. Beach and his team noticed a pattern where bad news always gave rise to good news—to something positive and uplifting—and that the possibility of healing and staying together as a family when facing an uncertain and fearful future gave way to hope. When he extended his research into video-recorded communication between cancer patients and doctors at the Moores UCSD Cancer Center, they observed the same pattern. In the very midst of addressing malignant tumors and metastasis, talk shifted to hopeful possibilities and good news, pointing to the power and presence of hope.

The presence of hope
We can find the presence and guiding light of hope in everyday situations and in the advice and wisdom of many of the world’s finest leaders. San Diego’s Jonas Salk once stated, “Hope lies in dreams, in imagination, and in the courage of those who dare to make dreams into reality”. Martin Luther King Jr. reminded us, “Disappointment is finite, but hope is infinite”, and Bill Cosby once said, “There is hope for the future because God has a sense of humor—and we are funny to God”. John Lennon sang: “Imagine all the people living life in peace. You may say I’m a dreamer, but I’m not the only one. I hope someday you’ll join us, and the world will be as one”. And a Japanese mother, standing in the rubble, holding the newborn son she gave birth to at the same time the earthquake and tsunami occurred said, “I want my son to be strong and to bring hope to the future of Japan”.

Hope = Optimism + Imagination + Determination
Journeys through life are no doubt filled with troubles, dilemmas, and afflictions. Jobs, training, finances, diverse relationships—these and more await you. Yet it is our greatest challenges that provide the most unique opportunities for growth.

So how can you bring hope to the future and remain feverish with hope? How can you move forward with the realization that hope is not just something in one’s head, or heart, but something done together as we work to accomplish goals, manage troubles and navigate through daily experiences?

There is always hope
Dr. Beach believes that hope is essential as people respond to their calling to be leaders and change-agents capable of improving the world in which we live. If you live with hope at the forefront of your days, you can be that person or company who reassures those in trouble or turmoil that their difficulties will pass, offer encouragement that a better way is not out of reach, and demonstrate to others that you are fully committed to their well being.

Evidence for being hopeful is abundant and lives freely among us. If you learn from your mistakes, if you give as much, if not more, than you receive or if you show compassion to those in need, there is hope.

Hope, in its most powerful form, provides a resource of strength and resolve, that good will eventually arise from bad, certainty from uncertainty, and hope from despair.

During a recent visit to Michelin, their CEO was proud to share an initiative where Michelin had allocated $2 million for lending to local small businesses in light of the economic crisis. Its success got me thinking, “Why hasn’t the domestic micro-finance model moved to the forefront of options for small businesses today?”

There are only a handful of organizations that make more than 100 loans a year, including ACCION USA, Kiva, and Opportunity Fund. While domestic micro-enterprise development has been around since the 1980s, the industry got a boost two years ago when Grameen America opened in Harlem and Brooklyn, and then a Manhattan branch in May 2010.

It is clear that the current efforts are not competing with the role of banks, but imagine if in each city there was a geographically relevant micro-finance collaborative that invites the largest revenue and profitability corporations to pool funds for lending to small businesses in their immediate surrounding area. Imagine local government and local banks also joining the collaborative.

There is no question that our local governments and banks are currently challenged while the largest corporations sit with some of the most cash reserves in history. Why don’t they put some of that money to work for the communities they depend on for workers, customers, and goodwill?

Employing a lens of “Uncommon Sense,” here are five tips I believe could help transform our domestic micro-finance system:

1. Big businesses in every city in America should take a clear look at how they can become a greater part of their surrounding community by engaging with, and supporting, small businesses.
2. Big businesses should consider how they can share their resources to help smaller businesses in their communities grow.
3. Big businesses should explore how they can work together in their city to create a small business fund to help small business growth.
4. Non-competitive big businesses should look at how they can collaborate to support emerging small businesses in their communities.
5. Big businesses should explore how they can share their professional expertise and technical resources to help accelerate small business growth in their communities.

Talk to your customers like people, not prospects.

Many brands seem to find it hard to make a real connection with their consumers andthey end up selling to them rather than inviting them into a compelling conversation. Teams who manage brands often lack a deep understanding of their consumers on an emotional level and rely on segmentation studies and outside research alone to bring their consumers to life. Research often labels consumers as “targets” with impersonaland functional descriptions that serve to drive functional communication rather than conversational dialog and connection, leaving many brands disconnected from their consumers.

There are shining examples of brands that build a personal connection with their customers and have a personal voice in their communication. El Pescador, a small fish market in La Jolla, California, knows exactly who their customer is and what their customer wants. El Pescador knows exactly how their brand is positioned and what business they’re in, which is why they have been successful for the past 30 years. They are at the top of their game and completely focused on being the best at one thing: serving the finest, freshest, most delicious fish that your hard-earned money can buy.

Sean Shannon, owner of El Pescador, runs an amazingly simple yet brilliant business focused on delivering the very best product possible. He employs young, friendly surfers and watermen with unique personalities who all seem to love what they do. Their approach to customer service is direct, helpful and focused. The fish is world-class, the food served is always delicious, and their irreverent and from-the-heart guidance on life is memorable and endearing. They exemplify a no-technology approach to merchandising, deploying daily “tips” in a witty communication style directly from their “pesky crew” members who create the daily tip for the tip jar. It’s a simple reminder that no matter what we’re saying to our customers, it should attract attention and inspire an emotion or action. Their quiet confidence shows in everything they do, and their authentic approach to creativity and customer service is a formula of perfect simplicity.

I met Alex Bogusky at the FearLess Cottage earlier this year and discovered that we have a number of things in common: we share a deep interest in climate change, the food system, and early-stage venture investing. We also have some differences: he has a ranch and I do not, he has built a $1 billion company and I have not, he took a big turn off of the professional highway and I have not. Alex, his wife Anna and friends Rob Schuham and John Bielenberg have launched a new social entrepreneurship platform called COMMON that is part incubator and part creative community that enables collaboration to find better solutions to pressing social problems.

Our similarities and differences raised a lot of questions for me. Midlife decisions are a major source of interest for many, myself included, and I had a few questions for Alex about the path he choose.

You were at the very top of your game, you could have taken the easy road and the money. Why did you get off the train and carve out a new path?

There are probably dozens of answers to that question and some are as random as “I never planned to be in advertising forever,” which is absolutely true. I loved it but I never felt like it was the only thing I needed to do with my life. If I dig a little deeper I realize I stopped loving the work a couple of years before I left. Don’t get me wrong, I still loved the people and the place but I didn’t pop out of bed with the same verve that I used to. I spent twenty plus years doing that job because I could make every year a new adventure by reinventing youth marketing, social marketing, online creative, digital planning, product integration, event integration, and more. In the end I didn’t have the love to reinvent anymore. The path I was headed down was that of an uninterested guy pulling down a huge paycheck and contributing very little. Advertising has enough of those guys. I didn’t want to be one.

Your new venture is called FearLess, tell us what FearLess is trying to do?

We tell true stories (as we see them) around issues where most people dare not tread for fear of offending those in powerful places. The beauty of FearLess is that it is small, scrappy and independent. We see ourselves as a kind of grassroots media company that also consults for a select group of cultural mavericks.

What are you afraid of?

Nearly everything, but I continue to see improvement and I very rarely let fear get in my way anymore. The name of my new venture is actually FEAR LESS. It’s a reminder to do what we can to fear less because we believe fear is the enemy of all things worthwhile. We say, “As the fear leaves your body it creates a vacuum. We recommend filling it with love.” That was the inspiration behind our FEARLESSLOVEMORE shirts.

What have you learned from this experience?

I’ve seen people or groups of people in a position of power take advantage of others. It makes me angry that we are all so used to it that we still think it is just the way things are, despite all the progress that has been made. I’ve learned that men are especially ready to accept injustice. Mothers, however, have the power and the guts to save the world as they save their babies. This goes for fathers too, no doubt, but dads have more work to do in this area.

You’re a quiet, understated guy. What are you really passionate about deep down?

I have faith combined with a very long view of life on earth that makes me optimistic for humanity. And by that I don’t just mean our survival, but also the slow and steady progress of those highest of qualities in each human being. I’m confident we will see our own compassion become the most powerful force on earth.

Why did you decide to work with your wife Anna in this new venture?

For much of my career we worked with each other at Crispin Porter + Bogusky. Not enough people know that she was a huge part of many of our early successes, but after a few years she wanted to commit to being a full-time mom. Now our kids are older and we have the chance to work together again, it seemed ideal to get the team back together.

When your time is up, what do you want your obituary to say?

He died of spontaneous combustion out on his bike somewhere. There was no trace.

What advice would you give people at the top of their game who are unhappy doing what they’re doing?

I’d suggest making a hobby out of the thing you wish you were doing. Those kinds of hobbies have a way of turning into new careers.

Nine Uncommon Sense steps every company should have taken by now for increased profitability

Do you know what it means? Do you practice it? Do you speak the complicated language? Do you think there’s a problem to solve, a need to fill or benefits to be had? Why has such an important subject been made so very complicated? That is the problem with sustainability, like most legacy-based systemic issues we’re facing today, there are more questions raised by the subject than answered. The subject of sustainability is so nebulous that people’s eyes glaze over when you bring it up, because they’re intimated to even talk about it.

I have been involved in a number of sustainability projects with major corporations and one of the biggest observations I have is that until sustainability gets framed correctly and is directly connected to financial performance, it will continue to be a misunderstood annoyance rather than a strategic imperative for corporations and their C-suites. It’s sad to say, but we need to position sustainability more in terms of money and efficiency rather than about saving the planet.

One may ask, “Who should be operating with a sustainability model?” This is like asking the question, “Which company should produce a quality product and which should not?”  Who doesn’t want a quality product? What company is going to be in business long term if it creates low quality products? I think there are new business rules that are being verified. I don’t think sustainability is a choice anymore. What company would not want to reduce operating costs, and variation in their processes, lower overall company risk, provide innovation into their product line, and engage and retain loyal customers?

I thought I’d talk to my friend Catherine Greener, the CEO of Cleargreen Advisors to get an expert perspective on how to turn the conversation about sustainability from eco-efficient to re-inventive.

What does Sustainability mean?

Catherine: It will be 10 years next week that I left my very comfortable life in Detroit and the automotive industry and began my career in this field that folks call sustainability. The more I work in this field, the more I question whether there is even such a thing as sustainability or a Sustainable Business. Perhaps it is an illusion. What I do know, and know with certainty, is there is absolutely something that we can call “Un-Sustainaiblity”. We can call it externalities, or unintended consequences, or toxicity, or pollution or simply waste. It is the result of a take-make-use-waste model and a lack of owning the consequences of our impacts.

What we call sustainability is the beginning of the understanding of the unsustainable predicament we are in and how we are starting to correct it. We think about how to reduce our dependence on linear extractive models, how to use less natural resources, become innovative in our product designs and understand what happens when we throw “it” away. We learned from the Total Quality Movement that variation and waste are expensive. Planet Earth is a closed system where waste in any form is just that…waste. By focusing on eliminating waste, a company can become more sustainable, save money, increase profitability and thus performance.

Paul Hawken, among others, envisions a future in which companies “sidestep the commercial Tower of Babel that spills forth such irrelevant abundance, wastes so much and does so little” in favor of “products that cut through the clutter of our lives and allow us to perform the daily acts of living in a more satisfying way.”  (The Ecology of Commerce, p. 154)

We cannot and will not find a sustainable path if we continue to bind ourselves to the same financial rules. This is why we have compiled nine Uncommon Sense steps every company should have taken by now:

1. Understand where the largest environmental and social risks are. Know what you need to know.

Today we have 7 billion people on the planet, and it’s said it can sustain 15 billion people if we consume food and resources like the people of Rwanda. In contrast, the planet can sustain only 1.2 billion people if we consume food and resources like the people of the US. Almost every natural system that supports life is in decline or fighting for survival. In this country, we consume only 50% of our food and the other 50% goes to waste. We are an overweight, bloated nation with a broken economic system. Our healthcare, financial infrastructure, education and food systems are broken due to waste and inefficiency. It’s obviously time to rethink and reinvent these vital backbone systems, and corporations should take careful notice of what is happening here. We all exist and depend on these systems, and to avoid the creation of “re-designed sustainable systems” and the consequence of our actions is to put our immediate future in jeopardy.

2. Conduct a baseline of your company’s water, solid waste, energy and carbon emission usage by unit (if possible). Set a reduction target. Go big.

In 2005, Walmart surprised the world by announcing three sustainability goals: to be supplied 100% by renewable energy, to create zero waste, and to sell products that sustain people and the environment. Over the last five years they have repeatedly demonstrated that being green does not mean spending green. In fact, Walmart has identified millions of dollars of savings, through their own operations and their supply chain. They are a big company with a big footprint. They have demonstrated to thousands of companies, retail and manufacturing, that waste is expensive and uncompetitive. Get rid of waste, improve your environmental performance, decrease risk and improve your bottom line.

3. Eliminate the use of bottled water and styrofoam in offices. Walk the talk.

Over 20 billion water bottles are thrown away every year along with over 20 billion Styrofoam cups a year. Have you ever had a REALLY good cup of coffee, tea or water from a Styrofoam cup? Get rid of them and remember you can put your logo on a mug and give it to a customer.

4. Eliminate unnecessary use of paper. Companies find that the real non-value added happens on what is printed on the reports that no one reads

Recycling 1 ton of paper is like saving 17 trees and keeping 3 cubic yards of paper out of a landfill. That’s about the size of a Volkswagen Bug. During Catherine’s work with Lean manufacturing companies, she considered the obvious, and often looked at all the paper reports still being generated that people didn’t really look at anymore. We have so much information at our fingertips, especially in the virtual realm. It’s important for a company to see what people are really reading on paper, and how often.

5. Engage and activate employees around sustainability and how small choices can have an impact. Empower and challenge the workforce around how your company can lead.

Stonyfield Farms is one of my favorite examples of a company that is doing well by doing good. They started out decades ago as a mission-focused for-profit company, and have not wavered from their values and their commitment to creating a new and sustainable business model. They have a delicious product that people love and they have wrapped ”joy” into every aspect of their brand. They have grown significantly, reshaped a category, have maintained their integrity through an acquisition and continue to be committed to a sustainable future. Check out Gary Hirschberg, CEO of Stonyfield Farms, on TedX for a full perspective.

6. Understand the sustainability risks and impacts of your company’s supply chains. For many companies this is the heavy lifting.

Our Industrial and consumer systems are fraught with waste. We take it for granted. The average American throws away almost 5 pounds of garbage every day. Those are some really good BTU’s (British Thermal Units) that we are entombing in landfills. Almost everything that we buy in a year ends up in a landfill within one year. We throw away enough aluminum to make almost 3 million aluminum four cylinder engines, picture dragging those out to the curb on garbage day.

Think about all the raw materials that we toss out. What could happen if we reclaimed all those great BTU’s?  Will our grandchildren or our great grandchildren mine our landfills to recover all the good stuff we’re losing by putting them in this nonexistent place called “away”? Right now we’re in an endless loop whereby we pull materials from the earth, process them, use them for the blink of an eye, and then retire them to a dump.  These materials still have utility, but we replace them with new materials, which often cost more because of their ever-increasing scarcity. Or can we save our grandchildren the trouble by imagining a new reality in which we close the loop?

Why can’t we recover these materials and start an endless virtuous cycle?  This would keep prices constant or drive them even lower, reduce risk, increase competitiveness, and create jobs in the process. One of the untold stories about the electric car, Nissan Leaf, is how committed that company is to reducing waste around that product. There are numerous examples of recycled and reclaimed materials that are being used in that vehicle. And, the US plant, in Smyrna, TN has a small army of employees engaged and committed to driving out all kinds of wastes throughout the supply and manufacturing chains. Even better, they find that they save money along the way.

7. Support the health and wellness of employees.

When we think about sustainability, we often think of the big issues like climate change, deforestation, ocean acidification, etc. But, sustainability begins with you—your values and the consequences of your actions. We call this Behavior Based Sustainability. How can you save the world if your own home is not in order? Small actions can lead to big changes and ideas. Some of our clients have helped employees by supporting smoking cessation, healthy eating, exercise, gardening, and recycling programs.

8. Find uncommon partnerships to help solve problems that are bigger than you are. Innovate, Innovate then Innovate some more.

Eco-efficiency is such a great place to start. It is easy to demonstrate operational expenditure reductions before moving to innovation – which can take additional investment and which sometimes doesn’t produce quick wins. Innovation is critical but you have to plan it. Cleargreen Advisors helps clients plan and sequence these things – efficiency first, innovation next – so they make business sense and yield financial returns. One of our favorite win-win examples is the Pepsi-Waste Management Dream Machine Kiosks that are being installed at retailers around the country. People recycle and redeem points and PepsiCo donates funds to the Entrepreneurship Bootcamp for Veterans with Disabilities, a national program that offers free training in entrepreneurship and small business management for veterans with disabilities. There is an increased recycling rate as people recognize recycling as a routine behavior. It’s a win for people, planet and profits when a non-profit gets funding while more recycled content is used as a raw material rather than sitting in landfills.

9. Tell stories. Your stories. You will be surprised who is listening and whom you are inspiring.

You have an authentic and transparent story to tell, the keyword being authentic. These stories are really just great marketing. GE’s Ecomagination is a business initiative to help meet customers’ demands for more energy-efficient products that in turn help to drive reliable growth for GE in this growing category. It’s a great story that is dynamic, engaging and effective.

So what’s next for sustainability?

We are at an inflection point, but we have not yet “tipped” when it comes to sustainability. Companies have made amazing strides around packaging, transportation, energy use reduction and other things, but the message is being diluted at the shelf. Consumers are not fully engaged around sustainable consumption yet. If you wanted to bet that shoppers are going to be more or less interested in this issue in the future, where would you place your bet?  Companies who have figured out how to delight the shopper with their products and sustainable innovations are demonstrating terrific market growth. We still have a land of confusion around messaging and certifications that shoppers have not figured out. We don’t really have a strong mandate to make the change–from shoppers, the government or even most retailers.

We believe there is a significant opportunity for every organization to develop an Eco-Efficiency plan, to explore increasing financial performance, developing innovation and building deeper relationships with employees and customers by putting Eco-Efficiency in the middle of the plan.