“Our evolution towards sustainable value.”
Zeitgeist
We are on a huge tipping-point which determines the future of our society.
You don’t have to follow the headlines to know and feel we are on a unique point in time. Change seems to be the only constant. Technological innovations redefine the way we connect & interact. Local incidents trigger global bottom-up movements around big and important issues: our environment, refugees, L.G.B.T.Q, Black Live Matters and even our democracy is under pressure. Next to that we have to deal with Covid-19 and all the measurements that come with this pandemic. In essence we live in a time where a giant mirror is forcing us to reflect on ourselves and think about what it means to be human. What is normal? and how do we move forward?
Society
Our world is driven by different economic, political & social systems.
In general we could say in the east they are state driven and in the west they are company driven.
Both have their strengths but also have some fundamental flaws in them.
We believe there is a third, better, alternative;
human driven
Because we are all…
Human
We never stop to be amazed by the human ability. We are creative & innovative by nature; so we adapt and turn any challenge into an opportunity.
Humane
It all starts with empathy: understand or feel what another person is experiencing from within their frame of reference. We respect and protect the rights of an individual, their identity and personal space.
Humans
We understand we are all part of our society, this means something more than only looking after ourselves. Only together we can evolve.
Life-centric
With clear goals brands can develop sustainable value.
Human driven essence is life-centric and there are many metrics to analyse, grow and evolve your brand. A widely accepted framework is the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG). They are designed to promote prosperity while protecting the planet. They recognize that ending poverty must go hand-in-hand with strategies that build economic growth and address a range of social needs including education, health, social protection, and job opportunities, while tackling climate change and environmental protection.
If we translate this to our brands we:
Help customers become the person they aspire to be.
Make products that contribute to life on earth.
Contribute to employees happiness and wellbeing.
Use brands to strengthen relationships.
Business model
Embracing the human perspective directly differentiates your business.
Our brands while have different business models, executions and values if we make it human driven. So what if the default is not what the state demands, or what benefits the company most? What if we take the human perspective as default; how can we enable & accelerate the creativity of humans? How do we respect & protect the individual? And how can we evolve & move forward toward the new normal?
Purpose
Grow the human driven ecosystem so that brands create sustainable value.
Value
Human driven differentiation will increase the long-term value.
Within the evolution stages of a brand we continuous evolve. Because of increased competition, release of patents, tech innovations and other factors your brand can become a commodity. With differentiation we can evolve our brands and add value. Until Branded Transformations the brand does something with the customer. Let’s say a one-way transaction. We believe their is a sixth stage of brand evolution where the the transaction becomes an interaction, a two-way street. The brand then adapts in realtime and becomes unique to its customer, turning a temporary experience into an evolving relationship. The focus of value creation should be on how you generate value instead of only looking at the momentary valuation. Healthy brands have continuos, almost autonomous, flywheel that generates value. Meaning with minimal energy input the brand generates value. On top of that flywheel we can build flexible ancillaries.
Ecosystem
We have to evolve and grow our business ecosystem to be more human driven.
Luckily we are not the only one that are realising the potential of a human driven ecosystem. An ecosystem is build on six pillars that collaborate in-order to create a human driven win-win environment for all participating stakeholders. It start with the right mindset that is shared across the ecosystem. In-order to collaborate on an effective and efficient way we have to have a framework: a set of rules, agreements and/or standards. We believe technology is never the endgame, but always an enabler of a common goal. This also determines what kind of partners are allowed in this ecosystem. What channels are used to connect & interact with the user of the ecosystem. And we see that certain level of awareness can spark the demand for a more human driven ecosystem. We already see all kind of great start-ups, initiatives, schemes that embrace the human perspective. Now is the time to invest-in, develop missing elements and transform brands to be more human driven and start to create sustainable value.
“The human driven ecosystem can be the European solution for brands that want an alternative business environment then the east or the west. It is also a strategy that big tech can’t play because of their legacy and current business models.”
— Joost Galjart