For Love and Money: How to profit with purpose and grow a business with love

By Carolyn Butler-Madden

How does purpose help you grow a profitable business that people love?

What exactly does it mean to be a purpose-led business?

What higher purpose should your business serve and how do you serve it in a meaningful way?

Purpose in business has become a common expectation, from employees, customers and investors. Yet many busines

• Language: English
• Publisher: The Cause Effect Pty Ltd
• Release date: Oct 11, 2021
• ISBN: 9781922553713

Carolyn Butler-Madden

Carolyn's 30-year international marketing career includes 18 years as an agency owner, working with some of the world's best brands. Since starting her Purpose Consultancy, The Cause Effect in 2017, "Profit with Purpose" has become her guiding mantra. She has helped corporate leaders and leaders of both medium and small organisations to define and articulate their purpose and embed it strategically into their organisations. Her first book, Path To Purpose, published in 2017, was Australia's first on cause marketing.

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Preface:

A love story

‘Wake up,’ my driver said. ‘We are twenty minutes from the border. You have to be alert. Get your papers ready.’

As I cleared my foggy head, I looked through the dark night at the road ahead. We’d been travelling for a few hours. I’d been sleeping on the back seat, vaguely aware a couple of times of the car slowing down and torchlights shining in as military police stopped us along the way.

I saw a road sign up ahead. The names of two towns came into sharp focus and woke me with a jolt: Vukovar and Osijek.

They were names of Croatian cities that the world had become familiar with. It was 1991 and the Balkan War was raging in the former Yugoslavia. These two cities were in the thick of the fighting and at the centre of some of the worst atrocities reported on.

They say you can smell fear. It’s true. I smelt it that night in the taxi. It was as distinct as the guilt I felt for putting my poor driver in this position. It was then I realised what an utter idiot I had been.

I had been in Belgrade for a weekend.

For love.

I had a Montenegrin boyfriend: Goran. Back then he was a Yugoslav, but the war put an end to that, blowing apart the former Yugoslavia into six independent countries: Slovenia, Serbia, Croatia, Montenegro, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Macedonia.

I was living and working in London and the war had interrupted what had become a rather long-drawn-out four-year holiday romance. We hadn’t seen each other for a year. Because NATO had placed sanctions on Serbia and Montenegro, there were no flights in or out of the country. On top of that, people were trying to get out and NATO was threatening to bomb Belgrade, Serbia’s capital city.

We’d tried to meet, planning to reunite in Greece. I had gone there with friends to have a holiday but also hoping Goran would be able to make it out. He couldn’t.

So what do you do?

Love. Damn, it makes you do some crazy things.

Aided by my Greek friend who loved the drama of uniting war-torn lovers, I found out that I could fly to Budapest in Hungary and there might be a bus that may be headed to Belgrade. No guarantees. No timetable.

So armed with a ‘might’ and a ‘maybe’ I got myself a plane ticket from Athens to Budapest.

As I walked out of the airport at Budapest, wondering who I should approach and how the hell I was going to explain why I wanted to go into a sanctioned country, I saw a coach with a big sign saying BELGRADE.

The bus staff were Serbian. They told me that Belgrade, Serbia’s capital city, was their destination, but warned that there were delays at the Hungarian/Serbian border of up to fifteen hours.

What was I to do?

I’d come this far, so I didn’t hesitate. I bought a ticket and jumped on the bus.

The wait at the border wasn’t so bad. I think we were there for five hours in the end. I eventually made it to Belgrade and Goran had managed to get a domestic flight from the coast where he lived.

The reunion was worth all the drama. It was an amazing weekend. I guess war intensifies emotions and love, especially.

It was love that had driven me to find my way through war borders. Okay, let’s be honest here. It drove me beyond rationality. Which is how I now found myself in this situation.

When it was time for me to leave and I got to the bus, there was mayhem. NATO was threatening to bomb Belgrade and people were panicked, trying to get out. I couldn’t get on the bus I was supposed to leave on.

The only choice I had was to get a taxi. From Belgrade in Serbia to Budapest in Hungary.

The taxi driver we found was a friend of friends of Goran’s. He was a kindly man in his sixties and promised me that if he couldn’t get me over the border, he would organise a driver on the Hungarian side and wait with me till he arrived.

That had been five hours ago.

Now I could see the bright lights of the border control building as we approached. There were no other cars apart from ours. Not a single other person, apart from the border control guard in his military uniform, myself and my taxi driver.

Our car drew up to the border. My driver wound his window down and spoke to the guard in Serbian. I was in the back seat where I’d been sleeping. The guard looked at me through the driver’s window. He looked very unimpressed. ‘Passport!’ he barked. I quickly passed my passport to him from the back. He looked at my picture, then back at me. He did this a couple of times more, then snapped it shut, handing it back to me. ‘Ajde,’ he said, motioning us to drive through.

The relief in the car was palpable. My driver and I both breathed out as the boom gate opened and we drove through.

We got to Budapest without any further dramas. I got on my flight to London and I was back at my office desk on the Monday morning.

I guess you might be wondering what on earth a love story is doing in a business book.

Love inspires you.

It can drive you to move mountains, to cross war borders; to overcome fear and to sustain discomfort.

It isn’t always rational, I’ll give you that. But it has clarity of purpose.

Most of us know love. We’ve felt it in many different ways.

Not all of us have had dramatic events like the one I’ve shared here to test how love behaves in extreme situations. However, I suggest to you that ‘Love conquers all’ is a truism.

Can you imagine if business was driven by love?

How different might the world look?

That’s what I want to explore through this book.

Perhaps you feel the word ‘love’ is too strong for business. Well then, you’re in the right place, because I intend to challenge that perception. My hope is that this book will create a paradigm shift for you; that it will open both your heart and mind to the possibilities that love in business can create. Because when that happens, everything changes. The opportunities to allow people to play a bigger and more meaningful game in business are limitless. Imagine what the world could look like then.

Introduction

Let me put a question to you:

What if business hasn’t yet realised its true potential?

Sit with that for a moment. Imagine a world where the purpose of business is to create a better world.

Imagine a business world that operates at a human level.

Imagine a world where employees’ wellbeing genuinely matters. Where looking after customers is a priority. Where the environment is considered an important stakeholder of every business, alongside suppliers and the communities in which the business operates.

Not just in words, but in actions. Every day; day after day.

Imagine a world of business where investors’ and shareholders’ need for profit is just one priority amongst and equal to others. And where business is expected to take a long-term view of success rather than constantly deliver short-term earnings.

Paul Polman, ex-CEO of Unilever, gave a speech at an awards ceremony in 2019. In this speech he said:

It is time to move from CSR – corporate social responsibility – to RSC – responsible social corporations. Frankly the citizens of this world are demanding this. ‘Less bad’, which is still the CSR camp is simply not good enough anymore . . .

The cold hard truth is our brains have been hardwired to think about business as we have known it in recent decades. At its worst, cold, clinical, driven by the need to deliver short-term profit quarter after quarter; year after year.

The average business accepts and operates according to the idea that profit is the fundamental purpose of business. And most people simply don’t question it. They encourage businesses to behave responsibly and many of them try to advance an idea of ‘better’ business, but ultimately most people still accept the premise that business is there to create profit and along the way provide employment. And the average business responds. It gives a bit of flexibility to its people. It strives towards doing right by its customers. It has a sustainability plan of some kind. Perhaps it has a diversity and inclusion plan.

So then we look at the worst of business and we applaud the ‘average businesses’ for their efforts. And we think we are making progress.

Back to the hard truth.

As Paul Polman points out, it’s simply not good enough. These small steps towards better business are not getting us anywhere close to where we need to be, fast enough.

The premise of business has to change and we all need

to wake up and see the complete irrationality of what

business has become, even with its gradual move

towards ‘better business’.

Business is a noble enterprise. It has such a capacity for love because business is created and driven by people – humans – who all want to be loved and feel love.

So I ask you, as you read this book, to open your mind to the real potential of business. That is, to be an incredible force for good in a world that is crying out for it.

Open your mind and allow yourself to be inspired by the businesses who are in it for love. You’ll soon see that the love that inspires them is what makes them successful. Yes, profitable. It’s ironic isn’t it?

Just imagine what we can create if we embrace this opportunity to change the rotting foundations of shareholder capitalism and build new foundations based on love of people, planet and humanity.

How this book is structured

I’ve structured this book into six parts. The first half, parts one to three, are designed to make a compelling case for purpose in business and the role of love in driving that purpose. Inspiration and insight.

The second half is dedicated to helping you take action. This is the practical part of the book where I share the methodology I created to unlock the full value of a meaningful purpose strategy. Rather than just share the methodology, however, I take it one step further and take you on a deep dive into the first pillar of that methodology around brand. This is so you can take that all-important first step to understanding what your organisation’s higher purpose could look like, or at the very least, giving you an understanding of a process to help you reach that point of understanding.

One extra piece of information I’d like to share. You will notice at the end of some of the chapters of the business stories, there is a note inviting you to deepen your understanding of their story by listening to my interview with them on my For Love & Money Podcast. If you go to the back of the book on page 249, you will find a QR code that will take you directly to the podcast.

Who will get value from this book?

This book is for anyone who questions the status quo and who aspires to a better way of doing business.

Readers who will get the most value from this book are dreamers and idealists. Not to be confused with hopeless romantics, these dreamers and idealists are visionaries. They are the true leaders of a future society that we have the potential to create – one in which we are the stewards of our planet for future generations; and one in which society offers opportunity to the many, not just the few.

Are you one of those who believes we can

create a better future?

If so, like many others that I have met over the last few years, you probably feel intuitively that our current societal leaders have taken us down a dead-end road. You know there are alternative paths out of there, but you’re not sure how to find them or even if they will lead you to another dead end. Everyone else is piling down the dead-end road, aren’t they?

You wonder if you’re being naive, but deep down you know you’re not. You realise you can’t wait for others to act. Isn’t that why you’ve picked up this book? We all need to act. Each one of us who feels this way has a responsibility to act and to lead. The alternative is to simply put our head in the sand and pretend that everything is okay. I don’t know about you, but that behaviour sounds pretty crazy to me.

You’ve probably discovered there are others like you who are thinking similarly. There are far more of us than you probably realise. Truth be told there are also many business leaders – of companies large and small – who are changing the way they do business, because they too see what we see. They believe what we believe. And they are taking action.

Today the world needs new leaders. We need leaders with

vision and empathy. Leaders who are collaborative and brave.

These leaders don’t need to have a ‘C’ in front of their job title. They just need to have the imagination and clarity to see a better future and feel enough love to fight for it.

I wrote this book for these people. It doesn’t matter whether you are a business owner, leader, employee or individual. We can all dream. We can all act. We can all influence and lead someone.

As Paul Polman said in that same speech back in 2019:

If any of us in this room think that you cannot make a difference and that you’re too small or whatever . . . I just encourage you to go to bed one night with a mosquito in the room and you’ll see the difference.

Part I:

For love

Chapter 1:

Love what you do.

Do what you love.

I believe that every single event in life happens in an opportunity to choose LOVE over FEAR.

– Oprah Winfrey

Love is powerful.

Almost all of us have the capacity to love. Most of us have experienced it and can relate to its galvanising, fulfilling and fiercely protective force.

Love of a spouse. A child. A parent. A friend. A pet.

I’m not one who believes that love is exclusive to humans. Those of us who’ve had family pets will understand this. Not just our pets’ love of us, their human parents, but their love of each other. I had a cat who absolutely adored our Labrador. She would cuddle him, clean him and snuggle up between his paws to sleep. He, on the other hand, just put up with her. His first love was food.

Even if you haven’t had the pleasure of experiencing or seeing it in pets, just look to nature and see how some animals behave with each other – especially with their offspring.

Love is universal. But what exactly is it? According to experts, love is neither a feeling nor an emotion. It’s a choice.

There is a difference between feeling love for someone and loving someone. Loving someone is a choice. It’s a choice we make each day, as the feeling of love ebbs and flows – especially in close relationships impacted by the turbulence of life.

The choice to love isn’t a feeling, it’s an action. Actually, it’s a series of actions, because each day we decide to either continue to love this person and reaffirm our commitment, or we start to question our love. When we question our love, our level of commitment is weakened.

While you will experience emotions and feelings when you make the choice to love someone or something, love itself is not a feeling or emotion. It’s a choice and the actions that come from that choice.

When it comes to business, where is love?

Because love is so strongly associated with feelings and emotions, it’s not something that has been encouraged in business, other than to love your work.

Love what you do and give it your all.

Love WHAT you do. That’s about loving the skills and expertise you bring to your work or business. It focuses us all on the functions of what we do. When we love our work, we bring energy and enthusiasm to it. However, as inspiring and energising as that can be for a time, it will eventually wear thin, because it lacks something vitally important. It doesn’t connect us to a bigger picture.

I had a thirty-year career in the marketing industry, working for big brand name clients like Pepsi, Cadbury, Panasonic and Microsoft. For eighteen of those years I owned my own small agency, working for the big boys in the corporate world.

Marketing was a career I fell into by accident, but the skills I developed and used daily gave me enormous fulfilment.

I loved what I did and I gave it my all. Each and every day. I felt grateful for it, because I knew so many people who didn’t have that same sense of fulfilment.

Yet there was something missing for me during all those years; a disconnect between work and what I was truly passionate about.

I wasn’t passionate about selling more carbonated soft drinks or chocolate, or electronics or software. Sure, I signed up to the soft-drink culture wars between Pepsi and Coca-Cola. But it wasn’t for love. It was just part of the game.

For as long as I can remember, I’ve had a passion for social justice issues. About fairness and equity for all. Outside of my working environment, I’d taken actions to fight against injustice and unfairness.

Where is the love in that, you may ask?

I’m not entirely sure, but I think it’s a love for humanity. What I mean by that is it’s a love for compassion, empathy and kindness, along with the actions to right the wrongs of injustice.

Some call me an idealist. If believing in kindness, fairness, equality and responsibility for our planet and the animals we share it with is being an idealist, then I’ll wear that badge with pride. Do you know what? I’ll also wear the acronym SJW (social justice warrior) – so often used on social media to insult people – with pride as well.

So sure, in my agency career period, I loved what I did. And what I did back then was an important part of my development, enabling me to do what I do today.

Today though, in my career as a Purpose Consultant, I’m doing what I love.

Today, I work with love every day for what I believe in, a higher purpose.

When I say, ‘I used to love what I do, but now I do what I love’, I hope you understand the difference.

People who knew me in my previous agency career will tell you I was committed to my work. Heck, I thought I was fully committed to my work.

But when I changed course back in 2017, I learned something. I found the source of a different kind of energy that was free-flowing and had a superpower kind of strength.

There’s nothing ‘woo-woo’ about this. It is about connecting WHAT I do with what I love. It’s that love that inspires the WHY that drives me:

A belief in this incredible idea of business as a force for good and the difference it can make to the world we live in. A belief in the power of brands to drive profit through purpose. And a commitment to use my work to make meaningful purpose – social purpose – a vital part of business in Australia and around the world.

So right here and now, I want to challenge the limited and somewhat robotic idea that work is something you shouldn’t expect to care deeply about. Or even at the higher emotional level that you should just love WHAT you do.

Imagine doing what you love.

What could that look like?

What do you truly care about that you’d be prepared to choose to fight for, each and every day? That you’d be willing to reaffirm your commitment to, each and every day? That would allow you to join with others like you who also share that love?

Imagine if that love could inspire your WHY?

Over the next few chapters, I’ll be sharing stories of businesses that are driven by love.

I hope they inspire you to think bigger – whether it’s within your own business or a business that you are in a position to influence.

Love is powerful.

It is just as powerful in business as it is in a personal sense.

Funny that. Because it’s love that makes what you do personal. That’s the essence of its power.

Chapter 2:

Intrepid Travel. For love

of cultural diversity.

We want to be the best travel company for the world.

An Intrepid Travel video opens with the following words:

When the time is right the world will need travel.

It needs openness, kindness, curiosity. It needs intrepid people.

The video goes on to ask people what travel means to them. Some of the answers resonate deeply, especially as we find ourselves living through a time when international travel is cut off for many of us.

‘Travel opens up my world. It gives me new perspectives.’

‘It’s about listening. Human connection.’

‘Travel teaches you lessons you can’t get from anywhere else.’

Intrepid Travel was founded in 1989 by two university mates who shared a love of backpacking: Geoff ‘Manch’ Manchester and Darrell Wade. A trip with a group of friends through Africa in a converted rubbish truck was the inspiration for what eventually became the world’s largest adventure travel company.

Their love of the cultural experience that backpacking gave them got Geoff and Darrell wondering how they could share this experience with people who weren’t as confident in travelling independently.

From the very beginning, Intrepid’s goal was to create a style of travel that could benefit both travellers and the places and people they visit. Its vision reflects this: it is ‘to change the way people see the world.’

Almost thirty years later, this is still integral to who Intrepid is and what