Doing the right thing

Amid the many behavioural changes inspired by the pandemic, one stands out above all. Four simple words that are already having seismic consequences on business. Do the right thing.

Consumers’ values have shifted and not just due to the pandemic. Together with environmental concerns, societal fairness and financial issues, citizens want to see their value-driven behaviours reflected in the brands they choose and the businesses that steer them. A shared sense of responsibility and equality.

Businesses need to demonstrate such purposeful commitment in a different, less tokenistic way than in the past. A more conscious, all-encompassing strategy that guarantees integrity.

By being consciously intelligent in all that they do, businesses can fill the post-covid leadership vacuum where doing the right thing – combatting unfairness, prejudice, environmental destruction and societal imbalance – has become the only thing.

But they must do so with a consciously-driven agenda. Businesses can’t jump on bandwagons or operate in a piecemeal way. Instead, their purpose and values must be all-consuming. From how internal teams operate to every link in the supply chain – businesses and leaders must be consciously aware of what is the right thing to do and why it is right. Going beyond their own interests to do good in an authentic manner.

For too long, this kind of action has been delegated to corporate social responsibility (CSR) departments. But in this post-covid world, it must become the DNA of a business. How it interacts with consumers, nurtures employees, lifts society, inspires community and protects the planet. In a conscious world, purpose is not a mission statement, it touches upon everything that a company does.

CSR strategies often feel narrow and defensive in tone, whereas conscious leadership – both inspired by changing consumer behaviours and inspiring such behaviours – is more all-

encompassing and proactive. It isn’t an adjunct to profit and growth, it is how to achieve them.

A THREE-WAY CONSCIOUS RELATIONSHIP

There is a three-way relationship, in perpetual motion, between businesses their brands and consumers, with purpose the oil that keeps the engine running, the glue that binds each together in every interaction.

For brands this means maximising the perception of authentic and conscious actions associated with their products. For businesses this means differentiating through values and consistently looking to achieve positive change. And for consumers this means emotionally connecting to both in a more values-driven way. In this consciously intelligent dynamic, singular mission statements and slick PR are replaced by the totality of what a business represents – authentically doing the right thing in every action.

However, such purposeful behaviour must feel relevant to ensure integrity. If a business suddenly embraces certain conscious behaviours simply because they are a part of the news agenda, it can feel false and empty. That’s not to say you should ignore them but unless they are already core to what you represent and what your customers think of you as, such band-wagoning will smack of inauthenticity.

So businesses need dual ‘conscious’ strategies.

First, they must think in a smarter way about how, whether and when they will pursue such value-driven behaviours. This is conscious intelligence.

Second, they must think about how those behaviours more insightfully match those of loyal customers and new audiences. This intelligent consciousness is about building a smarter assessment of potential strategies so that companies can act with certainty and credibility.

A DIFFERENT MEASUREMENT

The trouble is, the world has been so transformed that the tools for evaluating these alternative strategies are outdated. In this conscious society, integrity, taking a stance and making a difference are everything. And yet they are not being measured properly. Until now.

At Hall & Partners, we help clients think through the eyes of loyal and new customers in order to create consciously-driven identities that build stronger relationships and help make the right strategic choices. All whilst staying true to the core business DNA.

Our 6-I Conscious Intelligence framework helps brands to build, measure and maximise these relationships. We have added two new elements to Inspiration, Involvement, Inventiveness and Incentive – all of which have shown proven success in changing consumer relationships. Now, conscious intelligence has led us to add Integrity and Individualise to that strategic framework.

Integrity because brands need to measure their perceived integrity in this fairer and more ethically-purposeful world. Individualise because people expect personalised products, services and experiences.

The framework helps us look at everything that influences the way people build more conscious relationships with businesses and their brands and vice versa. Helping them continue to invent, surprise and delight customers, across all touchpoints, with new product and services, throughout their customer experience. And helping, through a more conscious approach, to connect to the new cultural, social and human agenda.

Making the effort will not always translate into swift success – but conscious businesses understand that by setting targets you can be galvanised by ambition. Pre-Covid, words may have sufficed. Now, only actions will. It is why we worked with global brand expert Wolf Olins on a new conscious brand index to measure the brand leaders in these more activist, post-Covid times. Reeling from the impact of a global pandemic, alongside political dislocation and increasing polarisation, people are looking for businesses to be more responsive to the needs and aspirations of individuals, communities and the planet.

SHOWING POST-COVID SOLIDARITY

Covid has accelerated and accentuated the need for greater purpose in society and it is businesses who are well equipped to bring people together. To show conscious intelligence by acting with integrity and commitment, backing up words with action rather than paying timid lip service to vague ambitions.

For more than a year, the pandemic’s disruption forced us to see things through an ethical magnifying glass – things that were always there but which we perhaps chose to overlook. No more. The pandemic has changed our values and the way that companies – through their consumer-facing brands – must reflect and lead those values. Lifting those in need, protecting resources, showing solidarity with those fighting injustice and echoing demands for a fairer, healthier society where age, background, education and income do not confer advantages on certain sections of society.

In these activist times, businesses and their brands need to listen and lead, to be responsive and responsible. They need to display clear, differentiated and conscious leadership in a credible, culturally-aware and authentic way. That is what conscious intelligence means.

Vanella Jackson,
Global CEO, Hall & Partners
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/vanella-jackson/

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Doing the right thing

Amid the many behavioural changes inspired by the pandemic, one stands out above all. Four simple words that are already having seismic consequences on business. Do the right thing.

Consumers’ values have shifted and not just due to the pandemic. Together with environmental concerns, societal fairness and financial issues, citizens want to see their value-driven behaviours reflected in the brands they choose and the businesses that steer them. A shared sense of responsibility and equality.

Businesses need to demonstrate such purposeful commitment in a different, less tokenistic way than in the past. A more conscious, all-encompassing strategy that guarantees integrity.

By being consciously intelligent in all that they do, businesses can fill the post-covid leadership vacuum where doing the right thing – combatting unfairness, prejudice, environmental destruction and societal imbalance – has become the only thing.

But they must do so with a consciously-driven agenda. Businesses can’t jump on bandwagons or operate in a piecemeal way. Instead, their purpose and values must be all-consuming. From how internal teams operate to every link in the supply chain – businesses and leaders must be consciously aware of what is the right thing to do and why it is right. Going beyond their own interests to do good in an authentic manner.

For too long, this kind of action has been delegated to corporate social responsibility (CSR) departments. But in this post-covid world, it must become the DNA of a business. How it interacts with consumers, nurtures employees, lifts society, inspires community and protects the planet. In a conscious world, purpose is not a mission statement, it touches upon everything that a company does.

CSR strategies often feel narrow and defensive in tone, whereas conscious leadership – both inspired by changing consumer behaviours and inspiring such behaviours – is more all-

encompassing and proactive. It isn’t an adjunct to profit and growth, it is how to achieve them.

A THREE-WAY CONSCIOUS RELATIONSHIP

There is a three-way relationship, in perpetual motion, between businesses their brands and consumers, with purpose the oil that keeps the engine running, the glue that binds each together in every interaction.

For brands this means maximising the perception of authentic and conscious actions associated with their products. For businesses this means differentiating through values and consistently looking to achieve positive change. And for consumers this means emotionally connecting to both in a more values-driven way. In this consciously intelligent dynamic, singular mission statements and slick PR are replaced by the totality of what a business represents – authentically doing the right thing in every action.

However, such purposeful behaviour must feel relevant to ensure integrity. If a business suddenly embraces certain conscious behaviours simply because they are a part of the news agenda, it can feel false and empty. That’s not to say you should ignore them but unless they are already core to what you represent and what your customers think of you as, such band-wagoning will smack of inauthenticity.

So businesses need dual ‘conscious’ strategies.

First, they must think in a smarter way about how, whether and when they will pursue such value-driven behaviours. This is conscious intelligence.

Second, they must think about how those behaviours more insightfully match those of loyal customers and new audiences. This intelligent consciousness is about building a smarter assessment of potential strategies so that companies can act with certainty and credibility.

A DIFFERENT MEASUREMENT

The trouble is, the world has been so transformed that the tools for evaluating these alternative strategies are outdated. In this conscious society, integrity, taking a stance and making a difference are everything. And yet they are not being measured properly. Until now.

At Hall & Partners, we help clients think through the eyes of loyal and new customers in order to create consciously-driven identities that build stronger relationships and help make the right strategic choices. All whilst staying true to the core business DNA.

Our 6-I Conscious Intelligence framework helps brands to build, measure and maximise these relationships. We have added two new elements to Inspiration, Involvement, Inventiveness and Incentive – all of which have shown proven success in changing consumer relationships. Now, conscious intelligence has led us to add Integrity and Individualise to that strategic framework.

Integrity because brands need to measure their perceived integrity in this fairer and more ethically-purposeful world. Individualise because people expect personalised products, services and experiences.

The framework helps us look at everything that influences the way people build more conscious relationships with businesses and their brands and vice versa. Helping them continue to invent, surprise and delight customers, across all touchpoints, with new product and services, throughout their customer experience. And helping, through a more conscious approach, to connect to the new cultural, social and human agenda.

Making the effort will not always translate into swift success – but conscious businesses understand that by setting targets you can be galvanised by ambition. Pre-Covid, words may have sufficed. Now, only actions will. It is why we worked with global brand expert Wolf Olins on a new conscious brand index to measure the brand leaders in these more activist, post-Covid times. Reeling from the impact of a global pandemic, alongside political dislocation and increasing polarisation, people are looking for businesses to be more responsive to the needs and aspirations of individuals, communities and the planet.

SHOWING POST-COVID SOLIDARITY

Covid has accelerated and accentuated the need for greater purpose in society and it is businesses who are well equipped to bring people together. To show conscious intelligence by acting with integrity and commitment, backing up words with action rather than paying timid lip service to vague ambitions.

For more than a year, the pandemic’s disruption forced us to see things through an ethical magnifying glass – things that were always there but which we perhaps chose to overlook. No more. The pandemic has changed our values and the way that companies – through their consumer-facing brands – must reflect and lead those values. Lifting those in need, protecting resources, showing solidarity with those fighting injustice and echoing demands for a fairer, healthier society where age, background, education and income do not confer advantages on certain sections of society.

In these activist times, businesses and their brands need to listen and lead, to be responsive and responsible. They need to display clear, differentiated and conscious leadership in a credible, culturally-aware and authentic way. That is what conscious intelligence means.

Vanella Jackson,
Global CEO, Hall & Partners
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/vanella-jackson/

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