Update: The Launch of America’s Next Great Watch Company
Dear Readers,
It’s been awhile. Sorry.
There have been times where I’ve thought about shutting this blog down, but then I look at the readership numbers. It’s fun to see how many visitors come to this blog many years later. We’re glad you continue to come back and hope you enjoy reading our musings. Thank you.
- The logo of Diefendorff, America’s next great watch company.
Still, life moves on. So have we. We’re no longer doing consulting through Do Well Do Good (sorry for any broken links that remain), but I am still consulting through my new practice. But perhaps more interestingly, I’ve also started a new venture – Diefendorff, America’s next great watch company.
At Diefendorff, I’m applying all that I’ve learned in the CSR / sustainability space to a new brand, a new company. It’s going to be a journey for sure and I’ll actually blog about it on the company’s blog: Do Well, Better.
So, take a look and drop me a note to let me know what you think.
All the best,
James
Can Consultants Help Non-Profits Help Companies with CSR?
ACN is a great organization, but the organization does not necessarily endorse the views expressed in this blog. It’s just one guy’s opinion.
This morning I had the honor of speaking on a panel for the Association of Consultants to Nonprofits, along with Bill Bonner of Bonner of IMPR and Leah Bradford of the Kraft Foods Group and the Kraft Foods Group Foundation. In addition to being really impressed by ACN as an organization, I really enjoyed the lively and engaged crowd that had thought provoking questions and great contributions.
My task was to answer two questions:
- How are companies using consultants to develop corporate partnerships related to Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) or sustainability?
- Does this market have potential?
CSR Defined
First, I think it’s important to start nearly every conversation about CSR by defining it. The simplest definition I give is Read more…
Six News Items You Should Read
Is Unilever CEO Paul Polman a sustainability rockstar? (see below for photo credit)
Here’s a second installment from my new series on top interesting news items to hit the airwaves, social media circuit, and newspapers over the previous week and a half. As a reminder, the topics covered will range from traditional business strategy, sustainability, cause-marketing, marketing research, entrepreneurship, anything in between, and an occasional wild card. None of these are selected by a committee, just bits of news that I found interesting.
- Paul Polman = Sustainability Rockstar? Quite simply, I am a huge fan of Paul Polman and Unilever’s approach to sustainability. Marc Gunther recently published an interview with Unilever CEO. Shameless self promotion, Polman was also selected as one of six “Sustainability Pioneer” in a report that I co-authored with Ellen Weinreb.
- Four secrets of entrepreneurship – Entrepreneur magazine published an article on four things no one tells you when you start a business. As an entrepreneur, all of them resonated with me, but especially the second one: most businesses provide a lifestyle and a job, but not wealth. That’s not to say I haven’t done well financially with my company, I have. But it’s an important distinction for anyone considering starting a business and was something that was stressed to me in business school. IF you’re successful in business, you’ll able to provide for your family, go on vacations, etc. However, if you have expectations on Read more…
Social Enterprise: The Future of Cause Marketing?
I am a big fan of The Cause Marketing Forum. It’s the go-to place for information on starting a CM program and networking with the those that are creating value through this niche form of marketing. Their Cause Update blog does a great job of briefly summarizing new cause marketing programs and it was through that blog that I first heard about The Big C Competition. Essentially this competition, launched by the LIVESTRONG Foundation, will seek to fund entrepreneurial organizations that are addressing the needs of those living with cancer or caring for cancer patients. In total, sixty ventures will receive $140,000 and the grand prize winner gets $25,000.
This program stands in contrast to a lot of other cause marketing programs that are rather… transactional. You buy one product and a certain dollar figure or percentage or the “proceeds” go to a specific charity. There’s nothing wrong (usually) with these types of programs. It’s just that they’re… well… Read more…
5 Tips: Beginner’s Guide To Twitter
When I started my Twitter account over four years ago, Twitter was relatively new and there was a lot of talk about it being useless and a fad. I told myself that I’d give it 30 days and see if I could find anything useful in reading text messages with a limit of 140 characters. What on earth could this service provide that had a legitimate business value?
Within a week I was hooked.
Twitter is an incredibly useful business tool, nevermind a social tool. Someone once described it to me this way:
Imagine you’re standing beside a heavy flowing river of information and all you have is a spoon. You dip your spoon into the water and take a sip. That’s Twitter.
I’ve used Twitter as a marketing tool, as a way to connect with people at conferences, to meet like-minded people in my own city for coffee, (tactfully) espouse my opinions about politics, and – perhaps most generally, even though it sounds cheesy – express who I am as a person and professional.
I love Twitter. Even though my posts ebb and flow with the goings-on of the day, it’s a great service.
There are things that I wish I knew when I started and things I learned along the way that proved helpful to me. So if you’re just starting out on Twitter, or considering it, here’s a list of five things I did or wished I did along Read more…
Top 5 Interesting News Items in February (so far)
News events are more than Justin Bieber’s (latest) run-in with the law. It’s also more than strangely-colored-and-likely-dangerous hotel water from Sochi, Russia. So here’s what I hope will be a regular blog series: interesting news items that caught my fancy.
In terms of subject matter, the articles will deal with business strategy or marketing research or sustainability or cause-marketing or all of the above. Occasionally, like the post below with Bill Maher, I’ll include something that I think is interesting even if it’s off-topic.
Without further ado, here you go:
- MillerCoors Brews a Beer to Battle Spirits Makers – This is a classic business strategy study. What should your company do when an indirect competitor is stealing away your business? Should you enter their business (spirits in this case)? Or should you create something that could compete with what your competitor offers? How do you do so without “cannibalizing” your own products? Find out how MillerCoors (which is just down the street from where I live, although I have yet to get neighborly free beer) is taking on its threat to “share of the throat.” (Bloomberg BusinessWeek)
- The Violent Gang Wars Behind Your Super Bowl Guacamole – Simply put, I had no idea that Read more…
Boldness: The Key Lesson From the Pioneers of Sustainability
Whether you refer to the field as sustainability, corporate social responsibility, or shared value, today social and environmental issues are more a part of everyday business than ever before. We are now at a point where we can look back and celebrate the history of the field. And it’s in that spirit that I collaborated with Ellen Weinreb of the Weinreb Group to publish a report today where we identified six pioneers in two different categories of Chief Executive Officers and Thought Leaders.
The report “Pioneers of Sustainability: Lessons from Trailblazers” is the result of a survey of prominent leaders in the field of sustainability conducted by the Weinreb Group. Among the Chief Executive Officer Pioneers, survey respondents selected Lee Read more…
CitizenPolity 