We all remember Jerry Maguire’s famous “Show me the money” line from the 1996 film. The line featured Tidwell, costar Cuba Gooding Jr., and a young Tom Cruise, who played his agent. The line meant to express the importance of obtaining the required minimum to meet their goals and not be limited to a position of minority—despite being “different”—within the sports business.
In our first Twin Transition article, we mentioned its origin and the importance of simultaneously preserving the two leading advances of our time: digital and environmental. In other words, achieving a joint effort in their implementation strategy that will allow them to reach their full potential within our organizations and the world.
Among the most important questions we receive and wish to especially focus on when working on these topics, one tends to stand out: “How, where, and when” will I see a positive impact from transformation? What benefits will I see in the short or medium term? Simply put and once again: “Show me the money.”
Later on in the film, Tidwell highlights the importance of success beyond money, and mentions the need to obtain what few others have: the “Kwan.” Kwan means respect, community, love and —of course—money. “I do it for you because I care about you, and if I do things for you, you’ll bring me the money,” said the athlete to Maguire. Tidwell was trying to explain that the Kwan is what inspires people to run the last mile to get the money, but in a heartfelt game that’s played as a team.
A time for re-evolution
When applying this idea to our twin transition approach, we can see that the impact we wish to achieve can work cyclically, connecting two points that work together as accelerators. Updating and strengthening our products and services through new opportunities of tech development in the world of triple impact will bring a higher positioning for our value proposition in the market and in the world of innovative, avant-garde brands. And vice versa.
The World Economic Forum (WEF) has stated that businesses implementing environmental initiatives in the last few years have grown roughly 15% per year, saving nearly $3.7 billion. Similarly, and according to a study by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), businesses that effectively incorporate technological and digital advances are more likely to obtain profitability in the future. Let’s imagine the possibilities of a joint transition.
We mentioned that transformation should be founded on new trends of business opportunity development. These become creative challenges that drive new products and services required by consumers, creating a virtuous cycle. The following examples prove how powerful this process can be.
CERO MARKET is the first Argentine supermarket dedicated to eliminating plastic. Founded in 2020, the company is in the process of becoming a Certified B Corporation, and offers alternatives to plastic packaging in order to reduce its consumption. A simple approach that follows and complies with international standards.
LUFE (local, universal, functional, and ecological) is a Spanish business that originated in the Basques. LUFE reutilizes 99% of the materials they work with and attempts to “recover ugly furniture.” They sell pine wood furniture online at accessible prices, and recently launched a campaign questioning the habit of “returning furniture because of its imperfections” and revindicating the beauty of natural wood. “Imperfections” such as grains and knotholes that once resulted in returns have now become positive attributes.
These evolutions revolutionize other associated industries (such as packaging design or high end furniture) because each step of transformation in the green transition, however small it may be, brings about challenges for solution designers to step out of their comfort zone. This requires evolution in talent and incorporation of primarily digital abilities, in order to find new places for insertion and occupation, problems to solve, barriers to break and technology to use.
When mentioning trends, we cannot ignore the one remains that still affects us today: recently, we were faced with long periods of isolation and reflection that helped us discover our personal purpose. And now that we’ve found it, we’re committed to chasing after it. Otherwise, we’d be in debt to ourselves. This means that, because we are more conscious and active, we can make decisions regarding every action we commit to. Not only us, but also our peers, associates, clients, and collaborators that work for my value proposition, and whom I work for.
WEF adds that sustainability and climate responsibility become values that help organizations retain their clients and employees, attract high-profile professionals, strengthen their brand image, and improve their position in the market. To conclude: organizations will need to consider that collaborators and consumers will hold their personal purpose above all else, and need to align their search with the purpose of the organizations they interact with.
A collective purpose
Whether coincidence or causation, many individual purposes related to the wellbeing of people and the planet are joining for a collective purpose of ecological transition that we can achieve—possibly sooner than we imagined—by combining it with strategies associated with the implementation of new technologies. This is the aspect that has inspired us at Olivia to analyze its impact and how to boost it, in this article and in an upcoming e-paper.
It’s important that we understand that it’s not necessary to take on complex or unreachable tasks. PURE PLANTS, for example, creates 3D architectural design plant impressions, with a polymer that absorbs CO2 and other substances including nitrogen oxides and various volatile organic compounds, called PURE.TECH, activating air purification and cooperating with the evolution of medicine and health. PURE PLANTS is a collective project, in which different professionals with the same purpose of mitigating the climate crisis and improving peoples’ health have come together to create a product for the market.
Another example is the 3D Bioprinter built from Legos by scientists Sion Coulman, Chris Thomas, and Oliver Castelli from the School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences at Cardiff University, designed to create human skin. This innovative and low-cost machine (its instructions for building are published and cost $600) offers new possibilities for studying and treating various skin diseases. With their creation, the investigators offer an open-code, trustworthy, and accessible technology for democratizing innovative and sustainable research of human health.
These examples serve as proof that we cannot allow advances in the digital world to have a negative impact on the environment as they gain popularity; or for the ecological transition to be in the hands of public politics or philanthropic initiatives without leveraging the innovation that double transformation implies as a starting point.
Resuming the “show me the money” reference, what will we need for a smooth connection between an organization’s external impact which consequently positively impacts internally, and vice versa? How can we begin to appear more appealing for talent and also increase our profitability? How can we begin to increase our profits without losing the people we need the most?
We know that another transformation that propels, guides, and accompanies any kind of change exists, and it is achieved through leadership. This will be one of the most important pillars for allowing us to be better and more prepared for the immediate future, sustainability, and consistency in the long run. In our next Twin Transition article, we’ll further explain which aspects nourish our leaders’ sources of energy and we’ll attempt to define how the rebellious “Kwan ambassadors” of this transition gain their desired profit.
By Paula Benardoni, Leader specialized in Innovation and People Centricity